ONLINE EVENT PROGRAM
GWCN Annual Members Conference
An annual event gathering all member organizations of GWCN, to openly discuss latest topics related to environment and energy.
Overview of GWCN Strategy and Activities
1:00 PM - 1:30 PM GMT
Conference Coordinator and Session Moderator:
Mrs. Monica Braithwaite
Speakers:
Topic: GWCN Strategy
Monica Braithwaite (BSc, MBA) has over twenty years of international business experience focussed around Strategy, Marketing and Finance.
She has a degree in Maths and Economics from Warwick University and an MBA from Cranfield University.
She has worked as both an internal and external consultant, developed strategic sales and marketing plans at a CEO level and project managed multinational teams to deliver a wide range of complex projects. She has significant expertise in developing marketing programs based on audience research and analysis.
Sector experience includes Technology, Telecoms and Energy.
Monica lives in Wiltshire, UK where she is a volunteer fundraiser for The Scout Association and a representative for the school parents’ association.
She enjoys spending time with her young family, horse riding and travel.
Topic: GWCN Research
Rachel is an experienced qualitative and quantitative researcher specializing in public health. She has a passion for conducting quality research and for promoting community awareness and involvement in the development of National Standards, Regulations and Policies. She has worked in such areas as infection prevention and control within healthcare, maternity care, compassion in care and she has conducted a lead analysis on ethical codes of conduct and behavior for clinical healthcare providers. She has publications in a number of these topics. Rachel holds a Degree in Behavioral science and postgraduate studies in Psychology.
Becoming a Health Psychology Researcher in Ireland, Rachel spent three years as a Research Officer for a non-profit organization promoting safe practices and behaviors among healthcare providers and advocating for patient empowerment and involvement. She conducted nation-wide research on healthcare behaviors and led master classes on her research topics in hospitals.
Serving later as a Research Officer for the public health sector in Ireland, Rachel was the leading researcher for two sets of national standards. Working in interdisciplinary teams around hospitals throughout Ireland, she developed a large set of standards for the Prevention and Control of Healthcare Associated Infections which promoted a safe and effective infection prevention environment and a culture of patient safety within the Irish acute healthcare services.
In 2020, Rachel began working with the UN and the Association for Community Awareness for COVID-19 research in Cameroon to help reduce and maintain the spread of COVID-19 in underserved communities through grant proposal development.
Now putting her years of research skills into directing the Research Centre of the Global Waste Cleaning Network, Rachel is leading GWCN researchers in developing valid and reliable contributions to waste management research which is aimed at finding sustainable approaches and solutions to ensure a future healthy environment across the globe and to minimise environmental risks associated with negative health outcomes.
Topic: GWCN Membership and Partnerships
Alessandra is a very enthusiastic professional with a passion for helping others and making a better world to everyone. A true believer that every person can and should give his/her contribution to future generations.
She holds a Master’s Degree in Peacekeeping Management from the University of Turin, Italy and a Bachelor’s Degree in International Relations from the Catholic University of Brasilia. She has a vast and diverse background that includes work with migration (returnees), victims of human trafficking, electoral assistance, education, political affairs and humanitarian/aid coordination. She has worked in Brazil, Sudan, Guinea-Bissau, Cambodia, and East-Timor. She is always excited and willing to be part of fast moving multicultural teams.
Alessandra’s passion for environmental issues brought her to the GWCN team, where she can use all her skills to make a positive and substantive impact by helping to build awareness and boost this global initiative and network.
In her spare time, Alessandra enjoys horse riding, dancing, gastronomy, learning about different cultures and being in contact with nature.
Topic: GWCN Social App
Emilia graduated from Peoples’ Friendship University of Russia with Master’s degree in Law and from National Research University HSE where she earned the diploma in interpreting.
In her career she was working in the areas of external trade, food safety as well as took part in oil and gas projects, where she dived deeper in the IMO and EU environment protection policy related to the limitation of sulfur content in marine fuels.
Emilia has completed a survey «Prospects of sustainable products in Russia», which together with her interest in environmental policy gave an impetus to expand knowledge.
Thus, in 2020 she has completed online courses on Climate change policy, Environmental impacts of the energy systems, Fundamentals of humanitarian action and cash transfer provided by Harvard and UNICEF.
Her particular interest lies in international law, environmental protection policy, sustainable development and fundraising.
She is eager to contribute her time and professional experience to achieving the 17 Sustainable Development Goals.
Energy Transition and Conversion Panel
1:30 PM - 2:00 PM GMT
Moderator:
Mr. Onyekachi Nwafor
Speakers:
Topic: Accelerating Africa’s energy transition through comprehensive policy frameworks
Dr. Mohamed Alhaj is a competent renewable energy engineer, and expert and award-winning researcher, and a strong advocate for sustainable development.
Dr. Mohamed completed his Ph.D. at 28 years old, at Hamad Bin Khalifa University (Qatar) where he worked on developing a sustainable solar-driven seawater desalination technology. His Ph.D. research, which received several prestigious awards, investigated the technical performance, environmental impact, and economic feasibility of solar-driven low-pressure thermal desalination, particularly for water-scarce countries. Dr. Mohamed also completed a MSc in Energy Technology from the National University of Malaysia and a BEng Honors in Mechatronic Engineering from the the University of Nottingham.
He is an expert in renewable energy research, having published several peer-reviewed papers in high-impact journals in the areas of sustainability, solar energy, desalination, and life-cycle assessment. He is also an editorial board member in several journals. Dr. Mohamed has also delivered talks at global conferences in the U.S., Singapore, and Qatar.
