Day 1
4 Sep 2023
From investment to impacts
Introductory remarks by GCF Executive Director Mafalda Duarte and high-level guests Alexia Latortue and Jacqueline Novogratz.
Sophie Mbugua
Environmental Journalist
Sophie Mbugua is a media consultant and environmental journalist based in Nairobi, Kenya.
Sophie has specialised in climate and environmental reporting for ten years as an environmental journalist. She founded Africa Climate Conversations in June 2020, a Multimedia platform that produces a bi-monthly 30-minute podcast, a YouTube channel, and a News platform highlighting the climate change narrative from an African perspective.
Over the past decade, her work has been published locally in Kenya as well as regionally and internationally by the BBC Science Radio, Thomson Reuters Foundation, Deutsche Welle (DW), Mail & Guardian, Climate Homes News, the Humanitarian, Mongabay, Atmos, the National Audubon Society, HuffPost, the Nation Media Group, Scidev.Net, News Deeply, the Star, and the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), among others.
Sophie, as a media consultant, assists organisations in bridging climate and environmental communication gaps by facilitating and coordinating their press relations and advising institutions on engaging the local and international media effectively. In addition, she collaborates with institutions to compile and disseminate their institutional knowledge to desired audiences, such as policymakers, the media, donors, and communities. Sophie has consulted for the Africa Climate Resilient Investment Facility (AFRI-RES) programme of the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa, Power Shift Africa, and the Africa Renewable Energy Initiative (AREI), as well as organised and facilitated press events for the African Group of Negotiators Chair at the 22nd and 25th Conference of the Parties.
Mafalda Duarte
Executive Director, GCF
Mafalda Duarte is the Executive Director of the Green Climate Fund, the world’s largest multilateral climate fund, since August 1, 2023. For decades, Mafalda has challenged business as usual to drive innovative and pioneering development and climate-responsive investments globally. Before her current role, Mafalda was CEO of the Climate Investment Funds, where she steered a multibillion-dollar portfolio of investments pushing the frontiers of clean energy, sustainable land management, and resilience across more than 70 middle and low-income countries. Originally from Portugal, Mafalda is a proud mother to three daughters and a champion of social inclusion and equity. She decided to focus her international development career on climate action after witnessing climate impacts in countries in Africa and learning about climate science.
Alexia Latortue
Assistant Secretary for International Trade and Development, U.S. Department of the Treasury
Alexia Latortue is the Assistant Secretary of International Trade and Development for the United States Department of the Treasury. In this role, she oversees Treasury’s Offices of Technical Assistance, Climate Environment and Sustainable Infrastructure, International Trade and Investment, Multilateral Development Banks, and International Development Policy. Previously she served as the Millennium Challenge Corporation’s Deputy Chief Executive Officer overseeing the agency’s operations to deliver on strategic and programmatic priorities and leading the MCC team. She is a veteran of the development finance world, with previous tenures as Managing Director for Corporate Strategy at the EBRD and Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of International Development Policy in Treasury’s International Affairs department. She also has had experience at the World Bank and other private sector development-related positions.
Alexia received her M.A. from The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University and her B.S. from Georgetown University. She grew up in Togo, Cote d’Ivoire, and Austria and has lived and worked in the United Kingdom, France, Haiti, and the United States.
Jacqueline Novogratz
Founder & CEO, Acumen
Jacqueline Novogratz is the Founder and CEO of Acumen, a global community that fights poverty and builds dignity by investing in companies and change makers using both philanthropy-backed pioneer investing and for-profit impact funds. Jacqueline’s two decades of work with Acumen have impacted over 500 million people across Africa, Latin America, South Asia, and the United States.
To date Acumen has invested more than $154 million of patient capital into 167 companies, and is also responsible for nearly $243 million in assets under management via its for-profit funds. Realizing that human capital is as critical as financial capital, Acumen also trains social entrepreneurs and innovators through Acumen Academy, which has cultivated 1,300 leaders in 61 countries. Through its online courses, Acumen Academy has influenced more than a million individuals from 193 countries.
Jacqueline is the author of two award-winning books: the best-selling The Blue Sweater (2010), and Manifesto for a Moral Revolution: Practices to Build a Better World (2020). She is a member of the B-Team and serves on numerous boards and advisory boards. She has been named one of the Top 100 Global Thinkers by Foreign Policy, one of Insider’s Climate Action 30 leaders, one of the 25 Smartest People of the Decade by the Daily Beast, and one of the world’s 100 Greatest Living Business Minds by Forbes. She holds an MBA from Stanford University and a BA in Economics/International Relations from the University of Virginia.
Business models for climate investment
The case study was presented by the CEO & Founder of SunCulture, an investee company of a GCF program. The case study highlighted the climate problem identified by SunCluture, and the solution developed by SunCuture. Following the case study presentation, the panel discussed how various business models for climate finance can be supported. The panel members leveraged experiences from their respective fields and share insights on replicating the successful models.
Euan Low
Climate Sector Lead, Energy, Transport & Industry Sectors, Division of Mitigation & Adaptation, GCF
Dr Euan Low is the Climate Sector Lead for GCF’s Mitigation & Adaptation portfolio in the Energy, Transport & Industry Sectors.
Previously Director of PwC’s Asia Pacific advisory services, with more than twenty years of delivering transformational deals in infrastructure & industry sectors (Power, Alternative Energy, Water, Wastewater, Waste Management, Transport, Chemicals, Metals, Cement, inter-alia). He holds a PhD in Chemical Engineering from University of Cambridge, and is a Chartered Engineer and Chartered Scientist.
Diana Chepng’eno
Africa & Middle East Coordinator, Vulnerable Twenty Group of Ministers of Finance (V20) Sustainable Insurance Facility, UNEP FI
Diana is the Regional Coordinator for Africa & Middle East for V20 Sustainable Insurance Facility under PSI in the UNEP FI. She has slightly over 16 years of experience in Non-Life Insurance. She was previously the Underwriting and Business Development Manager at Fidelity Shield Ins Co.Ltd. She also previously worked amongst others with UAP(now Old Mutual) in the commercialization of Kilimo Salama an agricultural index insurance product. She has a Master of Arts (International Relations) from USIU-Africa, Bachelor of Commerce (Insurance Option) from University of Nairobi and Advanced Diploma in Insurance (ACII) from the Chartered Insurance Institute of London, UK. She is a member of the Insurance Institute of Kenya.
Vincent Chin Sze Heong
Global Vice Chair, Public Sector Practice Managing Director and Senior Partner, The Boston Consulting Group
Mr Vincent Chin Sze Heong is the Global Vice Chair of Boston Consulting Group's Public Sector Practice. He began his early career at two global companies at the forefront of the airlines and technology industries respectively, before joining BCG in 1999. In BCG, Vincent has been helping clients in both the public and private sector to sharpen and sustain their competitive edge. His core area of focus is in strategy breakthroughs, business model innovation and large scale transformation. Vincent holds a Master of Business Administration from the Edinburgh Business School and Bachelor of Science (Computer & Information System) from the National University of Singapore.
Tamer El-Raghy
Managing Director, Acumen Resilient Agriculture Fund (ARAF)
Over 20 years of investment, entrepreneurial and innovation experience in Africa, Middle East, USA and Europe. As the MD of ARAF; a $58MM impact VC fund that invests in Agri startups with business models that help farmers adapt to climate change, he led the team that invested in 12 companies which impacted more than 750,000 farmers in Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, Nigeria and Ghana. Prior to joining ARAF, he led responsability AG (rA) Agriculture PE in Africa and Cargill’s growth strategy and investment activities in Africa. He received an MBA from NYU Stern School of Business, a PhD in Materials Engineering from Drexel University and a B.Sc. in Metallurgical Engineering from Cairo University.
Samir Ibrahim
Founder and CEO, SunCulture
Samir Ibrahim is the CEO and co-founder of SunCulture. SunCulture develops and commercializes life-changing technology that solves the biggest daily challenges for the world’s 570 million smallholder farming households. The company is recognized as a Bloomberg New Energy Pioneer and a Financial Times Transformational Business, and was named to the London Stock Exchange’s “Companies to Inspire Africa” index. SunCulture has been featured by TED, the Financial Times, the Economist, BBC, and more.
Prior to SunCulture, Samir studied finance and international business at NYU’s Undergraduate Stern School of Business and joined PwC's Financial Services, Structured Products, and Real Estate Group. Samir is recognized as a Forbes 30 Under 30, Top Conscious Business Leader by Conscious Company Media, and a World Energy Council Future Energy Leader alumnus.
Samir is also on the Organizing Committee of Shikilia, a coalition of public and private sector organizations providing emergency cash transfers to low-income Kenyan communities.
Abdulmajid Mussa Nsekela
Group CEO & Managing Director, CRDB Bank Plc
Abdulmajid Mussa Nsekela is a seasoned African business leader; with close to three decades of leadership experience and a successful career in investment, business, retail, wealth management and private banking in East Africa. He has vast experience in Transformational Leadership, Business Turnaround and Strategic Management. In the first decade of his career, Nsekela served in various positions, spanning business functions, bank operations, control functions and people management. He later served in diverse strategic leadership positions, including Financial and Strategic Planning, Risk, Governance, Auditing and Compliance.
Mr. Nsekela was appointed Group Chief Executive Officer (CEO) & Managing Director of CRDB Bank Plc in October 2018. He is passionate about leadership, economic empowerment, financial inclusion, and sustainable development. During his first year at CRDB Bank, Mr. Nsekela spearheaded the bank’s accreditation by the United Nations Green Climate Fund (GCF) as a financial intermediary in green financing. CRDB Bank became the first commercial bank in East & Central Africa to be accredited as a Direct Access Entity (DAE). In October 2021, the bank secured US$100M in funding to support climate-resilient agriculture and technology adaptation in Tanzania.
Mr. Nsekela’s acumen in business has earned him leadership roles on various Management Boards in the country. He currently serves as Chairman of the Tanzania Cooperative Development Commission (TCDC), the Culture and Arts Fund, and the Tanzania Smallholders Tea Development Agency (TSHTDA). He is also a council member of the Tanzania National Business Council (TNBC) - Finance working group; and a member of the Tanzania Financial Inclusion National Council (TFINC). In addition to the above, he is a member of the boards of the Tanzania Private Sector Foundation (TPSF) and Tanzania Mortgage Refinance Company Limited (TMRC) and the Economic & Social Research Foundation (ESRF). He also served as the Chairman of the Tanzania Bankers Association (TBA) for four years between 2018 and 2022.
