ADRIANA ALLEN

Adriana is the President of Habitat International Coalition (HIC) and Professor of Development Planning and Urban Sustainability at the Bartlett Development Planning Unit (DPU), University College London (UCL). Originally from Argentina, Adriana has over 30 years of international experience in research, pedagogy, activism and advisory and capacity-building undertakings in over 25 countries across the Global South. Through the lens of land, housing, risk, water, sanitation, food and health, her work adopts a justice and feminist perspective to look at the interface between everyday city-making practices and planned interventions and their capacity to generate transformative spaces, places and social relations. Her most recent collaborative books include: Untamed Urbanisms (2016), Environmental Justice and Resilience in the Global South (2017), Urban Water Trajectories (2017) and Handbook of Urban Global Health (2019).

AMANDA FLÉTY

Amanda is the executive coordinator of the United Cities and Local Governments (UCLG) Committee on Social Inclusion, Participatory Democracy and Human Rights (CSIPDHR) since 2018. She facilitates policy exchanges and peer learning, as well as political debates and international advocacy work among cities around the world and with the UN level. Amanda Fléty Martinez is from France and Chile. She graduated in Geography from Paris 8 University and holds a Master’s degree from the French Institute of Geopolitics. Previously, she worked for French local governments where she managed projects in the field of local development, slums upgrading, inclusion of migrants, social and solidarity economy and urban ecology. She is particularly involved in issues related to poor and peripheral areas, where she comes from.

DAVID NGIGE

David Ngige Muguro is the Group Secretary of Dajopen Waste Management, which was incubated by Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technologies. He is also a Manor House Agricultural Centre short courses trainee. He has vast experience in Organic farming, Agro ecology farming, Agroforestry farming and waste recycling. A social enterprise trainer in charge of community Research, production and Marketing of Agricultural recycled products in Kitale Kenya, he is also a member of North Rift Regional centre of expertise headquartered at the University of Eldoret. He’s a member of the Africa Centre of Regional Expertise and Global Regional Centre of expertise, and has won several Agricultural and Environmental Awards in the past 8 years. Lastly, David is a practicing organic kitchen gardening farmer who trains other small-scale farmers.

DESMOND CHIESHE

Desmond Chieshe is a professional urban manager with over 17 years of experience in the development sector. He has a Masters with a specialization in Urban Environmental Management and a Post Graduate Diploma with specialization in Land Development Strategies from the institute for housing and urban development studies of the Erasmus University Rotterdam, the Netherlands. He is the General Secretary of Nigeria IHS Alumni and the Publicity Secretary Society for Water and Sanitation (NEWSAN) FCT, Abuja chapter. He is also the Africa Regional Coordinator for Habitat International Coalition (HIC).

His Eight years’ experience (2004 – 2012) with Women Environmental Programme (WEP) as Program Manager and Nine years’ experience (2013 – 2022) with the Initiative for the Support and Promotion of Human Shelter (ISPHS) as Director of Operations has enabled him to facilitate effective partnership with government, community-based organizations and civil society counterparts. He has also built relations with NGOs and other development partners, facilitating the flow of useful and timely information on human settlements, land, environmental and gender activities enabling the awareness creation.

DUNCAN CROWLEY

Duncan is an Irish architect exploring community-led ecocities through action research, working with DINÂMIA’CET (ISCTE) and CE3C (FCUL) research groups in Lisbon and building on several decades of practice as a citizen activist. He became co-president of ECOLISE (European Network for Community-Led Initiatives on Climate Change and Sustainability) in 2021. While living in Curitiba, Brazil (2014-18), he attained his masters in Environment and Development. He is a river lover, degrowther, indignado and builds bridges between different communities, languages, movements and peoples. From 2019-2021 he coordinated FC.ID’s partnership in the EU Horizon2020 project UrbanA (Urban Arenas for sustainable and just cities).

FAISSAL AIT EL AMRIA

A Doctor in Management Sciences from the Mohamed V University of Rabat, 12 years of experience in different structures, and with a Master’s degree from the CADI AYAD University of Marrakech in Entrepreneurship and Strategy of SMEs, Faissal has carried out training and organisation structuring missions as well as prospecting within consulting firms. She is the coordinator of the Marrakech Safi region of the Moroccan network of social and solidarity economy and a member of its national board of directors (REMESS).

