From COVID to [Green] Recovery: Launch of CIF COVID-19 Technical Assistance Response Initiative

Ashufta is the senior civil servant in the UK Department for Business Energy and Industrial Strategy responsible for delivering BEIS’s International Climate Finance investments spanning its partnerships with the multilaterals and the private sector in infrastructure, cities and technology. Prior to joining BEIS, Ashufta was at the UK Department for International Development where she, amongst other things, led work on infrastructure service delivery and financing in a range of sub-Saharan African and South Asian countries. She is a mechanical engineering graduate and a UK chartered environmental professional.

Claire Bernard is Deputy Director General with responsibility for the Sustainable Development and Social Planning Cluster, at the Planning Institute of Jamaica. She is a Development Specialist who, in her years of employment to the PIOJ, has contributed to national development in the areas of education planning, social welfare and poverty reduction, environmental management and climate change. As part of her current portfolio, Ms Bernard oversees the PPCR projects and is the country’s PPCR Focal Point.

Dr. Bonilla has worked on environmental sustainability, climate change and energy for more than 20 years. He led the IDB's Sustainable Energy and Climate Change Initiative, a major strategic step for integrating climate change and sustainability as a priority for the Bank. Before joining the IDB, Dr. Bonilla worked as Senior Specialist at the World Bank, and was a member of the United Nation's CDM Executive Board.

Mafalda Duarte is CEO of the Climate Investment Funds (CIF), an $8.5 billion multilateral fund supporting climate action in 72 developing countries for over a decade. Since assuming her position in 2014, Mafalda has implemented a pioneering vision centered on blazing new paths in leadership and learning in scaled climate action. Read More

Jason manages the company and oversees project work in finance, energy and industry, cities and infrastructure, agriculture and natural resources. He has led pioneering initiatives on the net zero energy transition, on the nexus between energy, land and nature, and on the ‘greening’ of the financial system. His clients include multi-national financial institutions and corporates, international organizations, NGOs and government agencies.

Daniel Menebhi is mostly responsible for energy projects, working with Ghana from 2017 and previously working in cohesion, developing and transition countries including Bulgaria, Kosovo, Jordan, Romania and Ukraine. Since 2011, Daniel has been representative of Switzerland in the Climate Investment Funds (CIF) as well as a member of the Sub-Committee for the Scaling-Up Renewable Energy Program (SREP) for low-income countries. In 2017 he was made Chair of the Chamber for Advanced Economy Governments for the Hydropower Sustainability Assessment Protocol, as well as a member of the Protocol Governance Committee.

Frank coordinates the Dutch policy in the field of climate finance and energy. He has been trained as energy systems engineer and has been working on renewable energy and climate change for over two decades. He is co-chair of the CIF technical committee for the Scaling-up Renewable Energy Program and is co-chair of the consultative group of the Energy Sector Management Assistance Program of the World Bank.

Abhishek Bhaskar is a Senior Energy Specialist at the Climate Investment Funds. He is the Team Lead of CIF Technical Assistance Facility focusing on clean energy investments. With previous jobs at the International Finance Corporation (IFC), the United Nation’s Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and the World Bank, Abhishek has an over a decade of clean energy/ climate finance experience working on green bonds, compliance grade carbon assets, climate metrics and regulatory frameworks.