In 2023, Mr. Nsekela was named among 25 top African Finance Leaders by the African Leadership Magazine.(ALM). In early 2020, Nsekela was inducted into the African CEO’s Hall of Fame by ALM, and in 2021, he was listed among the 50 most reputable Bank CEOs in Africa by Reputation Poll International. In 2022, he was conferred an Honorary Fellowship Award by the Tanzanian Institute of Banking (TIOB). He was also named CEO of the year, two years in a row by Tanzania Top 100 Executives List (2021 and 2022); and designated the “Most Inspiring Male Corporate Leader’, by Consumer Choice Awards in 2022.
Mr. Nsekela holds a master’s degree in Business Administration - International Banking Finance (MBA-IBF) and a Post Graduate Diploma in Business Administration (PGDBA) from Birmingham University (UK). He also has an Advanced Diploma in Banking from the Institute of Finance Management (IFM), Tanzania. He is a graduate of Harvard Business School’s Authentic Leadership Program.
Elia Timotheo
CEO, EA Foods
Elia Timotheo, a visionary Tanzanian entrepreneur, is transforming East Africa's agricultural landscape through innovation. In 2013, he founded East Africa Foods, revolutionizing the supply chain by connecting smallholder farmers directly with retailers through a tech-enabled platform, reducing post-harvest losses and benefiting all stakeholders. As CEO, Elia led the company to become Tanzania's largest produce distributor, reaching over 8,000 farmers and supplying more than 10,000 retailers. His relentless pursuit of positive change has earned him recognition as a trailblazer in East Africa's business landscape, inspiring aspiring entrepreneurs and driving the transformation of Africa's agricultural sector.
Last mile social entrepreneurs powering Africa
Over the last decade, the off-grid solar sector has made huge progress in democratizing access to energy in Africa, with notable contributions from GCF, Acumen, and USAID Power Africa. Yet, sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) lags behind in achieving its SDG7 target, and currently, ~600 million people living without access to electricity reside in underserved markets, primarily in SSA. This session highlighted GCF and Acumen’s new partnership to invest and support off-grid solar companies willing to enter and scale in these nascent markets to electrify African communities at risk of being left behind in the clean energy transition. This session also explored how private and public investors can collaborate with social entrepreneurs to accelerate the just and inclusive energy transition.
Soji Omisore
Deputy Director of the Private Sector Facility, GCF
Soji is the Deputy Director of the Private Sector Facility of the Green Climate Fund. He has over two decades experience originating, executing, and structuring investments transactions across emerging markets – Africa, Asia and Latin America. He was previously the Senior Director Project Finance, West Africa for Standard Bank/Stanbic IBTC responsible for infrastructure, energy and mining transactions, where he was responsible for and led the origination, execution and portfolio management of investments, as well as advised governments and private sector organisations on financing, deal structuring and viability. Prior to this, as a Sr. Investment Officer at the IFC, he focused on originating and executing investments within MAS - manufacturing, agribusiness and services sectors - whilst ensuring sustainability and impact.
More recently, he co-founded Opolox, a pan-African investment/advisory company, focused on investment and project development, where he provided context-specific investment and bankability insights with emphasis on SDG-9 which considers the interplay between industry, infrastructure, green energy and innovation. He has an MBA from Chicago Booth Graduate School of Business and a BA Economics, London University.
Jacqueline Novogratz
Founder & CEO, Acumen
Jacqueline Novogratz is the Founder and CEO of Acumen, a global community that fights poverty and builds dignity by investing in companies and change makers using both philanthropy-backed pioneer investing and for-profit impact funds. Jacqueline’s two decades of work with Acumen have impacted over 500 million people across Africa, Latin America, South Asia, and the United States.
To date Acumen has invested more than $154 million of patient capital into 167 companies, and is also responsible for nearly $243 million in assets under management via its for-profit funds. Realizing that human capital is as critical as financial capital, Acumen also trains social entrepreneurs and innovators through Acumen Academy, which has cultivated 1,300 leaders in 61 countries. Through its online courses, Acumen Academy has influenced more than a million individuals from 193 countries.
Jacqueline is the author of two award-winning books: the best-selling The Blue Sweater (2010), and Manifesto for a Moral Revolution: Practices to Build a Better World (2020). She is a member of the B-Team and serves on numerous boards and advisory boards. She has been named one of the Top 100 Global Thinkers by Foreign Policy, one of Insider’s Climate Action 30 leaders, one of the 25 Smartest People of the Decade by the Daily Beast, and one of the world’s 100 Greatest Living Business Minds by Forbes. She holds an MBA from Stanford University and a BA in Economics/International Relations from the University of Virginia.
Ron Pfende
Chief Financial Officer, d.light Design Inc
Ron is the CFO of d.light Design Inc. d.light is a global leader in making transformative products available and affordable to low-income families. d.light has sold nearly 30 million products, including solar lanterns, solar home systems, TVs, radios, and smartphones, impacting the lives of over 150 million people.
Prior to joining d.light, Ron held executive roles in the financial services sector including Managing Director: Southern Africa for Stanlib a pan African asset management company with $42bn assets under management; Chief Operating Officer BancABC a SADC based regional bank 5 and 10 years at Standard Bank Group (Africa’s largest bank) in various executive roles largely focussed on growing the bank’s footprint in Sub Sahara Africa.
Ron has a deep understanding of operating on the African continent having lived and worked in seven countries on the continent and has extensive knowledge of entering new markets and scaling business.
Leveraging his banking experience he has pioneered innovative funding structures in the off grid solar sector, that deliver affordable and sustainable financing solutions for low income families to access energy and related appliances.
Ron is a Chartered Accountant and holds a Master of Business Leadership and Bachelor in Accounting Science from the University of South Africa.
David Thompson
Acting Coordinator, USAID/Power Africa
David Thompson has been in the Foreign Service with USAID since 2003. Prior to arriving in Pretoria in August 2020, David completed four years as USAID Deputy Mission Director in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. David was Chief of the Policy, Outreach, Strategy and Evaluation Unit, Office of Development Planning, in the Bureau for Africa (2013-2015); Senior Policy Analyst in the Office of Strategic and Program Planning, Bureau for Policy, Planning, and Learning (2012-2013); Director of the Office of Democracy and Governance in both Afghanistan (2011-2012) and Honduras (2008-2011); and Director of the Program Office in Albania (2004-2007). Before joining USAID, David lived and worked in Brazil, his wife Priscila Izar’s home country. From 2000 to 2001, he was South Africa Country Director for CHF International (now Global Communities), advancing USG-funded economic and housing initiatives in the Eastern Cape. From 1996 to 1998, David led USG and UNHCR-funded initiatives to support the return of displaced persons with the reconstruction of housing, schools, clinics, and infrastructure in Bosnia-Herzegovina. He was a Peace Corps Volunteer in Tunisia, a VISTA volunteer in Waterbury, Connecticut, and a construction manager in his home area of Washington, DC. David has a B.S. in Architecture from the University of Virginia, an M.A. in International Development Policy from Duke University, and an M.S. in National Security Strategy from the National War College.
Bruce Woo
Managing Director, EMEA Region, Shinhan Bank
Sang Hyun (Bruce) holds the role of Head at Shinhan Bank's London Branch as a Managing Director and concurrently serves as the Regional Head for EMEA within the Bank's Global Business, a position he has held since 2020.
Before taking on these responsibilities, he led the Project Finance Department and the Global Project Finance Team in the Global Investment Banking Division at the bank Sang Hyun brings an impressive 28 year track record in investment and international banking to his current role.
His journey at Shinhan began in 1995 and he steadily climbed the ranks in investment banking, with roles including Corporate Industry Analyst, Real Estate Development, Fund Business, and Corporate M&A. He is widely recognised as a pioneer in Shinhan's Investment Banking sector.
Sang Hyun pursued his MBA at Hong Kong University of Science Technology in 2011 sponsored by the bank He also holds a Bachelor's degree in German Language Literature from Korea University in Seoul.Additionally, he holds the Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) and Certified Financial Risk Manager (FRM) designations.
Investing in nature
This session firstly explored successful GCF projects with a focus on nature and ecosystems, then was followed by a panel discussion on themes including: investment models in nature projects; innovative financial Instruments; revenue streams; impact measurement metrics; key challenges in accessing finance; and how blended finance can help to overcome these challenges.
Daniel Farchy
Climate Investment Manager - Nature & Ecosystems, GCF
Daniel Farchy manages ecosystem transition investment in the Green Climate Fund’s Private Sector Facility. Prior to this, Daniel was at the European Investment Bank, where he led development of new green capital markets products for the bank, as well as investment in innovative climate funds. Daniel also previously worked at the International Finance Corporation (IFC), leading work with financial institutions on green finance in Latin America, as well as in environmental asset management companies focused on carbon finance, and as an energy economist at the World Bank. He holds masters’ degrees in Natural Sciences from the University of Oxford, and in Economics from the Johns Hopkins University - SAIS.
Laís Braido
Chief Financial Officer (CFO), Solinftec
Laís joined Solinftec in 2020 as Chief Financial Officer. Prior to that, she participated in the company’s Series B as an investor working at the Private Equity firm Unbox Capital in São Paulo, Brazil. Laís has over 8 years working at Private Equity companies in Brazil of which 3 years in portfolio companies with M&A/FP&A positions. She is graduated in Business Administration at FGV – Fundação Getulio Vargas in São Paulo, Brazil.
Gillian Caldwell
Chief Climate Officer and Deputy Assistant Administrator, USAID
Gillian serves as the Chief Climate Officer and is responsible for directing and overseeing all climate and environment work across the agency. She also serves as Deputy Assistant Administrator, overseeing DDI’s Center for Environment, Energy, and Infrastructure and the Office of Environmental and Social Risk Management.
Ms. Caldwell has worked to protect human rights and the environment throughout her career. Prior to joining USAID, she served as the CEO of Global Witness, which has a focus on tackling climate change and deploys investigations into corruption and natural resource extraction to drive systems change worldwide. From 2007-2010, she launched and led 1Sky, a highly collaborative cross-sector campaign with over 600 allied organizations to pass legislation in the U.S. to address the climate crisis. Gillian also has extensive experience consulting in the areas of strategic planning and organizational development with over 70 non-profits, foundations, and universities.
