Water: Addressing the Global Crisis

Dr. Therese Sjömander Magnusson

Ex-Chief Operations Officer

Stockholm International Water Institute

Dr. Therese Sjömander Magnusson is the Chief Operations Officer at SIWI (Stockholm International Water Institute) where she among other things is responsible for the full implementation of SIWI's strategy on water governance. She was previously the Director for the department working with Transboundary Waters Management at SIWI where she contributed to position the organisation globally in the field of water diplomacy. Holding that position, she also headed the UNESCO International Centre for Water Cooperation (ICWC), hosted by SIWI.

Dr. Sjömander Magnusson is a geographer by training and has a PhD in water resources management from Linköping University in Sweden. She has extensive experiences from enabling policy dialogue, providing advice to decision makers, acting as a trusted facilitator in politically sensitive regions, and she has been involved in international water related processes. Before joining SIWI in 2013, she worked for the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (SIDA), where she held positions as Senior Adviser for Water Resources Management and Water and Sanitation, regional coordinator of transboundary water cooperation at the Swedish Embassy in Mozambique, as well as the Deputy Head of the Policy Support Unit at SIDA HQ.

Dr. Stefan Uhlenbrook

Director, Professor

UNESCO World Water Assessment Programme (WWAP)

Professor Uhlenbrook's main expertise includes water assessments, sustainability, hydrological process research and water resources management with focus on developing solutions for pressing water challenges. Many of his research and development projects have demonstrated the impact of global changes on water cycle dynamics in different hydro-climatic regions worldwide. He is keen on translating science-based knowledge to effective policies and strategies that contribute to environmental, economic and societal sustainability. Therefore, he enjoys coordinating the UN World Water Development Report that the WWAP produces annually to inform policy and decision makers on key water challenges and solutions. Stefan has proven records of building and coordinating strategic partnerships with a large variety of stakeholders and is committed to support achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG), including through the coordination of the UN-Water SDG 6 Synthesis Report on Water and Sanitation 2018.

Professor Uhlenbrook is the Coordinator of the UNESCO World Water Assessment Programme (WWAP) and the Director of the UNESCO Programme Office on Global Water Assessment in Perugia, Italy, since 2015. He previously worked at the UNESCO Institute for Water Education (UNESCO-IHE), as Professor of Hydrology (since 2005), Deputy Director (Vice-Rector) for Academic and Student Affairs (2000-2014) and Director a.i. (acting Rector; 2014-2015). Dr. Uhlenbrook obtained his PhD (1999) and Habilitation (2003) in Hydrology at the University of Freiburg, Germany and is a professor for experimental hydrology at the Delft University of Technology, The Netherlands (since 2009). Prof. Uhlenbrook has received several awards, is frequently invited to give keynote presentations at international conferences, has been member of several editorial boards of top journals in the field of water and environment, and has published over 150 papers in peer-reviewed journals. Furthermore, he has been involved in steering committees of a number of international initiatives and programmes (e.g. UNESCO-IHP, IAHS-PUB, HELP, World Water Week Science Programme Committee, etc.). Finally, prof. Uhlenbrook is a dedicated and well-appreciated educator; he has been lecturing and supervising students in many university programmes worldwide.

Dr. John H. Matthews

Lead and Co-founder

Alliance for Global Water Adaptation (AGWA)

John H. Matthews is the Coordinator and co-founder of the Alliance for Global Water Adaptation, co-chaired by the World Bank and the Stockholm International Water Institute (SIWI). His work blends technical and policy knowledge for climate adaptation and water management for practical implementation. John has worked on five continents and more than two dozen countries and published in many policy, scientific and technical journals and books, including Science, Nature and Climate Change. He is a frequent speaker, panelist, and moderator. His work primarily targets decision-making frameworks for adapting water infrastructure and ecosystems to climate impacts. He co-founded the #ClimateIsWater advocacy group, now led by the World Water Council, and has been asked by the UNFCCC to lead several water initiatives, including the first global water-climate dialogue at a COP and to meet with national focal points from more than 100 countries for training in climate risk assessment. Recent projects have included leading teams of more than 100 experts to develop green and climate bond resilience criteria for water investments (which have funded more than 2 billion USD to date), co-authoring a state-of-the-art guidance for mainstreaming climate adaptation into water management applied on four continents to date from UNESCO, developing climate-sensitive approaches to environmental allocations such as environmental flows at national and project levels, working with global policy instruments and institutions to embed water-climate knowledge into climate mitigation and adaptation initiatives, coordinating efforts to use finance mechanisms to implement nature-based solutions to climate adaptation, assembling curricula to build capacity around sustainable resource management, and exploring new economic tools to support integrated long-term planning.

John has advised a wide range of institutions, including bilateral, multilateral, NGO, national level agencies, UN agencies, foundations, and corporations on topics ranging from non-stationary resource management, finance, economics, and management practice. He is a columnist with OoskaNews, a Senior Water Fellow at Colorado State University and a Courtesy Faculty member of the Water Resources Graduate Program at Oregon State University. Previously, John started and directed global freshwater climate adaptation programs for WWF and Conservation International. He has PhD in ecology from the University of Texas, where he studied long-distance migration by dragonflies.