FLOR AVELINO

Prof. Dr. Flor Avelino has been working as a researcher and lecturer in sustainability transitions and transformative social innovation since 2005. She is currently a full professor of Organisations & Sustainability at the Copernicus Institute of Sustainable Development at Utrecht University. Previously, she worked at the Dutch Research Institute for Transitions (DRIFT) as senior researcher and lecturer in the politics of sustainability transitions and social innovation, and as associate professor at the Department of Public Administration & Sociology (DPAS) at the Erasmus School of Social & Behavioural Sciences (ESSB, Erasmus University of Rotterdam). With a background in political science, she specialises in power theories and has a particular interest in understanding how people, organisations and networks are (dis)empowered to contribute to change and how power relations are being challenged and reproduced through translocal processes of social innovation and sustainability transitions.

JASON NARDI

Jason Nardi is president of RIES (the Italian Solidarity Economy Network) and co-founder of Solidarius Italia.

A trainer on the themes of solidarity economy and ethical finance, Jason is the general delegate of RIPESS EU – Solidarity Economy Europe and former coordinator of the board of directors of RIPESS, the Intercontinental Network for the Promotion of Social Solidarity Economy, which brings together grassroots initiatives, cooperative and social enterprises, academic and institutional members and territorial solidarity economy network all over the world. RIPESS is recognized by ECOSOC and is an observer member of the United Nations Interagency Task Force on the SSE (UNSSE.org).

A promoter of environmental and social justice, commons and communication rights, Jason is a member of the International Council of the World Social Forum and promoter of the WSF on Transformative Economies. With a background in communication and media (Princeton University, USA) and a Master’s degree from the University of Florence, he worked for the Ethical Bank foundation. Jason currently lives in Florence, where he promotes CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) projects, financial mutualism and the Florence Commons Forum.

JAVIER MARQUEZ

An anthropologist and environmentalist, co-founder and director of the Penca de Sábila Ecological and Cultural Corporation, promoter of the referendum to achieve a constitutional reform that would establish water as a common good and a fundamental human right in Colombia.

JOSEPH SCHECHLA

Joseph coordinates the Geneva- and Cairo-based Housing and Land Rights Network (HLRN) of Habitat International Coalition (HIC). Joseph is a founder of HLRN, which is the thematic structure of HIC dedicated to creating knowledge, building capacity and supporting the advocacy of HIC Members to uphold and further develop human rights norms related to habitat. Such norms include adequate housing, water, livelihoods. He also works on the associated processes concerning human rights in international forums, foremost among them the UN Human Rights System. He has also represented the Office of UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) in Palestine and Tunisia. Born in the USA, with an academic background in international relations (foreign policy v. international law) in the US and in Germany, Joseph specializes in the Middle East/North Africa region, where he has lived for 25 years.

JUDITH HITCHMAN

Judith is a former consumer constituency representative in the Civil Society Mechanism of the UN Committee on Food Security, on behalf of Urgenci International Community Supported Agriculture Network (approximately 3 million members). Elected president of Urgenci in 2015, she advocates for short food chains policy, linking food sovereignty and the solidarity economy. She is a long-standing Board member of RIPESS, the Intercontinental Network for the Promotion of Social Solidarity Economy, and an observer in the UN Task Force for Social Solidarity Economy; UNRISD has published her paper on the subject of Community Supported Agriculture and the SDGs.

LAVINIA STEINFORT

Lavinia is a critical geographer and political activist. As a researcher at the Transnational Institute (TNI) she is working on public alternatives such as (re)municipalisation of public services, a just transition towards energy democracy and transforming finance for the 99%. She co-authored the report One Treaty to rule them all about the Energy Charter Treaty and wrote the chapter, ‘The 835 reasons not to sign trade and investment agreements’ for the book Reclaiming Public Services. Lavinia also published the article Communal Performativity – A Seed for Change on the solidarity of Thessaloniki’s social movements in the diverse fights against neoliberalism (Antipode, 2017).

MARCELA OLIVEIRA

Marcela Olivera is a water commons organizer based in Cochabamba, Bolivia. Since 2004 she has been developing and consolidating an inter-American citizens’ network on water justice named Red VIDA. She sits on the coordinating committee of the Platform for Public and Community Partnerships of The Americas (PAPC). Since 2019, she has been working as the regional coordinator for the Blue Planet Project.

MEENA MENON

Meena R Menon is Working President of the Working People’s Coalition (WPC), a nationwide network of organisations working with informal labour in India.  She is co-convenor of the Social Justice cluster of the Asia- Europe People’s Forum, and active in the Asia Pacific social forum process. Meena worked as a full-time organizer with a left-wing party for 20 years. Subsequently she continued to work as a full-time trade union organizer, with textile workers in Mumbai. She was India country coordinator with the Asian policy group Focus on the Global South, and Senior Consultant with Action Aid in India heading its Urban policy program, and a consultant with the UNDP. Meena’s areas of interest include labour, urbanization, housing, alternative regionalisms, peace and security, and new politics. She is co-author of the award-winning book, One Hundred Years, One Hundred Voices – The Mill Workers of Girangaon – An Oral History and has also contributed to various other publications.