Ms. Caldwell has a B.A. from Harvard University and a J.D. from Georgetown University, where she was recognized as a Public Interest Law Scholar. She has received a series of awards recognizing her work as a leading global Social Entrepreneur.
Dorothy Maseke
Africa Lead - Nature Finance & TNFD, FSD Africa
Dorothy’s passion is to create a positive impact in people’s lives. She likes to promote collective endeavors that bring people together – locally and globally. A futurist, sustainability and nature enthusiast, certified coach, wife and mother of three, Dorothy aims to make a positive contribution to development in Africa.
Dorothy is currently leading FSD Africa’s Natural Capital, Biodiversity Finance & TNFD agenda. This programme aims to catalyse nature-positive finance across Africa through a variety of ways including supporting African countries to develop 30by30 National Nature Strategies aligned with the Global Biodiversity Framework, undertaking nature-related stress testing for selected African Central Banks, supporting financial institutions across target geographies in implementing TNFD-related activities (including piloting the TNFD framework), among others. Dorothy is also driving the growth of the African Natural Capital Alliance (ANCA), a collaborative forum for mobilizing the financial community’s response to the risk of nature loss in Africa. ANCA, established with the support from the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA) and the United Kingdom’s Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs (DEFRA), brings together leading financial institutions, governmental organizations, intergovernmental partners, and civil society representatives with the aim of integrating nature into financial decision making.
Dorothy has previously been the project lead for the implementation of the UNEP FI’s Principles of Sustainable Insurance (PSI) at ICEA LION Group where she was heading the Risk and Compliance department. She has represented Africa in a number of Taskforces such as the Task Force for Climate-Related Financial Disclosures (TCFD) insurer pilot group and the Partnership for Carbon Accounting Financials (PCAF). Together with the UNEP PSI, she was instrumental in the co-creation and launch of the Nairobi Declaration on Sustainable Insurance - a statement of commitment by African insurance industry leaders to support the achievement of the UN Sustainable Development Goals launched in April 2021.
Aakif Merchant
Associate Director, Convergence Blended Finance
As an Associate Director at Convergence and is responsible for providing strategic advice and capacity building support to a range of clients from public, private to philanthropic organizations such as the Swedish International Development Agency, Ministry of Finance - Govt of Ethiopia and UNDP amongst others. He has worked on blended finance policy and transactions across a range of geographies from Indonesia to Colombia. Prior to joining Convergence, Aakif was a management consultant having worked at LEK Consulting, Dasra & NeXus Consulting Group. Aakif holds an M.B.A. from the University of Toronto and a B.A. in Economics and Political Science from The George Washington University in Washington D.C.
Zhengzheng Qu
Programme Manager, UNEP
Zhengzheng is a Programme Manager in the Nature for Climate branch of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP). Based in Nairobi, she oversees and advises the development and implementation of a portfolio of projects that provide finance, business and policy solutions to nature and climate. Prior to UNEP, Zhengzheng was a Project Preparation Specialist with the Green Climate Fund (GCF), where she operationalized the Project Preparation Facility, managed a growing pipeline of projects and developed new supporting lines that provide tailored project development assistance. She also has experience working for other UN agencies, NGOs and consulting firms on issues related to sustainable finance, green economy, green trade, post-conflict economic development and women empowerment. Zhengzheng holds a master’s degree in Banking and Finance from Monash University in Australia.
Katherine Stodulka
Partner at Systemiq & Chair of the Blended Finance Taskforce
Katherine is a Partner at Systemiq – a system-change advisory and investment firm which houses the Blended Finance Taskforce. Katherine leads the Sustainable Finance platform and is head of the London office.
Katherine leads Systemiq’s work on financing country transitions and has been part of the design and launch of numerous catalytic investment vehicles and platforms for climate – including the SDG Namibia One Fund for green hydrogen; the Global Fund for Coral Reefs – the world’s first largescale adaptation fund; the private equity ReOcean Fund, Indonesia’s $3bn sustainable infrastructure platform and the $8bn Just Energy Transition Partnership for South Africa.
Katherine helped design the Actis Transition Tool and the Practitioner’s Guide to Transition Finance in Africa. She is the lead author of reports including Making Climate Capital Work and Better Finance, Better World.
As Chair of the Blended Finance Taskforce, Katherine leads a global coalition which works to mobilise capital for the transition to a net zero, nature-positive and more inclusive economy by building capacity in emerging markets to develop investable projects, design and scale catalytic financial instruments, structure blended finance solutions and advocate for a more efficient and equitable deployment of climate finance.
Katherine is on the Expert Advisory Group for the Coalition of Finance Ministers for Climate Action and is a Steering Committee Member for the G7’s Impact Taskforce.
Katherine is on the Advisory Board of the “Responsible Consumer Fund” and is a Fellow to Studio 8 FOLD which specialises in sustainable architecture and design. Katherine started her career as a solicitor in Australia and the UK specialising in M&A and project finance for energy and major infrastructure. She graduated with First Class Honours.
Katherine was awarded Environmental Finance’s “Net Zero Champion of the Year” in 2022 and throughout her career has been committed to “getting the young women who write the speaking points onto the panel”.
Working with GCF
This session presented how the private sector can work with GCF, including the different avenues of support. The following topics were discussed: the critical role of Accredited Entities (AEs) and Executing Entities (EEs); the financing instruments GCF uses; the Project-specific Assessment Approach (PSAA), which enables relevant entities to meet GCF accreditation standards and implement one climate project or programme; the importance of country ownership; and investment evaluation.
Kavita Sinha
Director of the Private Sector Facility, GCF
Kavita Sinha is the Director of the Private Sector Facility and provides leadership and management oversight of GCF’s private sector operations. She joined GCF after two years with the European Climate Foundation (ECF) as their programme director for clean energy for Asia and the director of the interim secretariat of the Southeast Asia Energy Transition Partnership. During her time with ECF, she achieved a portfolio growth of 500% and led the successful launch of the Southeast Asia Clean Energy Facility, the first philanthropy-led catalytic blended capital in the region to accelerate private investments in low-carbon energy transition in Southeast Asia. Prior to ECF, she spent 15+ years in senior leadership roles in the corporate world, from start-ups to multinational corporations across multiple sectors (technology, clean energy, sustainable infrastructure among others). She also co-founded and successfully exited start-ups in clean energy and infrastructure services. She also worked for nearly a decade with the U.S. Agency for International Development where she held several program management roles in renewable energy commercialization, power sector reform and restructuring, cross-border energy trade and cooperation, as well as climate policy advisory and negotiations.
She has an MBA from Rutgers Business School and an honors degree in Chemical Engineering and graduate studies in energy systems from one of the leading engineering schools in India. She has also received training in sustainable investing, NDC financing, international relations, and political economy.
Climate investment showcase: Unlocking climate finance flows to African projects
This session commenced with an opening panel of Dr. Mahmoud Mohieldin (UN Climate Change High-Level Champion COP27, GFANZ Africa Chair, Advisory Board and Facilitator of GCF Second Replenishment) and Patrick Dupoux (Head of Boston Consulting Group Africa) on the topic of climate initiatives to finance climate action and the SDGs. At the core of the session stand project pitches of four climate finance opportunities from various sectors & geographies. Presentations provided an overview of development state, climate impact and financing structure of respective projects to facilitate investments from attending investor organisations. Closing item of the session was an investor panel with representatives from various investment vehicles on the success factors of project investability and climate financing in Africa.
Sophie Mbugua
Environmental Journalist
Sophie Mbugua is a media consultant and environmental journalist based in Nairobi, Kenya.
Sophie has specialised in climate and environmental reporting for ten years as an environmental journalist. She founded Africa Climate Conversations in June 2020, a Multimedia platform that produces a bi-monthly 30-minute podcast, a YouTube channel, and a News platform highlighting the climate change narrative from an African perspective.
Over the past decade, her work has been published locally in Kenya as well as regionally and internationally by the BBC Science Radio, Thomson Reuters Foundation, Deutsche Welle (DW), Mail & Guardian, Climate Homes News, the Humanitarian, Mongabay, Atmos, the National Audubon Society, HuffPost, the Nation Media Group, Scidev.Net, News Deeply, the Star, and the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), among others.
Sophie, as a media consultant, assists organisations in bridging climate and environmental communication gaps by facilitating and coordinating their press relations and advising institutions on engaging the local and international media effectively. In addition, she collaborates with institutions to compile and disseminate their institutional knowledge to desired audiences, such as policymakers, the media, donors, and communities. Sophie has consulted for the Africa Climate Resilient Investment Facility (AFRI-RES) programme of the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa, Power Shift Africa, and the Africa Renewable Energy Initiative (AREI), as well as organised and facilitated press events for the African Group of Negotiators Chair at the 22nd and 25th Conference of the Parties.
Timothy Afful-Koomson
Regional Director, GFANZ Africa
Dr. Timothy Afful-Koomson is the Africa Regional Director of the Glasgow Financial Alliance for Net Zero (GFANZ) on secondment from the African Development Bank (AfDB). Prior to the secondment, Timothy was the Chief Climate Finance Officer and the GCF Coordinator at the AfDB where he led the mobilization of over $540 million of GCF resources with AfDB as the Accredited Entity and over $270 million as Executing Entity for climate-related projects in Africa. He also coordinated the screening and integration of climate finance in over 50 AfDB infrastructure projects with total climate financing of over US$ 1.8 billion.
Timothy spent over 15 years in the US financial sector working with companies such as Merrill Lynch and was involved in structuring, executing, and managing sustainable investment transactions particularly in renewable energy, energy efficiency and timberland investments totalling over US$ 5 billion.
Timothy graduated from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, Tufts University, Medford, MA with a PhD and concentration in International Trade and Investment, and International Environment and Resource Policy.
Rita Babihuga-Nsanze
Chief Economist, Africa Finance Corporation (AFC)
Dr. Rita Babihuga-Nsanze is Chief Economist and Head of Research & Strategy at the Africa Finance Corporation (AFC). With over two decades of experience in the financial services industry, international development, and policymaking, she is a distinguished global macroeconomist, sovereign credit expert, and financial markets economist.
Before joining AFC, Dr. Babihuga-Nsanze served as a Director at Barclays Investment Bank in the UK, where she led the Sub Saharan Africa macro research franchise. Her extensive career also includes the role of Vice President at Moody's Investors Service, focusing on sovereign and supranational credit ratings, and positions at the International Monetary Fund and the Bank of England.
