Infrastructure for Climate Resilience

Noelle O’Brien is ADB’s Principal Climate Change Specialist for the Pacific Region. Her work focuses on expanding ADB’s work on mitigation investments and scaling up adaptation investments in the 14 Pacific member countries, as well as raising climate finance.

A comprehensive climate and disaster risk assessment to inform resilience planning for Tonga has been a highpoint of recent work over. Prior to joining ADB, Noelle spent 7 years working with UKAID’s Strengthening Adaptation and Resilience to Climate Change in Kenya. The program invested in achieving transformational change by scaling up public and private sector innovation and investment in low carbon and adaptation products, services and assets. Noelle holds a Natural Science Degree from Trinity College Dublin and Masters’ Degrees in Applied Environmental Science and Development Management and has worked with the Mekong River Commission, the Center for People’s and Forests and a number of international organizations in Southeast Asia and Africa.

Mr. John Katongo Banda is a development planner with over 18 years experience in mainstreaming cross-cutting issues such as Climate Change, Gender, HIV&AIDS and Humanrights into plans, programmes and projects. John is currently working as the Environmental and Social Inclusion Specialist for the Pilot Programme for Climate Resilience (PPCR-Zambia) and the Transforming Landscapes for Resilience and Development (TRALARD) Projects. Previously John worked as Program Manager for the United Nations Joint Program on Climate Change and Disaster Risk Reduction.

John also worked as Grants and Decentralised Response Coordinator at the National AIDS Council (NAC) and was involved in the mainstreaming of cross-cutting issues into infrastructure projects using Environmnetal and Social Impact Assessments as an entry Point. John worked as District Planning Officer and was extensively involved in a number of infrastructure projects across sectors supported by different multilatreal and bilateral partners. John holds a Bachelor of Science Degree in Urban and Regional Planning from the Copperbelt University and a Master of Science Degree in Project Management from the University of Lusaka.

Swarna Kazi is a Senior Disaster Risk Management Specialist at the World Bank and the Bangladesh Focal Point for the Global Facility for Disaster Reduction and Recovery (GFDRR). Swarna is responsible for strengthening country partnerships, managing the policy dialogue, leading operations, and analytics, to advance the disaster risk management and climate change agenda. Swarna is managing an investment portfolio of over US$1 billion of high priority, climate and disaster resilience, fragility and conflict, emergency preparedness and response, multi-sector operations. Swarna has worked with the World Bank for over 15 years, initially joining in 2002.

Prior to her current position at the World Bank, Swarna was based in London and working as an Evidence and Policy Advisor in the U.K. Government, the Ministerial Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs (DEFRA). Swarna was educated at Oxford University (Christ Church College), where she obtained an MSc. in Water Science, Policy, and Management.

Alexandra has 30 years of experience in Disaster Risk Management (DRM). Before joining ADB’s Pacific Regional Department in 2020, she worked for the Red Cross, UNDP and, as a consultant, for multiple technical, donor, humanitarian and development organizations balancing headquarter and field assignments. Her experience of large-scale disaster response and recovery operations at the beginning of her career convinced her that she wanted to focus on preventive and adaptive action. She is particularly interested in fostering research and policies that incentivize practical action to address structural and non-structural vulnerabilities. Alexandra holds an MSc in Development Management from the London School of Economics.

Alexandra joined ADB in April 2020 and leads DRM investment operations in the Pacific Department. In this function she is in charge of a Regional Technical Assistance (TA) that focuses on improving disaster preparedness, public financial management in support of DRM and promoting the generation and application of climate and disaster risk information.

Nisha is a Senior Climate Finance Associate within the Climate Resilience Practice and currently serves as Director of the Systemic Resilience Forum of the Coalition for Climate Resilient Investments.

Her work focuses on advancing the integration of climate risks, adaptation and resilience considerations into public and private decision-making processes, from supporting central Ministries of Finance, Economies, and Planning to private investors and companies. She has supported development of national climate finance budget tracking methodologies, helped local governments and civil society organizations conduct adaptation finance accountability assessments, and advises on locally led adaptation finance. She also contributes to the Climate Resilience Practice’s other work on resilience and governance. Her work generally focuses on ensuring that climate adaptation finance reaches the most vulnerable.

Zhihong Zhang has more than 25 years of experience in managing climate funds and projects at the World Bank and UN agencies. He is currently leading efforts to establish a results-based climate finance facility at the World Bank to scale up climate action in developing countries.

He also serves as the World Bank’s focal point for the Climate Investment Funds (CIF)/Pilot Program for Climate Resilience (PPCR). From 2011-2019, he worked at the CIF, managing the Clean Technology Fund (CTF) and the Scaling up Renewable Energy Program in Low Income Countries (SREP) with a combined portfolio of USD 6 billion in over 50 countries. From 2004 to 2011, Zhihong led the Climate Change Focal Area at the Global Environment Facility (GEF) and was extensively involved in UNFCCC negotiations in finance and technology transfer. Prior to the GEF, he was a Chief Technical Advisor at the UN Industrial Development Organization and worked in the energy sector at the World Bank. Zhihong holds a Ph.D. in Energy Management and Policy from the University of Pennsylvania.

Lorie Rufo is a Climate Change Specialist for the Pilot Program for Climate Resilience (PPCR). She works with the Senior Program Coordinator of the PPCR in the overall management and coordination of the program and contributing to its knowledge management agenda. Before she joined the CIF, Lorie worked as Senior Climate Change Officer at the Asian Development Bank (ADB) providing support to operations departments mainstream climate change in ADB operations and scale-up investments in climate change mitigation and adaptation. She has co-authored a number of ADB publications on climate change adaptation providing insights and lessons on how to integrate adaptation and climate risk management in planning and investments. Lorie was engaged by ADB also as a long-term consultant from 2003-2010 to administer the implementation of ADB’s Poverty and Environment Program which promotes institutional learning within ADB on how to address poverty through environmental management. She has over 15 years of experience in project development and management, and research. She has served as Project Manager of the World Bank-funded Local Government Finance and Development Project for the Philippines aiming to improve the capacity of the local government units to build creditworthiness and access financing sources for local development projects. She has a Master’s Degree in Economics from the University of the Philippines.

Dr Xianfu Lu is a Senior Strategy and Outreach Specialist with the Climate Investment Funds Administrative Unit, with a focus on adaptation and climate resilience. Trained as an applied meteorologist, Xianfu has been working on climate risk assessment and management for over 20 years.

Her work spans climate science, climate resilience practices and international policy on adaptation. Xianfu has extensive experiences in climate risk analytics, particularly with relation to scenario analysis, and climate risk analyses to inform climate-resilient public and private investments particularly in infrastructure of agriculture, energy, transport and water. She has worked across the wide spectrum of institutional contexts, from University of East Anglia, UN Development Programme, UN Framework Convention on Climate Change and Asian Development Bank (ADB), Acclimatise Group Ltd. (a specialist consultancy firm) and the Climate Investment Funds. These have all contributed to Xianfu’s unique ability to fully appreciate the climate resilience investment needs and challenges of diverse clients, and to effectively “translate” such needs into requirement for policy and investment interventions.