Dr. Mohamed is the founder and director of Clean Energy 4 Africa (CE4A), which is an African think-tank that promotes renewable energy in Sudan & Africa. CE4A conducts market intelligence, consultancy studies, and capacity building programs to support the sustainable energy transition in Sudan and Africa. Clean Energy 4 Africa has been recognized by the UN as being among the top 100 youth initiatives globally that promote SDG7.
Dr. Mohamed is regularly invited by international organizations to deliver talks on renewable energy and energy access, especially in Sudan. In June 2021, he was invited to deliver keynote remarks on energy access at the UN High-Level Ministerial Segment on Energy Access.
Topic: Management of the Energy Storage Hybridization in Electric Vehicles
Dr. Khaled Itani is the Technical Manager at Cnam, Paris / STAFFER Project. He is also a researcher in Electro-Mobility at the SATIE Laboratory in France, and a senior member at the ‘Société de l’électricité, de l’électronique et des technologies de l’information et de la communication’.
He teaches Electrical Energy Conversion, Traction & Propulsion, Electrical Distribution and Future Energy Networks at Cnam-Liban. Previously, he held the role of head of the Electrical Engineering Department of Cnam-Liban.
Dr. Itani holds a Science Diploma from the Université Paul Sabatier, an Engineering Degree from the Ecole Supérieure d’Electricité and a PhD in Electrical Engineering from the Université Paris-Saclay.
Climate Change and Sustainability Panel
2:00 PM - 2:30 PM GMT
Moderator:
Mr. Praveen Johri
Speakers:
Topic: The Implementation of Public Policies in compliance with the Agreement of Paris and the SDGs, in developed countries vs developing countries: Spain, France, Mexico and Colombia
A renowned biologist, with a PhD in biological oceanography and marine biochemistry specialty, Dr. Norma Patricia Muñoz Sevilla is the former Head of Climate Change Council of Mexico.
Currently a researcher of the Interdisciplinary Center for Research and Studies on Environment and Development at the National Polytechnic Institute, Mexico she is affiliated with several prestigious environmental organizations. She is a member of the group of ocean experts in UNESCO-IOC, and also of the National Network for Interdisciplinary Research on Climate Change among several other global councils.
With around 60 scientific articles and 15 books on coastal zones, environmental deterioration and climate change to her credit, Dr Muñoz also co-authored the National Seas and Coastal Policy of Mexico.
She has approximately 41 awards for her professional performance, including the “Order of the Academic Palms”, awarded by the Government of the French Republic in 2011.
Topic: The WEF Nexus as a tool for supporting Sustainable Development
Ebun is a Senior Researcher at ICRE8 and the Head of the Department of Stakeholder Analysis and Decision Support Systems at ICRE8 and UN SDSN Greece.
She is an Associate Lecturer at the School of Applied Social Studies, Robert Gordon University (Aberdeen), and Senior Partner with Nigerian-based consultancy GEN Sustainable Solutions.
With a BSc (Hons) in Architectural Technology, MSc in Project Management and PhD in Urban Regeneration and Sustainable Communities, she has several years of both industrial and academic experience in Europe, Asia and Africa; collaborating with governmental agencies, NGOs, aid organizations, academic institutions, the private sector and local communities.
Her main areas of interest are sustainable development, urban regeneration, SDG policy and implementation, community development, climate change mitigation, transition management, renewable energy, stakeholder participation, participatory planning, evaluation and impact assessment for sustainability, and sustainability in developing nations.
Garbage and Marine Debris Panel
2:30 PM - 3:00 PM GMT
Moderator:
Mr. Joshua Fuller
Speakers:
Topic: National framework for marine litter action plan
Dr Suneel Pandey is Senior Fellow and Director, Environment & Waste Management Division, TERI. In addition, he is also working as Adjunct Faculty at TERI School of Advance Studies (TERI SAS). He has more than 30 years of consultancy/ research experience in the areas of municipal, industrial and hospital waste management, waste-to-energy issues, impact assessment, air, water and soil quality monitoring, site assessments, performance evaluation of ETP and institutional strengthening and capacity building. He has obtained his Ph. D. degree in hazardous waste characterization from Nagpur University while working as Project Fellow at NEERI, Nagpur. Prior to joining TERI, Suneel has worked for ERM India and at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology on development of landfill liner for containment of land disposed hazardous waste and deriving material balances and associated environmental pollution for Hong Kong region as part of Post Doctoral Research.
At TERI SAS, he was involved in curriculum design for module – solid and hazardous waste management on its inception and taught this module for postgraduate course in Natural Resource Management and Environmental Science for five years. Presently he is engaged in guiding students for their major projects and PhD scholars for their doctoral research.
Topic: The role of Education for Sustainable Development
Dr Pramod Kumar Sharma is Senior Director of Education with the Foundation for Environmental Education (FEE). In his control roles, he is responsible for the development of the Eco-Schools, Young Reporters for Environment (YRE) and Learning About Forests in 75 countries. He is also leading the establishment of FEE Academy – An Online Teaching and Learning platform for various stakeholders engaged with five programs of FEE. His doctoral research is in the area of Assessment of Environmental Literacy. He has a Master’s Degree in Business Administration (MBA) and also holds an integrated Bachelor’s Degree in Science and Education.
An Education for Sustainable Development professional with a broad experience of over 23 years, he has worked with a wide range of stakeholders that include schools, corporate, programs focusing on school systems, rural development issues of tribal communities in India and has mentored over 150 grassroots NGOs for projects in the area of sustainable development.