Educated at Smith College, USA, Dr. Babihuga-Nsanze holds degrees in Computer Science and Economics. She further earned her MA and PhD in Economics from Clark University, USA.
Sagarika Chatterjee
Department Director, Climate Finance, UN Climate Change High-Level Champions
Sagarika leads on finance for the UN Climate Change High-level Champions, Dr Mahmoud Mohieldin and Her Excellency Ms Razan Al Mubarak. The Champions finance team covers developing country finance, net zero, nature and adaptation and resilience. The Champions’ network includes over 550 financial institutions across banks, insurers and investors.
Prior to the Champions, Sagarika was the UN-supported Principles for Responsible Investment’s Director of Climate Change and Environment, with a membership network of over 5,000 institutional investors worldwide. During her role at PRI, Sagarika undertook a year's secondment back in industry with Aviva Investors (focused on TCFD) and two years' secondment with the COP26 Champion (focused on new finance sector alliances and GFANZ).
Before PRI, Sagarika worked for over ten years at F&C Asset Management, served as an investment committee member for the Joseph Rowntree Foundation and as a trustee at scientific research organisation Earthwatch. Sagarika has also worked in a commercial role sourcing independently certified timber for retailer Kingfisher plc.
Sagarika serves on the advisory board of the Imperial College Business School Centre for Climate Finance and Investment, on the Adaptation Expert Group of the Principles for Responsible Banking, and on the Africa chapter of the Green Investment Principles.
Sagarika has an MSc in Development Studies from University of London, a post-graduate diploma in Management Studies from the University of Oxford and a BA in Social and Political Sciences from the University of Cambridge. Sagarika is bilingual in English and Bengali.
Alain Ebobissé
CEO, Africa 50
Mr. Ebobissé is the Chief Executive Officer of Africa50, the pan-African infrastructure investment platform, with 31 African countries as shareholders, the African Development Bank and two African Central Banks.
Prior to joining Africa50, Mr. Ebobissé served as the Global Head for the World Bank Group’s Global Infrastructure Project Development Fund (“IFC InfraVentures”), where he oversaw a team of experienced infrastructure specialists and led the development of and investment in numerous infrastructure projects in Africa, Asia, Europe, and Latin America. Mr. Ebobissé led the design, structuring, and implementation of IFC InfraVentures from its inception. He also served as Chief Investment Officer in the Global Infrastructure and Natural Resources Department of the International Finance Corporation (IFC), the private-sector arm of the World Bank Group, based in Washington.
Prior to joining the IFC in 1998, Mr. Ebobissé held several positions in the financial services industry in France, including Deputy Head of Project and Structured Finance at Caisse des Depots et Consignations, based in Paris.
He holds a Master of Business Administration degree from the International School for Management Development (IMD) in Lausanne, Switzerland.
Tariye Gbadegesin
CEO, ARM Harith Infrastructure Fund Managers
Tariye Gbadegesin is the Chief Executive Officer of ARM-Harith Infrastructure Investment Ltd, a leading West Africa-focused private equity infrastructure fund, that is a joint venture between Asset & Resource Management Holding Company Limited (ARM), Nigeria’s largest non-bank financial services provider and Harith General Partners, a leading Pan-African infrastructure fund manager based in South Africa. ARM-Harith manages capital from the African pension fund sector and international capital from development finance institutions and family offices. The fund invests in sustainable infrastructure with a strong emphasis on ESG and climate action.
An investment professional with over 20 years’ experience in finance, principal investments, and infrastructure, Tariye has global experience spanning roles at the Africa Finance Corporation, the International Monetary Fund, the Boston Consulting Group, & Price Waterhouse Coopers.
Tariye is the co-chair of the steering committee for the Voluntary Carbon Markets Integrity Initiative (VCMI) launched by the UK Government and the Children’s International Investment Fund (CIFF) and is also a member of the African Advisory Committee of the Glasgow Financial Alliance for Net Zero (GFANZ). Tariye is a member of the Advisory Committee on Infrastructure for the United Nations Principles for Responsible Investing (PRI) and is a board member of the African Infrastructure Developers Association (AFIDA). Tariye is also a Non-Executive Director for Guinness Nigeria PLC, a member of the Diageo Group and a publicly listed company on the Nigerian Stock Exchange.
She holds a bachelor’s degree in Economics from Amherst College, and an MBA from the Harvard Business School.
Euan Low
Climate Sector Lead, Energy, Transport & Industry Sectors, Division of Mitigation & Adaptation, GCF
Dr Euan Low is the Climate Sector Lead for GCF’s Mitigation & Adaptation portfolio in the Energy, Transport & Industry Sectors.
Previously Director of PwC’s Asia Pacific advisory services, with more than twenty years of delivering transformational deals in infrastructure & industry sectors (Power, Alternative Energy, Water, Wastewater, Waste Management, Transport, Chemicals, Metals, Cement, inter-alia). He holds a PhD in Chemical Engineering from University of Cambridge, and is a Chartered Engineer and Chartered Scientist.
Mahmoud Mohieldin
UN Climate Change High Level Champion for COP27, Chair of GFANZ Africa Advisory Board and Facilitator of GCF Second Replenishment
Dr. Mahmoud Mohieldin is the UN Climate Change High-level Champion for COP27, the Chair of GFANZ Africa Network Advisory Board and Facilitator, GCF Second Replenishment.
Dr. Mohieldin is an economist with more than 30y+ experience in international finance and development. He has been the UN Special Envoy on Financing the 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda since February 2020. He was Minister of Investment of Egypt from 2004-2010, and most recently, served as the World Bank Group Senior Vice President for the 2030 Development Agenda, United Nations Relations and Partnerships.
Dr. Mohieldin also served on several Boards of Directors in the Central Bank of Egypt and the corporate sector. He was a member of the Commission on Growth and Development and selected a Young Global Leader of the WEF in 2005. His professional experience extends into the academic arena as a Professor of Economics and Finance at the Faculty of Economics and Political Science, Cairo University and as a Visiting Professor at several renowned Universities in Egypt, Korea, the UAE, the UK and the USA. He is a member of the International Advisory Board of Durham University Business School. He also holds leading positions in national, regional and international research centers and economic associations.
He has authored numerous publications and articles in leading journals in the fields of economics, finance and development.
Judith Odhiambo
Corporate and Regulatory Affairs , Kenya Commercial Bank Group (KCB)
Judith Sidi Odhiambo is the KCB Group Head of Corporate and Regulatory Affairs. In this role she leads the organization in driving strategic external and internal relations with its stakeholders by safeguarding KCB Group’s interests, reputation, relationships and interactions in all the markets in which it operates.
She leads the development and consistent execution of internal and corporate communications to build a productive culture of staff engagement and internal capacity of KCB brand ambassadors. As a communications strategist she advances the reputation, standardizes public brand building and visibility for KCB corporate messaging through thought leadership advocacy. She also strategically supports the commercial objectives of the local market, covering media relations, corporate events and protocol, government and other key stakeholder relations, industry affairs, corporate and sustainability accountability.
She has held similar roles in the transport and water sectors and spearheaded several strategic KCB Group initiatives, including designing, championing and mainstreaming Sustainability Finance, Responsible Business and SDGs to enhance impact reporting, drive progressive sustainable practices and communication in the local, regional and global environment. These initiatives have enabled KCB to be accredited as the first bank in Kenya and private sector for the GCF and enjoy access to green funding from the DFIs to drive business growth.
In the year 2021, Judith was recognized by the UN Global Compact as the Global SDGs local pioneer in Kenya and in 2021 also recognized as the top 10 women to look out for in the Banking sector through the Angaza Awards. She also sits in the Global Steering Committee (GSC) of the UNEP Finance Initiative since the year 2021.
She is a member of Women on Boards Network (WOBN) and the Chairman of the Membership Committee. She graduated from United State International University (USIU) with a Master’s in International Relations; a degree in Communications from Daystar University and a Diploma in Journalism from Kenya Institute of Mass Communications (KIMC).
Soji Omisore
Deputy Director of the Private Sector Facility, GCF
Soji is the Deputy Director of the Private Sector Facility of the Green Climate Fund. He has over two decades experience originating, executing, and structuring investments transactions across emerging markets – Africa, Asia and Latin America. He was previously the Senior Director Project Finance, West Africa for Standard Bank/Stanbic IBTC responsible for infrastructure, energy and mining transactions, where he was responsible for and led the origination, execution and portfolio management of investments, as well as advised governments and private sector organisations on financing, deal structuring and viability. Prior to this, as a Sr. Investment Officer at the IFC, he focused on originating and executing investments within MAS - manufacturing, agribusiness and services sectors - whilst ensuring sustainability and impact.
More recently, he co-founded Opolox, a pan-African investment/advisory company, focused on investment and project development, where he provided context-specific investment and bankability insights with emphasis on SDG-9 which considers the interplay between industry, infrastructure, green energy and innovation. He has an MBA from Chicago Booth Graduate School of Business and a BA Economics, London University.
Mills Schenck
Head BCG East Africa & global topic lead development
Mills Schenck is Head of the Boston Consulting Group's (BCG) East Africa system and leads leads BCG's global development topic.
He is a core member of BCG's Strategy practice area and has deep experience leading strategy and transformation work across a wide range of industries. Mills is also a leader in BCG's Social Impact practice area, and has deep experience supporting international donors, NGOs, and development agencies in East Africa. Leading BCG's East Africa business he has advised multiple Africa-based companies on strategy development and planning, incorporating global best practices and local market dynamics to drive value creation.
Prior to joining BCG, Mills worked in Visa USA's corporate development group and at Harris Williams & Co., a boutique investment bank.
Mills earned his MBA from the Kellogg Graduate School of Business where he was an Austin Scholar, and earned his Bachelors Degree in Political Science from Stanford University.
Daniel Schroth
Director Renewable Energy & Energy Efficiency Department, AfDB
Dr. Daniel-Alexander Schroth is the Director for Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency at the African Development Bank. In this capacity he oversees the Bank’s lending and non-lending activities in the renewable energy, energy efficiency and clean cooking space. He is also responsible for the Sustainable Energy Fund for Africa (SEFA), the Bank’s largest blended finance facility, and the Desert to Power Initiative.
