Region: Italy
Gernot Laganda
Gernot Laganda is leading the Climate and Disaster Risk Reduction Programs at the United Nations' World Food Program (WFP). He supports WFP Country Offices and the governments they serve to understand the effects of climate change on food security, develop strategic measures to reduce climate risks in country programs, and make innovative climate finance instruments work for vulnerable communities. Gernot joined WFP from the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), where he managed the world’s largest climate change adaptation program for smallholder farmers. A geoscientist by training, he spent the past 20 years working at the nexus between disasters and development – holding posts with NGOs supporting disaster relief and…
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Hauwa Ibrahim
Hauwa Ibrahim, J.D., S.J.D., M.L., is an internationally known human rights lawyer, currently serving as President of The Peace Institute, who was awarded the European Parliament Sakharov Prize for freedom of thoughts in 2005. She has defended over 150 cases involving women sentenced to death by stoning and children sentenced to amputation of limbs under Shariah law. Brought up in a small village in northern Nigeria, Hauwa was born into a culture that did not encourage schooling for girls beyond elementary school. Through sheer persistence and the gracious support of others, she attended teachers’ high school for women, the local university in Jos, Nigeria and continued to law school. Prior…
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Kyriacos Koupparis
Kyriacos Koupparis is Head of the Hunger Monitoring Unit at the United Nations World Food Programme (UNWFP) where he and his team utilize data and emerging technologies to track global food security. Previously he was Head of Frontier Innovations at the UNWFP's Innovation Accelerator. In this role, he led a team that explored how emerging technologies – such as artificial intelligence, blockchain, and robotics – can be harnessed to catalyze impact within the context of humanitarian assistance and food security. Previously, he worked for the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) as Senior Innovation Advisor where he designed and administered multi-million dollar programs to advance social and environmental prosperity…
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Abdi Ismail
Abdi Ismail has been working in the humanitarian field for 12 years in various management capacity with the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC). Currently, he is the Head of Mission for ICRC in Aden, Yemen, where he leads the protection and humanitarian assistance response in Southern Yemen and is in charge of managing the security of ICRC staff, assets, and operations in a very volatile security environment. Abdi’s interests are understanding current conflicts and their broader security implications for the greater Middle East and Horn of Africa. He has been invited to share his knowledge and experience of Yemen at the think tank ISPI, the Centre for Public…
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Mauro Mondello
Mauro Mondello is a freelance reporter, war correspondent, and documentary filmmaker. Focusing on human rights and freedoms, his reporting strives to garner dignity and respect for all cultures and religions and to foster an open society that provides shelter for refugees and space for all humanity. He began his journalism career as a staff journalist in Italy and was based in South America between 2008 and 2011. He then moved to Tunis and reported on the Arab Spring uprisings in Tunisia, Libya, Egypt, Yemen and Syria. From 2013 to 2019, he was based in Berlin, Germany. His reportages have appeared, among others, in The Guardian, Die Zeit, Newlines Magazine, Courrier…
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Rita Sciarra
Rita Sciarra is an expert in international development and serves as Team Lead for inclusive Growth and Poverty Reduction for the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Hub in Panama. She previously served as Strategic Advisor with the UNDP in Mexico supporting the country during its economic recovery process after the earthquake in 2018. Originally from Italy, she is fluent in four languages, with more than 14 years of experience in three different continents, in post-conflict and normal development conditions. Prior to this, Rita served as Head of Poverty Reduction with UNDP in Haiti. She has managed a portfolio of projects to ensure the transition from emergency to development, with a…
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Martina Larkin
Martina Larkin is CEO of Project Liberty, a ground breaking new initiative to transform how the internet works. Martina is a recognised international executive well versed in innovation and the world of international economics and politics. Before joining Project Liberty she was Vice President for Global Issues at System, an AI and data science company. Prior to that she spent 16 years at the World Economic Forum where she was a member of the Executive Committee. Martina is a member of `several non-profit boards, including the European Institute of Innovation and Technology of the European Commission; the international advisory panel for the Future of Science and Technology of the European…
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Massimo Lapucci
Massimo Lapucci is Secretary General of Fondazione CRT, a philanthropic foundation based in Italy with an endowment of about 3 billion euros. He is also the Secretary General of the Development and Growth Foundation, a foundation primarily focused on impact investing. Massimo is also Chair of the European Foundation Centre, the international network of institutional philanthropy based in Brussels. Massimo has an extensive international experience as a board member for public and private companies in various industries (including finance, banking, media and infrastructures) and nonprofit organizations in the EU and the Americas, including the Rockefeller Philanthropy Europe, the advisory board of the London School of Economics-Marshall Institute, and the ISI…
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Salvatore Iaconesi
Salvatore Iaconesi was a designer, robotics engineer, artist, hacker, and Principal and Co-Founder of Art is Open Source, an interdisciplinary research laboratory focused on merging artistic and scientific practices to create better communities in the advent of emerging technologies. He was also President at the Human Ecosystems Relazioni Research Center, and Co-Founder of Nefula, Italy's first Near Future Design studio. A TED Fellow (2012) and an Eisenhower Fellow (2013), his work explored the growing intersection between sciences, technology, and art. As a way of commenting on and interacting with an ever-changing world, Salvatore produced video games, artificial intelligence, expert systems for business and scientific research, entertainment systems, mobile ecosystems, and…
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Fabio Scano
Fabio Scano is a medical doctor and public health specialist with 20 years of experience in public health programs. He currently supervises all communicable and non-communicable disease programs at the World Health Organization (WHO). His role is also to strengthen the National Regulatory Authority for medicine, vaccines, and other health products. Fabio began his career with the WHO in 2001 in the Stop TB Department, where he helped develop policies to provide diagnosis and care to those co-infected with both TB and HIV in low and middle-income countries. Fabio also collaborates with the Aspen Institute on initiatives aimed at placing health at the center of a broader development agenda. He…
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