NASYA SARA RAZAVI

Nasya Razavi recently joined Inter Pares as Latin America program manager. She is also a researcher affiliated with the Municipal Services Project and a collaborator with the GenUrb network (Urbanization, Gender, and the Global South). Nasya completed her PhD at Queen’s University (Canada) on participatory practices in water governance, focusing on the remunicipalization of water services in Bolivia. This work has been published as a book: Water governance in Bolivia: Cochabamba since the Water War.

SAM COSSAR-GILBERT

Sam Cossar-Gilbert is the International Program Coordinator for Economic Justice and Resisting Neoliberalism at Friends of the Earth International. He is hosted by Friends of the Earth Australia. Before joining Friends of the Earth International, Sam worked in environmental and social justice movements for over a decade, as a trade union organizer, trainer in citizen media and an activist with the Australian Student Environment Network. He was part of the Take the Square media collective working with the Indignados and Occupy movements. Most recently Sam was an environmental justice campaigner with Friends of Earth Australia focusing on harmful trade deals. Twitter: @samcossar

SOPHIA TORRES

Sophia is a member of the Global Platform for the Right to the City and the Habitat International Coalition General Secretariat teams, working on issues related to global advocacy. Sophia has a degree in International Relations from PUC-SP and a master’s degree in Urban Policy from Sciences Po. Paris, she is specialised in urban public policies with a focus on the right to housing and right to the city, mainly in the Latin American context.

TIAGO DA CRUZ

Tiago Da Cruz is a political scientist and Hans Böckler Foundation scholarship holder. He holds a degree from the Free University of Berlin (Freie Universität) and is currently a Master’s candidate in Territorial Planning and EnvironmentalManagement at the University of Barcelona (Universitat de Barcelona). His academic research revolves around critical geography and denationalization processes through public policies in the migration and environmental fields. He coordinates the International Commission of Barcelona en Comú (BeC) and is an activist in the field of migration,collaborating with Alarm Phone, From the Sea to the City and the BeC working group on Migrations and Refuge. He is also involved with Ecologistas en Acción on river management water related subjects.

TOM HENFREY

Tom Henfrey works on the edge of research and practice in self-organised, bottom-up action for social-ecological transformation. He is a long-standing research fellow at the Schumacher Institute for Sustainable Systems and external collaborator with the Centre for Ecology, Evolution and Environmental Change at Lisbon University, and formerly worked as research coordinator for the ECOLISE network of European community-led initiatives on sustainability and climate change. His emerging project on Sacred Political Ecology explores intersections among practical, conceptual, political and spiritual dimensions of societal change. Further information at www.tom-henfrey.net.

YANINA TANEVA

Trust in the power of the “problem environment” as an incubator for unique social innovation is the air that Yanina breathes and the water in which she swims. She is addicted to the radical thesis that the course of human evolution depends on the unleashing of creative potential. She believes maybe now is the exact time to redefine the word “development” and to orient it towards human happiness. She works as a “catalyst” and a “fuel” for small ideas and imaginative people with extraordinary potential for social change. She is a strategic communicator by profession, a lover of shared visions, lecturer, trainer, blogger and traveler. She is a co-founder of Ideas Factory, and similar projects like the Time Shop and Changemakers Academy. She always carries a red clown nose in her pocket.

YOLANDE HENDLER

Yolande Hendler is Secretary General of the Habitat International Coalition (HIC). With over 350 Members, HIC is the global network for the defence, promotion and realisation of human rights related to habitat. Yolande holds a BA in Social Anthropology from Stellenbosch University, South Africa, and an MA in Global Studies from Leipzig University, Germany. She has worked with grassroots habitat collectives, informal settlement networks and civil society groups in Southern Africa and beyond, focusing on sustainable and horizontal approaches to organising, movement-building and emancipatory learning and advocacy strategies.

ZOE W. BRENT

Zoe W. Brent is pursuing her PhD in Development Studies/Political Ecology at the International Institute of Social Studies (ISS) in The Hague with a joint degree from the Instituto de Sociologia y Estudios Campesinos (ISEC), Universidad de Córdoba. Her research focuses on generational renewal in farming seen through the lens of social reproduction and critical agrarian studies. She is also a researcher with the Agrarian & Environmental Justice team at the Transnational Institute (TNI), where she works on issues related to food, land and ocean politics.