He was previously the coordinator of the Sustainable Energy for All (SEforALL) Africa Hub hosted by the AfDB in partnership with the AU, NEPAD and UNDP. Daniel also coordinated the Africa Climate Technology and Finance Center project, the Green Mini-Grid Market Development Program and the Bank’s involvement in the EU-Africa Infrastructure Trust Fund.
Daniel has extensive experience in energy policy and renewable energy. Prior to joining the AfDB, he worked for several years for the European Commission in both headquarters and the field, for the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) and in the private sector. Daniel serves in several steering and oversight committees.
Daniel holds a Ph.D. and Masters in International Relations with a focus on international energy policy from the University of Cambridge, and business degrees from Reims Management School and the European School of Business (ESB) Reutlingen.
Day 2
5 Sep 2023
Greening local financial institutions
This session firstly explored successful GCF projects that transform financial systems for climate, it was followed by a roundtable panel discussion to address the opportunities and challenges of advancing green finance in local financial systems of developing countries. The session examined institutional hurdles and highlight the strategies needed to catalyse the growth of green finance in local currencies. Participants also delved into effective risk management strategies concerning climate-related impacts to protect financial stability.
Georges Ernest Sander
Climate Investment Specialist, GCF
Georges is a Climate Investment Specialist with the GCF’s Private Sector Facility. In this role he focuses on the origination of projects in agriculture, food systems and human resilience. Georges’ previous experience encompasses both impact investing and conventional banking.
He was overseeing financial due diligence and loan structuring for circular economy projects across the globe at the Alliance to End Plastic Waste (AEPW). He also contributed to AEPW's flagship programmes by crafting investment and impact narratives and played a key role in refining the organization's concessional lending practices. From 2016 to 2021, Georges held positions at Infra Capital Myanmar on behalf of PIDG, leading a diverse team in executing renewable energy and agriculture projects in Myanmar. By February 2021, his team had completed two exits, secured a loan from ADB, and was undergoing due diligence with a large multi-national utility.
Georges started his career in banking. As a Corporate Banker he focused on SME lending, commercial real estate and project finance. In Private Banking, he advised clients on their portfolios and managed the bank’s first own private equity fund of funds.
He is a CFA Charterholder, earned a Masters Degree in Business Engineering from Solvay Business School and received an MBA from Singapore Management University.
Syed Jafar Raza Rizvi
Group Head Investment, International and Transaction Banking, JS Bank Limited
Syed Jafar Raza Rizvi is a finance professional, He is currently serving as SEVP/Group Head heading Investment, International and Transaction Banking Group at JS Bank. He has over 2 decades of experience in the areas of Trade Finance, Corporate Relationship Management, Investment and Transaction Banking.
He is currently on the board of publicly listed Co, JS Global Investment and serving as a board in six other companies ranging from industrial manufacturing financial services.
He holds a master’s degree in Commerce and Business Administration from University of Karachi and Institute of Business Administration, respectively. He held various senior management roles with Bank Al-Habib and Askari Bank Limited where he also served as nominee director of the latter for its brokerage subsidiary.
Harold K. Mogale
Climate Finance Specialist, Development Bank of Southern Africa
Harold is a Climate Finance Specialist in the Climate and Environment Finance Unit of the DBSA. His role is to implement the Climate Finance Facility, an innovative blended finance facility co-funded on a 50:50 basis between the DBSA and GCF with a core objective of catalysing private sector investment into climate mitigation and climate adaptation projects in the Common Monetary Area compromising South Africa, Eswatini, Lesotho and Namibia. Harold additionally provides critical input with regard to the DBSA accessing various climate financing mechanisms including the conceptualization, the development of proposals and the implementation of approved climate financing programmes which are responsive to the priorities of the DBSA’s core sectors. Harold has over 15 years’ experience within the financial sector, ranging from investment management, financial and corporate advisory and development finance. Harold is a CFA Charterholder and holds an MBA from the University of Pretoria’s Gordon Institute of Business Science.
Cynthia Mbaru
Director, Corporate Finance, Dyer & Blair Investment Bank
Cynthia Mbaru is a Director in the Corporate Finance division of Dyer & Blair Investment Bank Limited. She has significant experience raising equity and debt capital for corporates and financial institutions with Dyer & Blair acting as the Transaction Advisor, Arranger, Sponsoring Broker and Placing Agent. She sits on the Board of Dyer & Blair Investment Bank, Sanlam Investments East Africa Limited and Kenya Association of Stockbrokers and Investment Banks.
Ms Mbaru has a Bachelor of Science in Mathematics and Economics from Warwick University, Master of Science in Economics and Finance from Warwick University and Master of Science in African Studies from Oxford University. She is also a Rhodes Scholar.
Mercyline Njoroge
Senior Investment Officer, PROPARCO Regional Office for East Africa
Mercyline Njoroge is a Senior Investment Officer with PROPARCO’s Regional Office in Nairobi. She has over 12 years’ experience as a finance professional, the last 7 years in development finance within PROPARCO. She currently originates and coordinates transactions in the financial services sector - including banks, microfinance and non-bank financial institutions. She is passionate about developing partnerships with financial institutions (via either funding mechanisms or credit guarantee mechanisms) towards key developmental themes such as promoting finance for climate-oriented projects in the private sector, access to finance for SMEs and women entrepreneurs. She has led several transactions with leading institutions across the East Africa region. Previously she was a Manager within PricewaterhouseCoopers Corporate Finance Advisory in Nairobi.
Mercyline holds an MBA from Warwick Business School and Bachelor of Commerce from Strathmore University.
Mary Njuguna
Principal Specialist, Capital Markets, Financial Sector Deepening Africa (FSDA)
Mary has over 15 years’ experience in capital markets development and regulation. She is passionate about supporting transformative capital market initiatives that promote economic development in Africa.
As Principal Specialist, Capital Markets at FSD Africa, Mary currently manages several projects focused on policy and regulatory reform, capital market transaction support and product development covering several African countries. Her previous experience is in capital markets regulation (having worked as the Manager, Corporate Approvals at the Capital Markets Authority, Kenya) and commercial legal practice.
Mary holds an MSc in Finance and Financial Law from SOAS, University of London and a Bachelors’ degree in law from the University of Manchester, UK. She is an Advocate of the High Court of Kenya and member of the Institute of Certified Secretaries.
Olukayode Pitan
Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, Bank of Industry Ltd
Mr Olukayode Pitan is the Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of Bank of Industry Ltd, Nigeria’s oldest and largest development finance institution. He draws from significant experience gained across various financial services sectors including banking and capital markets, during his over 30-year career.
Pitan is charting the course to achieve sustainable impact by providing affordable long-term financing and counter-cyclical loans diversified across various sectors of the Nigerian economy.
He has pioneered several innovative transactions in the Nigerian capital market and the international financial market towards Nigeria’s economic development. To date, he has led the Bank of Industry to successfully raise about $5 billion from the international market through syndications and the bond market over the last four years.
Prior to his current role, he served as MD/CEO of First lnterstate Bank PLC; Executive Director at Unity Bank PLC; Executive Director at FSB lnternational Bank PLC; and the pioneer MD/CEO of ENSEC - a specialised banking unit of FSB lnternational Bank PLC that focused on the energy Sector in Nigeria.
Mr. Pitan is the Chairman of the Association of Nigerian Development Finance Institutions (ANDFI); and the director representing West Africa on the Board of the Association of African Development Finance Institutions.
Pitan is actively involved in youth empowerment, and sits on various boards, providing advisory and governance support.
Alternative source of fundraising & blended finance
The session focused on fundraising within blended finance structures to draw private sector capital for climate investments. Given the current funding gap, particularly in climate adaptation, there is demand for custom financing approaches. The panel will explore strategies to engage diverse investors in fundraising, spotlighting the Infrastructure Climate Resilient Fund as a case study. The goal is to accelerate fundraising for climate-focused projects by leveraging innovative blended finance methods.
Ayaka Fujiwara
Climate Investment Specialist, Private Sector Facility, GCF
Ayaka Fujiwara serves as a Climate Investment Specialist within the Private Sector Facility of the Green Climate Fund (GCF). Since 2018, she has taken on the role of originating and appraising private sector climate projects and programs, demonstrating her commitment to driving sustainable solutions.
Her career of 13 years spans across the domains of corporate, fixed income, and equity investments, positioning her as a seasoned expert in her field. Prior to her current role, Ayaka held the esteemed position of Associate Director at Daiwa Capital Markets. During her tenure, she navigated the landscape of fixed income investment strategy and orchestrated transactions with institutional investors from Europe, Asia and North America. Furthermore, Ayaka's diverse skill set led her to contribute as a corporate governance researcher at an M&A consulting firm in Myanmar.
Academically, Ayaka boasts a bachelor's degree in law from Keio University in Japan and holds an M.Sc. in Finance from London Business School in the UK. She is also pursuing a Ph.D. in Green Finance at Inha University in the Republic of Korea.
Publication: Seeding Private Sector Interest in Biodiversity, Ivey Business School
Sarfaraz Anis Abid
Vice President, Social Investment Managers & Advisors (SIMA)
Sarfaraz Anis Abid is Vice President at Social Investment Managers & Advisors (SIMA), an impact investor focusing on Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia. Sarfaraz has over 12 years of experience, with execution and portfolio management experience of several energy access-focused projects in Sub-Saharan Africa, investing structured and private equity in growth companies across several sectors in Pakistan and realizing investment exits for the fund. Prior to SIMA, he worked at KHK & Partners, a DIFC-based Asset Manager that invests in the late-stage (pre-IPO) technology ventures with proven models. Previously, he has worked with the Structured Finance team at JS Bank Limited and JS Private Equity. Sarfaraz holds a Masters in Business Finance from Queen Mary, University of London.
