AF-TERG Bios

Debbie has 25 years of experience in international development spanning across multiple sectors. These sectors include climate change, urban resilience, regional connectivity, transboundary water, human development, governance, and gender and social inclusion. She has substantial experience in the areas of strategic planning, leadership and development of complex high value programs, monitoring and evaluation, knowledge management and organizational change management.

Debbie is committed to issues related to climate change and sustainable development and, as the Chair of the AF-TERG, is keen to deliver the AF-TERG’s work programme and to add value to the Fund’s work through independent monitoring, evaluation and learning. Beyond the AF-TERG she works as independent consultant with several multilateral and bilateral agencies, civil society partners, and private sector foundations.

Shehryar has nearly 20 years experience in research, monitoring, evaluation and learning. During his career, he has worked in multiple developing countries in South Asia, Middle East, North Africa, and East Africa. He has diverse sectoral experience ranging from education to livelihoods, governance, health, nutrition, and climate change. He has worked in various roles with international organisations such as the British Council, Green Climate Fund, Save the Children, United Nations and various development consulting companies.

Shehryar is passionate about using mixed methods to effectively answer complex development questions, drive evidence-based decision making, and enable learning. He holds multiple publications in international peer-reviewed sources, and regularly participates at international evaluation conferences.

Sithabiso has over 25 years of experience spanning research; monitoring, evaluations; programme design, policy design and analysis. Drawing on her thematic knowledge of climate change, food security; agricultural development; environmental protection; vulnerability, adaptation and resilience, Sithabiso has conducted strategic and programme evaluations for numerous clients, both within the UN system (WFP, FAO, IFAD, UNDP, UNAIDS) and beyond (World Bank, DFID, USAID, SADC, CIDA, EU, GIZ, Ford Foundation).

Sithabiso is a skilled team leader and evaluator with wide experience in developing evaluation methodologies and undertaking programme, institutional and impact evaluations. She has an extensive experience working with qualitative and quantitative research methods and tools. She is highly experienced in incorporating cross-cutting issues such as gender, HIV, disability, social protection, and disaster risk reduction. Sithabiso holds a Master’s Degree in Environmental Policy and Planning, and a PhD and Post Doctorate in Climate Change Adaptation.

Susan Legro has more than 25 years of experience with the design, implementation, oversight, and evaluation of projects that address climate change, including work as a Regional Coordinator for GEF-funded projects implemented by UNDP in the Europe and Central Asia region. Her work includes research on the results and impacts of donor-funded projects in sectors such as sustainable energy and cross-cutting capacity development, and her interests include measuring the co-benefits of adaptation projects, effective dissemination of good practice, and post-completion studies. Beyond the AF TERG, she works as an independent consultant with bilateral and multilateral agencies at the country and regional level.

Ms. Legro holds an undergraduate honors degree from Harvard University and master’s degrees in international relations and public health from Columbia University. She is a member of the Czech Evaluation Society, the European Evaluation Society, and the International Development Evaluation Society (IDEAS).

Mikko Ollikainen is the Head of the Adaptation Fund. He leads the Fund’s secretariat located in Washington, D.C.

Mikko has 20 years of experience in climate change and other global environmental issues. Before taking office as the Manager in 2017, he served as a lead adaptation expert of the Fund since 2009, playing a key role in building the Adaptation Fund’s portfolio of concrete adaptation projects which currently consists of almost 200 projects and programmes, and nearly 40 Direct Access partners accredited to nationally implement projects. He also led the development and implementation of the Fund’s medium-term strategy, which sets out the Fund’s ambitious vision of accelerating adaptation action, innovation, and learning.

Prior to joining the Adaptation Fund, Mikko worked as a technical specialist with the World Bank on nature-based climate change mitigation and forest conservation projects in Africa and Indonesia. He previously also worked for five years in East and Southeast Asia on global and local environmental and development issues, with development finance institution, academia and the private sector.

Mikko holds MSc degree in Ecology and Biodiversity Research from the University of Turku, Finland, and a postgraduate diploma in International Trade from the University of Tampere, Finland.

Vladislav (Vlad) Arnaoudov is a Bulgarian national who has been working in the field of climate change and climate finance over the past 21 years. He is bringing onboard extensive experience in the field of result management and M&E, project and programme development and management, policy design as well as the origination and implementation of low carbon and increased resilience projects for private and public sector entities. Vlad started his career in Japan as part of the climate finance consulting team of Mitsubishi UFJ Morgan Stanley Securities Co., Ltd. Originally, his work focused on methodology development and result management for projects under the Kyoto Protocol CDM, while later on he also started working on policy design and sectoral approaches for climate change mitigation and adaptation. In 2016, he moved to Deloitte where he set up and led the Japan climate finance advisory practice. Three years later, Vlad joined the Green Climate Fund where he led the monitoring and evaluation team of the GCF Secretariat. As part of that, he was actively involved in the development and implementation of the new Integrated Result Management Framework, as well as the Evaluation Policy.

Vlad is the author of publications on climate finance, international development and M&E. Prior to joining the Adaptation Fund, he was also an Adjunct Professor (pro bono position) with the Korean Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) where he taught a course on Carbon Markets and Carbon Finance.

Mariana has over twenty years of professional experience working on climate change adaptation, sustainable rural development and natural resource management in the Global South. Her expertise lies in applying bottom-up, mixed-method approaches to identify and co-generate solutions to complex problems in the land-use sector. After her undergraduate studies in forest engineering in her home country Peru, Mariana worked several years with cooperation agencies before moving to Germany to pursue an MSc in Tropical and International Forestry at the Georg-August-Universität Göttingen and later on a PhD in climate change adaptation and land-use change at the Technical University of Dresden. Mariana is a co-founder of BluoVerda e.V., and a member of the Coordination Hub of PlanAdapt.

Maisa brings on board a wealth of experience and expertise in project and trust fund work, as well as a strong background in international relations. Prior to joining the AF-TERG Secretariat, Maisa worked for 14 years at the World Bank Sudan Country Office, where she made significant contributions to numerous Bank-funded projects. She started her career as a Team Assistant and was quickly promoted to positions of Executive Assistant and, most recently, Program Assistant, showcasing her drive for excellence and continuous professional growth. Maisa also previously served as an Executive Assistant to the EU Ambassador in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and then as a Special Assistant to the Swiss Ambassador in Sudan. These experiences granted her comprehensive understanding of international relations and allowed her to work successfully in multi-cultural environments.
Maisa is a holder of a Bachelor’s degree in international relations from the United States International University – Africa.

Aneesh brings experiences from IT, automotive manufacturing, and finance industries to now support global developmental efforts, focusing on climate change adaptation and mitigation through strategic natural resource management. Aneesh obtained a Master’s in Sustainable Resource Management from the Technical University of Munich, Germany, with specializations in Climate Change and Environmental Economics. His Master’s thesis employed PRA techniques along with data analysis and GIS to assess the significance of culture and values for traditional forest management practices in the Indian Himalaya and their impacts on ecosystem service conservation as a whole.
As a consultant, Aneesh works on natural resource management projects, the most recent one being the development of a compendium of best practices in forest management with a focus on the Forest-Water Nexus for policy makers in India. In daily life, Aneesh is a staunch advocate of sustainable living and enjoys time spent in nature.