Omer is working in the Inclusive Green Growth Department at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs on water management. He is responsible for a number of programs, amongst these Securing Water for Food, the Valuing Water Initiative, and a strategic partnership on sustainable landscape management with WWF and IUCN. He also supports development of Netherlands water programs in Rwanda and Ethiopia.

Before joining the water cluster his focus was on environmental aspects of the broader sustainability agenda: green growth, natural capital accounting, and circular economy. He initiated the Initiative for Sustainable Landscapes (ISLA), focusing on the business case for integrated landscape management, and he was leading a project team on landscape approach. In addition, until recently, he was involved in the international Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI).

Pia Lindström is a program manager at the Unit for Global Economy and Environment at Sida, primarily working with challenge funds within the fields of environment and climate change including resilience. he holds a M.Sc. degree in International Economics from the Stockholm School of Economics and a B.Sc. in Political Science from Stockholm University. She has previously worked with the EU Commission/EuropeAid on corporate social responsibility issues and has for six years been based in the field in Bhutan and India working for the UNDP as well as managing local NGOs focusing on climate smart agriculture, sustainable waste management, appropriate technologies including sustainable energy and water projects, and youth social entrepreneurship programs.

Etienne is an agricultural engineer in landscape management and currently works in sustainable agriculture and land governance. After 11 years of experience in Central Africa and Central America, he worked on rural development and natural resources management for a Brussels based organisation, undertaking numerous field missions in Africa, Latin America and Asia. He joined the European Commission in 2004 in its environment service before moving to the external cooperation service in 2011 to work on climate change.

Dr. Dirk Pauschert has over 19 years of experience in international development in the areas of public finance management as well as adaption to global climate change. He worked on the development of GIZ’s global corporate strategy and has been the director of numerous program portfolios in Asia, Africa and the Middle East. Prior to joining GIZ he worked as a sector economist for the World Bank. His educational background includes a PhD in Economics in an international course of studies (Harvard, Ben Gurion University, University of Wuppertal) and he has served as a lecturer at the University of Cape Town. Since July 2023, he is the WE4F Project Lead of the GIZ Secretariat Unit located in Bonn, Germany.

Manager for WE4F, Jatin Yadav has worked with as many as 20 innovators in developing markets. He has diagnosed and advised on varied innovation projects such as a unique gardening model in South Africa, a hydroponics entrepreneur in Kenya, and a circular economy NGO effort in India, among others. Jatin received his M.B.A. in social entrepreneurship and strategy from the Nottingham University Business School and his B.A in computer engineering.

Sandra Suarez  started serving as the Grants & Finance Manager in January 2022 for the WE4F USAID Secretariat. Prior to joining the program, Sandra served as the Program Development Specialist-Budget for USAID/Colombia where she managed the overall budget of Colombia Mission, Bilateral Agreements, coordination between Washington the mission, and the mission’s planning matters for external contacts. Prior to joining USAID, Sandra served as the Budget and Accounting Chief for the International Narcotics Law Enforcement Affairs, where she managed a $1.9 billion dollars budget for seven fiscal years and  supervised a team consisting of a Team Leader,  four Accountants, a Voucher Examiner Supervisor, and seven Voucher Examiners. Sandra has attended Pontificia Universidad Javeriana, Universidad Santo Tomás, Universidad Industrial de Santander UIS, and Universidad Sergio Arboleda and the European Business School, resulting in an Accounting CPA, a civil engineering degree, and a topography degree with a specialization in environmental studies, and a MBA.

Noémie Tokplen works in the WE4F Coordination Unit at GIZ as a junior specialist in communications. She received a B.A. in language, culture and media studies from the Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität Bonn and the Sorbonne Paris 4 and a M.A. in Intercultural Studies from the University Freiburg and the École normale supérieure de Lyon. She worked in the communication, campaigning and editorial departments of newspapers, television, international organizations and companies in France, Germany and the UK. At WE4F Noémie will be responsible
for internal and external communications as well as for event management.

Cassy is the Donor Relations Manager for WE4F serving as a link between the Steering Committee and the USAID Secretariat. Prior to joining the program, Cassy served as the Program Specialist for the Securing Water for Food (SWFF) Grand Challenge supporting the USAID Team Lead and the SWFF Technical Assistance Facility. During her tenure at SWFF, Cassy conducted various monitoring and evaluation of implementation sites across Africa, S/SE Asia, and Latin America. Cassy holds an M.S. in International Development from New York University and is a Magna Cum Laude B.A graduate in Psychology/Anthropology from Stony Brook University.

In partnership with the WE4F GIZ Secretariat Unit, Katie manages the global communications and knowledge management strategies and oversees the hubs’ communications and knowledge management activities. She received her M.A. in Environmental Policy at Middlebury Institute of International Studies and her B.A. in Political Science and French at Hood College. She has five years of experience in supporting, developing, and leading communications and knowledge activities for agriculture, energy, and water organizations in domestic and international settings.

Sten is Junior Technical Advisor for the WE4F GIZ Secretariat Unit. He focusses on water related topics and supports the management team. He has an M.Sc. in Water Management from the TU Delft in the Netherlands, where he focused on hydrology, Integrated Water Resource Management (IWRM) and flood modeling.

McKenzie Horwitz serves as the Monitoring and Evaluation Specialist for the WE4F USAID Secretariat Unit. In partnership with the WE4F GIZ Secretariat Unit, her role includes the design and management of the WE4F M&E framework and systems, as well as overseeing the implementation of monitoring, evaluation, and learning activities across all USAID-supported Regional Innovation Hubs.

She received a M.A. in International Economics and Development from the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies in Washington, D.C. where she specialized in quantitative methods and economic theory. She received a B.A. in Economics and International Studies from Texas A&M University. Prior to joining WE4F, she supported the creation of a data quality framework applied to national WASH initiatives in India.