Elie Aloko
Vice President, Head of Business Development and Fundraising, AFC
Elie Aloko is Vice President and Head of Business Development at AFC Capital Partners (ACP), the asset management arm of Africa Finance Corporation (AFC). He has significant investment experience in Africa and Emerging Markets with a strong deal track record worth over US$2 billion. Most recently, He was the Director of Environmental and Climate Finance at the West African Development Bank (BOAD). Prior to BOAD, Elie was a Climate Investment Specialist at the Green Climate Fund (GCF) where he executed private sector investments in low carbon and climate resilient infrastructure. Previously, Elie was successively an Investment Professional in the Emerging Markets team at Robeco Institutional Asset Management and the Netherlands Development Bank (FMO). He started his career as an Analyst at BlackRock Investment Management (UK). Elie holds a Master of Science in Money, Banking, and Finance from the University of St Andrews in Scotland and a Bachelor of Business Administration with First Class Honors from Valley View University in Ghana
Anjali Bansal
Founding Partner, Avaana Sustainability Fund
Anjali Bansal is the Founding Partner of Avaana Climate and Sustainability Fund - investing in technology and innovation-led start-ups catalysing climate solutions and sustainability. Previously, Anjali was the Non-Executive Chairperson of Dena Bank, appointed by the Government of India to steer the stressed bank’s resolution and merger with Bank of Baroda. Prior to that, Anjali was a Global Partner and Managing Director with TPG Growth PE, responsible for India, SE Asia, Africa and Middle East and strategy consultant with McKinsey in New York. Anjali has invested in various successful start-ups including Nykaa, Delhivery, Urban Company, Darwinbox, Farmart, and climate tech leaders like Turno, Terra.do and Eeki. She serves as an independent director on leading boards including Tata Power, Nestle, and Piramal Enterprises. She has been appointed on the Board of ONDC (Open Network for Digital Commerce) and GIFT City, and chairs the Climate Council within IVCA. She is a Member of the Evolution Review Committee for Niti Aayog, India’s premier policy think tank chaired by the Hon’ble Prime Minister.
Anjali has previously chaired the India board of Women's World Banking, and served on the boards of GSK Pharma, Siemens, and Bata. She has co-founded and chaired the FICCI program for Women on Corporate Boards.
Anjali is a member of the YPO and a charter member of TiE. She has been listed as one of the “Most Powerful Women” by India’s leading publications, Business Today, Fortune India and Forbes India. She has a bachelors in Computer Engineering from Gujarat University and a Masters from Columbia University.
Amar Inamdar
Managing Director of the KawiSafi Fund, Acumen Fund
Amar works with businesses and entrepreneurs to imagine, create and grow markets that address our biggest social and environmental challenges. He brings over 30 years experience of working to promote sustainable economic opportunity and inclusion in emerging economies. He is a fund manager and board member with experience of investing and advising portfolios of fast-growing and high-impact companies. He leads KawiSafi Ventures – a private investment fund created by Acumen and anchored by the Green Climate Fund – that is focused on accelerating investment in technologies that address climate change. Prior to leading KawiSafi, he managed a global investment portfolio of high-risk, high-impact projects for 10 years at the International Finance Corporation and the World Bank before joining the new business team at Royal Dutch Shell to drive growth in domestic African energy markets. He graduated from the University of Oxford and has a PhD from the University of Cambridge. A TED speaker with over 1.6M views, his work on sustainable investing has been featured in Forbes, Bloomberg, and FastCompany.
Mahesh Punia
Head of Advisory & Geo-Economist, Andersen
A practicing Geo-Economist, with over three decades of diverse global experience as a tacticalstrategy expert, with a strong track record of transforming leading organizations, facilitating expansions, raising project capital, driving foreign direct investments, and advising governments
on socio-economic transformations.
Mahesh is the Regional Head of Advisory Services based in Nairobi, Kenya. He leads Andersen’s efforts of driving sustainable socio-economic transformation in the region through three integrated streams:
- Geo-Economics – focused on driving inbound FDI
- Transactions & Deals Advisory – capital raising and PE Ops for Funds
- Strategic & Holistic Turnaround / Restructuring – both public & private sector (Aligning businesses to future trends and reengineering all operational areas)
Recent past experiences: He has had a well-accomplished corporate career with respected global brands like KPMG, PwC, DHL, QAI, and Expeditors. Having built businesses across Africa, Asia, Europe, the USA, and the Middle East, with P&Ls ranging from new business units to a few hundred million dollars. Prior to Andersen, he ran a successful Geo-Economics and FDI Advisory firm ‘LiveBean’, with offices in India, Kenya & Indonesia. At KPMG he served as the Managing Partner for the overall Management Consulting practice for Eastern Africa and held multiple executives and industry vertical leadership. At PwC he was leading the Strategy & Operations practice across Central, East and West Africa. A strong proponent of the shift from geo-politics to geo-economics, over the last decade majority of his work has been focused on the core ideology of driving sustainable economic & social transformation through synergizing cross-border private sector, governments, financial institutions, and philanthropic ecosystems. He served as the Special Economic Advisor to county / state governments, promoting ‘Special Economic Corridor’ initiatives with participating states in India, the USA, Kenya, and UAE. He was instrumental in architecting a bill passed both in the House & Senate in the State of Indiana, USA establishing a special geo-economic corridor with Kenya.
Mahesh also serves on the advisory board of ‘Pontaq VC’ – a UK based Innovation Fund, wherein he is mentoring CleanTech and DeepTech firms at the series A stage. Married and having one daughter, he is a squash enthusiast and an open waters scuba diver.
Capital for innovation: seeding and supporting climate technologies and business models
This session firstly focused on projects that use early-stage capital to drive climate finance in developing countries, it was followed by an engaging panel discussion on how accelerators and incubators can seed climate technologies and innovative business models.
Kavita Sinha
Director of the Private Sector Facility, GCF
Kavita Sinha is the Director of the Private Sector Facility and provides leadership and management oversight of GCF’s private sector operations. She joined GCF after two years with the European Climate Foundation (ECF) as their programme director for clean energy for Asia and the director of the interim secretariat of the Southeast Asia Energy Transition Partnership. During her time with ECF, she achieved a portfolio growth of 500% and led the successful launch of the Southeast Asia Clean Energy Facility, the first philanthropy-led catalytic blended capital in the region to accelerate private investments in low-carbon energy transition in Southeast Asia. Prior to ECF, she spent 15+ years in senior leadership roles in the corporate world, from start-ups to multinational corporations across multiple sectors (technology, clean energy, sustainable infrastructure among others). She also co-founded and successfully exited start-ups in clean energy and infrastructure services. She also worked for nearly a decade with the U.S. Agency for International Development where she held several program management roles in renewable energy commercialization, power sector reform and restructuring, cross-border energy trade and cooperation, as well as climate policy advisory and negotiations.
She has an MBA from Rutgers Business School and an honors degree in Chemical Engineering and graduate studies in energy systems from one of the leading engineering schools in India. She has also received training in sustainable investing, NDC financing, international relations, and political economy.
Alloysius Attah
CEO & Co-founder, Farmerline Group
Alloysius launched Farmerline to create lasting wealth for farmers and local agribusinesses everywhere. He currently leads the company’s vision and strategic partnerships with over 3,000 partners across 48 countries. The company has served and digitized 1.7 million farmers in the last decade and TIME Magazine recognized its Mergdata platform as one of the 100 Best Inventions of 2019.
Meanwhile, Alloysius has been lauded by organizations and world leaders such as former IMF boss Christine Lagarde, World Economic Forum’s Tech Pioneer, CBNC Africa's Young Business Leader Award, and Bloomberg New Economy Catalyst for his work.
Harry Boyd-Carpenter
Managing Director, Climate Strategy and Delivery, European Bank for Reconstruction and Development
Harry Boyd-Carpenter is the Managing Director, Climate Strategy and Delivery at the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development. He took up this role in April 2021.
Mr Boyd-Carpenter is responsible for coordinating the EBRD’s work across the green economy and climate agendas, with the overall goal of meeting the Bank’s commitment to achieve a green finance ratio of at least 50 per cent of annual investment by 2025. He leads a group that drives climate and green financing, policy and analysis across all economic sectors and financing instruments, as well as representing the EBRD in climate and sustainable finance forums.
Mr Boyd-Carpenter is a British national and joined the EBRD in 2005 in the Office of the General Counsel. In 2008 he transferred to the then Power and Energy Utilities team in Banking, before becoming Director, Head of Energy EMEA in 2017 where he led the Bank’s investment activities in the energy sector in Europe, the Middle East and North Africa.
Before joining the EBRD Mr Boyd-Carpenter was an Associate in the project finance team at Allen and Overy LLP and also worked for the European Agency for Reconstruction in Pristina. He is a graduate of the University of Oxford.
David Damberger
Managing Director - Mobility, M-KOPA
Bio: David Damberger is the Managing Director of M-KOPA Mobility, where he is leading the electrical vehicle arm of M-KOPA. David has been working with M-KOPA for over 11-yrs and was formerly the Chief Strategy and Data Officer and also the MD of their Nigeria, Uganda, and Tanzania markets. Previously David worked as a corporate strategy consultant in telecom, was a Senior Director at Engineers Without Borders Canada, a co-founder of an online ethical shopping company and started the world’s first Fairly-traded Ice Hockey Puck company. David holds a B.Sc. in Engineering and Entrepreneurship from the University of Calgary and an MBA from the University of Oxford (Skoll Scholar). He also has a popular TED talk on “Admitting Failure".
Rogelio De los Santos
Founding Managing Partner, Dalus Capital
Rogelio De los Santos is a founder-&-funder of venture-stage disruptive companies who is also recognized for building high-impact initiatives in Latam.
De los Santos is the founding managing partner of Dalus Capital where he serves as director in multiple companies as he has deployed more than $150M into 45+ deals since 2010.
Close to educational ecosystems, Mr De los Santos is a Trustee of Tec de Monterrey and chairs its Entrepreneurship Institute; also participates as a member of the International Board of Advisors at the University of Texas at Austin.
In the last decade, Mr De los Santos has sponsored multiple ecosystem development initiatives like incMTY entrepreneurship festival (incmty.com), the ScaleUp Nation platform, and Catal1.5T initiative (catalist-initiative.eco). De los Santos earned his undergraduate degree in Mechanical Engineering from Tec de Monterrey, a master’s degree in business leadership from Duxx, and received an honorary degree from Babson College.
Raphaël Dumont
Director of Acceleration & Seed Funding, I&P
Raphaël leads I&P's seed funding and acceleration activities as coordinator of 3 seed funding programmes: I&P Acceleration Technology, I&P Digital Energy and I&P Acceleration in the Sahel, which have funded more than 100 companies in Sub-Saharan Africa since 2020, including 25+ companies in the agri-food sector. Raphaël is also responsible for the development of new acceleration programmes, including the CATAL1.5°T Initiative funded by the Green Climate Funds which will support innovative start-ups in the climate sector in West Africa and Latin America.