Dr. Angela Renata Cordeiro Ortigara

Associate Project Officer

UNESCO World Water Assessment Programme (WWAP)

Angela is currently an Associate Project Officer at WWAP, where she has been responsible for the development of the UN-Water's SDG 6 Synthesis Report 2018 on Water and Sanitation. She also regularly contributes to the production of the annual World Water Development Report (WWDR) and has coordinated the implementation of the Capacity Building Programme on Water and Sustainable Development. A Brazilian and Italian national, Angela holds a M.Sc. from the Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina (Brazil) and a Ph.D. from the University of Trento (Italy), both in Environmental Engineering. Her main expertise includes technical, social and environmental aspects of water and wastewater management, as well as project management, capacity building and water governance. She has extensive professional experience in research and the analysis of the linkages between water resources and sustainable development. She is deeply enthusiastic about the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and aims to contribute to the achievement of water-related Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by working on the science-policy interface.

Dr. Marianne Kjellén

Senior Water Advisor

United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)

Dr. Marianne Kjellén, Senior Water Adviser at the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), works with UNDP's Water & Ocean Governance Programme in support of operations through UNDP country offices and regional hubs. She provides in-house and external water-related advice and expertise and oversees project activities for knowledge management and capacity development. The Water & Ocean Governance Programme focuses on SDGs 6 and 14 with the entry point of governance. This involves managing capacity development and promotion of Integrated Water Resources Management, along with Source-to-Sea and Ridge-to-Reef approaches. Climate resilience, along with cross-cutting issues of Human Rights, Gender Equality and Integrity (anti-corruption) are addressed throughout the work. Representing UNDP at UN-Water, Marianne Kjellén is a regular contributor to UN-Water's global reporting.

Trained in Human Geography, Marianne Kjellén specializes in water governance as it relates to urban environmental management, water supply and sanitation and inclusive approaches for the reduction of poverty and inequality. Her research background involves studies of public-private collaboration and the relation with formal and informal ways of distributing water, with case studies in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. Marianne Kjellén has over twenty-five years' experience of water and development work. Prior to joining the UNDP in 2016, she worked with the Stockholm International Water Institute, and before that with the Stockholm Environment Institute and Stockholm University.

Dr. Alejandro Jiménez

Program Director for Content Development

Stockholm International Water Institute

Dr. Alejandro Jiménez leads the content development in water governance at the Stockholm International Water Institute, and leads on the WASH portfolio. He has extensive experience in applied research, advisory services, capacity building and program management. Alejandro has been working for fifteen years in the water sector, primarily in water and sanitation services. Working as Water and Sanitation Coordinator for the Spanish NGO ONGAWA at the beginning of his career, gave him a good knowledge of various regions and first-hand experience of the challenges involved in implementation of water and sanitation programs. Later on, he combined his practitioner activity with research and consultancy. He has been participating in and leading consultancy projects for major international agencies in different countries. Additionally, he has published several articles and book chapters, especially in the areas of water and sanitation governance, the definition of monitoring indicators, local governments' role in the provision of water and sanitation, and the implementation of the human right to water and sanitation.

With a background of civil engineering, Alejandro focused his PhD research to rural water governance in Sub-Saharan Africa, and during 2012-2013 he was enjoying a post-doctoral fellowship on sanitation governance at the Environmental Health Group of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. He joined the Stockholm International Water Institute in 2013.

Prof. Jan Lundqvist

Professor

Stockholm International Water Institute

Professor Jan Lundqvist is a recognized expert in water, food & nutrition security, human behavior and related policy issues. He is a Senior Scientific Adviser at Stockholm International Water Institute, SIWI. Currently, he is engaged in a program on 'Nutrition Water Productivity' together with colleagues at Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO). He is co-leading a working group on 'Water for Nutrition' within the Water Scarcity in Agriculture (WASAG) network. Focus of his research is on how to best use increasingly uncertain water resources for socioeconomic well-being in line with e.g. SDG targets 6.4, 2.2 and 12.3. Analyses of a necessary rural transformation in a direction of 'more nutrition per drop' is widening the well-known slogan 'more crop per drop'. His pioneering work, 'Saving water - from field to fork' from 2008, points at the interplay between the supply and demand sides of food systems.

Lundqvist's experience includes work in Eastern and Southern Africa, South Asia and China. His research is characterized by a multi-disciplinary approach.Jan Lundqvist, born May 18, 1942, has extensive experience and networks within academia, the UN system, bi-lateral programs, NGOs, and the private sector.

Dr. Nathanial Matthews

Program Director

Global Resilience Partnership

Nathanial (Nate) Matthews is Program Director of the Global Resilience Partnership (GRP) where he leads GRP's resilience investments and oversees the technical work teams including: Markets and Innovative Finance, Technology and Infrastructure and Policy. Previously, Nate was Principal Scientist and Global Research Coordinator at the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR) Research Program on Water, Land and Ecosystems.

He has 15 years' experience across water, agriculture and the private sector. He contributes to numerous international forums including as a lead author in The Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES), an advisory board member of the Economist Sustainability Summit, a member of the Expert working group on Adaptation and Resilience at Climate Bonds Initiative and as a working group member of the World Economic Forum's Global Risk Report. Nate holds a PhD in Geography from King's College London (KCL) and has published two books and authored over 35 peer reviewed publications. He is also a Senior Visiting Fellow in the Department of Geography at KCL, a Visiting Fellow at the University of East Anglia Water Security Centre and a Fellow of the Royal Geographic Society.

Water Faculty

Additional Instructors

SDG Academy