Raphaël joined the I&P investment team in 2016. Based in Douala (Cameroon) between 2016 and 2019, he first followed I&P's portfolio companies in Central Africa as Investment Manager for the IPAE 1 and IPAE 2 funds (fund’s strategy: generalist, minority shareholder, average ticket of €1m). After Cameroon, he joined the IPDEV 2 (fund of funds) team in France at the end of 2019 as Investment Manager and then Investment Director, in charge of supporting the Comoé Capital fund in Côte d'Ivoire and launching new impact funds in Cameroon, DRC and Tunisia.
Milton Lore
Head of Partnerships, Open Capital
For over 25 years, Milton has worked with private investors, development agencies and philanthropic organizations to champion innovative enterprise development and risk capital investing in Africa and internationally across multiple sectors. He joined Open Capital - a pan-African management consulting firm - in May 2021 as Head of Partnerships based in Nairobi.
In the recent past, Milton has fulfilled advisory, corporate governance and investment mandates in agribusiness and renewable energy for a range of impact fund managers and investors - including Acumen, the Mastercard Foundation, Sahel Capital, Small Foundation and the US Agency for International Development. He is a member of the Millennium Challenge Corporation Advisory Council and previously served as Managing Director for the Africa Venture Capital Association (AVCA).
Jacqueline Musiitwa
Senior Climate Finance Advisor, USAID
Jacqueline Musiitwa is a Senior Climate Finance Advisor at USAID leading the Agency’s goal of mobilizing $150 billion for climate finance by 2030. She is an international attorney specialized in business, technology, and sustainability. She previously served in various leadership capacities at Rio Tinto, the Trade and Development Bank, and the World Trade Organization, and was an attorney running a legal consultancy. Musiitwa is a member of the United Nations Committee for Development Policy and sat on a number of boards including Bank of Zambia, Persistent Energy, IDEO.org and the International Rescue Committee UK.
Musiitwa is a nonresident fellow with the Atlantic Council’s Africa Center and teaches a class at Georgetown University titled “Re-imagining Tech in Africa”. She speaks and writes regularly on African business and geopolitical issues. She has published articles in the Financial Times, Project Syndicate, National Public Radio.
She is a term member of the Council on Foreign Relations and was a Young Global Leader of the World Economic Forum, an Archbishop Tutu fellow of the Africa Leadership Institute, an Aspen new voices fellow of the Aspen Institute, a cybersecurity fellow of the New American Foundation, and a Mo Ibrahim Foundation leadership fellow.
She earned a Juris Doctor from the University of Melbourne and a Bachelor of Arts in political science from Davidson College.
Measuring adaptation impacts: GCF framework and leading private sector practices
This session focused on how to measure adaptation impacts for GCF private sector projects by showcasing the GCF adaptation impact measurement framework along with related successful approaches and challenges.
Nestan Devidze
Climate Investment Officer, GCF
Nestan Devidze specializes in Nature and Ecosystems investments at the Green Climate Fund's Private Sector Facility. In her previous roles at global impact asset management firms like BlueOrchard and Kiva, Nestan has focused on investing in microfinance and SME sectors. Before joining GCF, she oversaw Kiva's financial institution's portfolio across South and Southeast Asia. Holding a Bachelor's degree in Business Administration, Nestan is presently pursuing a master's in Sustainability at Harvard University.
Lilian Macharia
Director of Portfolio Management, GCF
Lilian Macharia is the Director of Portfolio Management at the Green Climate Fund.She is a Kenyan national with over 24 years of experience in designing, structuring, and managing complex public and private financial sector investments in multiple sectors across Africa. Her experience also includes microfinance and civil society. Since joining the GCF, Lilian has led and contributed to the setting up of portfolio monitoring and management systems and oversight on implementation of GCF's portfolio. Prior to joining the Green Climate Fund, Lilian served for over 11 years with the African Development Bank (AfDB) and represented the AfDB in various investee company boards. Lilian holds a Bachelor of Education and Master of Business Administration from Kenyatta University, Nairobi, Kenya.
Ellie Turner
Deputy Agriculture Lead, 60 Decibels
Ellie is 60 Decibels' Deputy Agriculture Lead, based in the US, where she supports analysis and insights to support clients in the agriculture sector and leads the company's work on climate resilience. Ellie has over 15 years of experience working on agriculture development programs and impact evaluations, mainly in East Africa. She holds her BA in economics from Cornell University and her MSc in Agriculture, Food, and Resource Economics from Michigan State University.
Navigating clean energy transition – A holistic approach
As the appetite for renewable energy in developing countries rises, the need to address and breakdown the barriers to investment has never been greater. This session explored how a just energy transition can be accelerated by discussing:
- Increased access to cheaper renewable energy resources through investments in sustainable technologies such as mobility and productivity;
- The regulatory, technical, and legal constraints that impede adequate flows of investment; and
- The implementation of a holistic perspective to investment across small, decentralised, and large projects, at scale.
Amar Inamdar
Managing Director of the KawiSafi Fund, Acumen Fund
Amar works with businesses and entrepreneurs to imagine, create and grow markets that address our biggest social and environmental challenges. He brings over 30 years experience of working to promote sustainable economic opportunity and inclusion in emerging economies. He is a fund manager and board member with experience of investing and advising portfolios of fast-growing and high-impact companies. He leads KawiSafi Ventures – a private investment fund created by Acumen and anchored by the Green Climate Fund – that is focused on accelerating investment in technologies that address climate change. Prior to leading KawiSafi, he managed a global investment portfolio of high-risk, high-impact projects for 10 years at the International Finance Corporation and the World Bank before joining the new business team at Royal Dutch Shell to drive growth in domestic African energy markets. He graduated from the University of Oxford and has a PhD from the University of Cambridge. A TED speaker with over 1.6M views, his work on sustainable investing has been featured in Forbes, Bloomberg, and FastCompany.
Alexander Hogeveen Rutter
Private Sector Specialist, International Solar Alliance
Alexander Hogeveen Rutter is the Private Sector Specialist for the International Solar Alliance and leads ISA’s Private Sector Engagement, including work on Building Resilient Solar Supply Chains and engaging private developers and financiers. He previously worked with IFC, leading their work in Asia-Pacific on energy storage and green hydrogen.
He holds a degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of Waterloo and an MBA from the Indian School of Business. He is the proud father of three children and hopes to help build a sustainable future for them.
Lyndsay Holley Handler
Co-Founder and Managing Partner, Delta40 Venture Studio
Lyndsay Holley Handler has over 19 years of experience building, leading, and investing in high-impact businesses in Africa. Currently, Lyndsay is a Co-Founder & Managing Partner of the new Delta40 Venture Studio, whose mission is to increase incomes and tackle climate change in Africa by investing in energy, agriculture & mobility ventures led by diverse founders. Lyndsay is also a Partner at Delta40's sister funds Factor[e] Ventures & Equator, and is a Board Director for SunFi, Gridless, Easy Solar, and Ampersand.
Before this, Lyndsay was CEO of Fenix International, a clean energy and fintech company that delivered life changing products to 5 million low-income customers and businesses in 9 countries across Africa with a team of 1,000 employees. In 2018, ENGIE, the world’s largest independent electricity producer, acquired Fenix and Lyndsay worked with ENGIE to further scale Fenix.
Lyndsay has a BA from Stanford University and lives in Kenya with her husband and two children.
Karin Isaksson
Managing Director, Nordic Development Fund
Ms Isaksson has 30+ years’ experience from international finance and expansion, mainly in emerging markets and the private sector. Before joining NDF in August 2019, she served for three years as Executive Director of the African Development Bank, representing the constituency of Denmark, Finland, India, Norway, and Sweden. She has also held the position of Vice President at Business Sweden, the Swedish trade and investment promotion agency, and Director positions at Swedfund, the Swedish bilateral DFI, as well as positions in Swedish export credit agencies. In her first three years as MD, NDF has implemented a new strategy and closed a capital increase of EUR 350 million from its five member states. Supported by some organisational fine-tuning, including new recruitments, the strengthened capital base will enable NDF to expand the annual work program by approximately 50%, thereby delivering on NDF’s purpose.
Brian Lukera Wambani
Investment Director and Director, East Africa, Camco
Brian Lukera Wambani is an Investment Director and East Africa Director at Camco. Prior to joining Camco, Brian worked for Stanbic Bank as Vice President, Corporate Financing Solutions, East Africa, where he assumed an origination and lead transactor role providing debt solutions across Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania. Before that, he worked at Rabobank as its Relationship Manager (Business Development), Trade and Commodity Finance Africa and with Standard Bank Group, starting out as a Project Finance Analyst for Stanbic Bank in East Africa and ending up an Associate in Structured Trade and Commodity Finance at Standard Bank, London.
Brian holds a Bachelor of Engineering (B.Eng) Degree in Chemical Engineering from Montreal’s McGill University and a Master of Science (MSc) degree in Finance and International Banking from Glasgow’s University of Strathclyde, graduating with a distinction.
Rajeev Mahajan
Manager (Head) – Climate Resilient Infrastructure, Private Sector Facility, GCF
Rajeev is in charge of GCF’s Private Sector Facility’s climate infrastructure financing operations. He has 23-plus years of experience in the Indian project finance market, focusing primarily on infrastructure with premier Indian institutions – Power Finance Corporation, ICICI Bank and IDFC Limited.
He has hands-on expertise in managing lifecycle credit risk of individual project finance assets and is experienced in track record of restructuring, refinancing and selldowns of stressed infrastructure assets.
Rajeev was a part of the startup team of the GCF Private Sector team and had been responsible for setting up GCF’s project finance and infrastructure franchise, building the team and has led the Fund’s pioneering innovative and market-transforming climate infrastructure transactions in Africa, Latin America and Asia since 2015, further diversifying into pooled equity & debt fund, technology and joint-venture transactions. Under his stewardship, the team has recently achieved a milestone of approvals of nearly USD 2.4 billion, accounting for over 40% of GCF’s private sector portfolio.
He is an electrical engineer and MBA finance by qualification and has pursued a senior executive leadership programme from the Harvard Business School.
Anita Marangoly George
Co-Founder, Edhina Capital
Anita Marangoly George is the co-founder of Edhina Capital a growth equity fund focused on Sustainability (https://edhina.com). Anita has been an investor backing early trends with winning partners and established a distinguished track record in sustainable investments across the globe. She began her career as a Young Professional at the World Bank Group based in Washington DC and worked on infrastructure in Latin America, Eastern and Central Europe, Middle East and Africa and South and Southeast Asia. She worked with Siemens AG to set up Siemens Financial Services in India and supported projects in Telecom and Power sectors. Anita played key leadership roles at the International Finance Corporation (IFC) with many firsts in infrastructure, natural resources, municipal finance and creation of IFC’s venture and disruptive technologies group. She has extensive experience in Renewable Energy, transportation, and water from early stage MSMEs to established companies across several geographies. She was Sr. Director for Energy for the World Bank Group and mobilized billions into clean energy and electrification of transportation. At the World Bank Group, Anita played a governance role as Board Member in India’s first Microfinance institution and a waste and water solutions MSME company under the Mahindra and Mahindra group.
In 2016, Anita established Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec (CDPQ’s) office in India and became Executive Vice President and Head of Emerging Markets at CDPQ in 2017. Her final post at CDPQ was Executive Vice President and Deputy Head of CDPQ Global covering all geographies outside of Canada. While at CDPQ, Anita supported investments in financial services in listed and unlisted companies in Asia and Latin America. She was instrumental in expanding CDPQ’s investments in Emerging Markets from 5% of AUM in 2016 to 15% in 2021. Anita assisted in building partnerships and investments in renewable energy, highways, telecom, and tech investment platforms across different asset classes. Anita has made over USD12billion of investments with USD4b in equity and the rest in debt and structured and guarantee products both directly and through funds.
Anita is currently an independent director on the Boards of Tata Sons, First Solar, USA, and Piramal Enterprises Limited.
Anita George is passionately committed to human capital development and economic empowerment of women and girls. She is actively engaged in mentoring women and girls. Anita serves on non-profit boards and advisory councils involved in Livelihood Recovery and Resilience, Empowerment of Women, Technology and Climate Finance, and Sustainable Infrastructure. Accelerating tech enabled solutions to address climate and societal challenges with profitable investments is her life goal.
Introduction to GCF’s project-specific accreditation
In April 2023, GCF launched a three-year pilot of the Project-specific Assessment Approach (PSAA) to accreditation, which offers private sector, public sector or non-profit organizations the opportunity to propose and implement a single climate project or programme with GCF in line with developing countries’ priorities and GCF’s strategic objectives. This session introduced the PSAA requirements and eligibility criteria, explain how the GCF accreditation standards apply to PSAA and provide practical guidance on how to initiate the PSAA process. It comprised of a 20-minute presentation by the Secretariat, and the remainder of the session was devoted to responding to questions from the audience.
Timothy Breitbarth
Investment Operations Manager, GCF
Timothy Breitbarth is GCF’s Investment Operations Manager, leading the team that oversees the planning and internal governance of GCF investments and investment processes and the execution of specialized investment windows and modalities, including the project-specific assessment approach (PSAA) to accreditation. Under the direction of the Deputy Executive Director/Chief Investment Officer (DED/CIO), he ensures the direction for GCF investments, guides interdivisional project teams in line with corporate priorities and standards.
He was previously an Economic and Financial Analyst at GCF, where he provided economic and financial expertise to public sector projects and programs and led a team developing strategic frameworks, policies and guidance on issues such as incremental cost, concessionality and co-financing.
Prior to joining GCF, Timothy was an economist at the Millennium Challenge Corporation, a US government agency that specializes in poverty reduction through economic growth, in Washington, DC. During his eleven years at MCC, he led economic analysis efforts, including growth diagnostics and cost-benefit analysis, for programs in Côte d'Ivoire, Mongolia, Sierra Leone and Tanzania, and monitoring and evaluation efforts for a program in Ghana.
Tim holds a Master of Public Policy degree from the University of Minnesota’s Humphrey School of Public Affairs and a Bachelor of Arts in communication from Concordia University, Saint Paul. He has a professional certificate in econometrics from Georgetown University and is a certified Project Management Professional.
UNFCCC – Synergies between financial mechanism & technology mechanism
The session served as a platform for targeted and technical discussions, highlighting the crucial role of the private sector in the development, transfer, adoption, and diffusion of climate technologies. It emphasised how the private sector can contribute to enhancing linkages and coherence between various climate actions mobilized under the UNFCCC Financial Mechanism and Technology Mechanism, in line with the existing mandates originating from relevant governing bodies, including COP.
Soji Omisore
Deputy Director of the Private Sector Facility, GCF
Soji is the Deputy Director of the Private Sector Facility of the Green Climate Fund. He has over two decades experience originating, executing, and structuring investments transactions across emerging markets – Africa, Asia and Latin America. He was previously the Senior Director Project Finance, West Africa for Standard Bank/Stanbic IBTC responsible for infrastructure, energy and mining transactions, where he was responsible for and led the origination, execution and portfolio management of investments, as well as advised governments and private sector organisations on financing, deal structuring and viability. Prior to this, as a Sr. Investment Officer at the IFC, he focused on originating and executing investments within MAS - manufacturing, agribusiness and services sectors - whilst ensuring sustainability and impact.
More recently, he co-founded Opolox, a pan-African investment/advisory company, focused on investment and project development, where he provided context-specific investment and bankability insights with emphasis on SDG-9 which considers the interplay between industry, infrastructure, green energy and innovation. He has an MBA from Chicago Booth Graduate School of Business and a BA Economics, London University.
Euan Low
Climate Sector Lead, Energy, Transport & Industry Sectors, Division of Mitigation & Adaptation, GCF
Dr Euan Low is the Climate Sector Lead for GCF’s Mitigation & Adaptation portfolio in the Energy, Transport & Industry Sectors.
Previously Director of PwC’s Asia Pacific advisory services, with more than twenty years of delivering transformational deals in infrastructure & industry sectors (Power, Alternative Energy, Water, Wastewater, Waste Management, Transport, Chemicals, Metals, Cement, inter-alia). He holds a PhD in Chemical Engineering from University of Cambridge, and is a Chartered Engineer and Chartered Scientist.
Mahamat Abakar Assouyouti
Senior Climate Change Specialist, Adaptation Fund
Mr. Mahamat, a Chadian national, joined the Adaptation Fund Board Secretariat in September 2019 as a Senior Climate Change Specialist. Mahamat worked for more than 12 years in the field of environment, climate change and sustainable development. He comes from the Green Climate Fund (GCF) as an Operations Coordinator at the Office of the Executive Director where he supported the refinement of the project review cycle as well as the internal reorganization of the Fund. Mahamat also worked for more than 7 years with the Climate Change and Environment Division of the African development Bank and as GEF coordinator for 3 years. Previous positions include Investment Officer with the AfDB Private Sector Department and Project Officer with the French Development Agency (AFD). He holds a Master’s degree in Sustainable Development from Auvergne University (France), a postgraduate from Bradford University (UK) in Investment Appraisal and Project Management and is a fellow of the Adaptation Finance Program of the Frankfurt School of Finance and Management/IDRC.
Rajiv Garg
Director a.i., Climate Technology Centre and Network
Rajiv Garg has 28+ years of professional experience of working with the national governments of developing countries in mainstreaming climate policies and technologies as integral part of national implementation framework. He has worked with the large and small-scale private sector enterprises and have supported countries in initiation of their carbon trading schemes.
Since joining UNEP in 2009, Rajiv has held several responsibilities, focusing on climate change mitigation actions in the Energy and Climate Branch, on network engagement, partnerships and capacity building for Climate Technology Centre and Network (CTCN), and, recently serving as Director (a.i.) for CTCN. He has represented UNEP-CTCN in the UNFCCC and have supported countries on various negotiation streams. He has undertaken programme and project management, managed geographically distributed teams, and have engaged in resource mobilization from bilateral donors, GEF, GCF and Adaptation Funds.
Rajiv is a national of India and was senior government official prior to joining UNEP. He has working experience on multidisciplinary areas including energy access and efficiency, water management, Remote Sensing and GIS, pollution control, waste management, cleaner production and resource efficiency, and Green Productivity. He has a Master’s Degree in Engineering (environment and water resources), Post Graduate Certificate in Industrial pollution prevention and control and is a Certified Energy Auditor and Manager.
Ariesta Ningrum
Manager, Technology Sub-Division, UNFCCC
Ms. Ariesta Ningrum has over twenty years of professional experience in the fields of climate change, environment and energy, of which the last fifteen years with the UNFCCC Climate Change secretariat in Bonn, Germany. Graduated as a chemical engineer, her career includes working with an Indonesian government agency in assessing and applying technologies, a non-profit organization advising the development of renewable energy potential, and a consulting firm developing portfolio of the Kyoto Protocol's Clean Development Mechanism projects. Ariesta currently works as the Manager of Technology subdivision at the UNFCCC, leading a team to support intergovernmental process on climate technology development and transfer and the implementation of climate technology action under Paris Agreement, and spearheading collaboration and partnerships on technology with wider climate stakeholders.
Sara Traerup
Head, Technology – Transitions and System Innovation, UNEP Copenhagen Climate Centre
Sara is a development professional with robust experience in project and team management, as well as research and advisory based work in the fields of climate change, technologies and sustainable development.
Sara Traerup is Head of Technology - Transitions and System Innovation at UNEP - Copenhagen Climate Centre (CCC). Sara has been working with international organisations and governments to promote the development, transfer, and use of environmentally sound technologies since joining the UNEP-CCC in 2005. She manages the GEF-funded Global Technology Needs Assessment project, through which 100 countries have been supported in prioritizing and assessing their climate technology needs. Sara is also leading the Climate Technology Progress Report series, which is a collaboration between the UNEP-CCC and the UNFCCC Technology Mechanism. The report aims to provide annual insights on climate technology progress, focusing on both industrialized and developing countries, providing both a local and global perspective. Sara holds a MSc in agricultural economics and a PhD in climate change adaptation from University of Copenhagen.
GCF readiness programme
This session focused on the Readiness and Preparatory Support Programme. The Readiness Programme is a GCF funding modality, which provides broad and flexible scope for developing countries to pursue activities that aim to achieve:
- strengthening capacity to plan and implement climate investments, including translating national strategies into climate investment plans and strengthening enabling environments for their successful implementation;
- originating impactful, country-owned climate investments in climate mitigation and adaptation measures; and
- drawing results of the Readiness support and sharing knowledge and learning.
Nonhlanhla Zindela
Deputy Director and Head of Country Programming, GCF
Ms. Zindela is the GCF Deputy Director and Head of Country Programming. She joined the GCF from the World Bank (2013-2023) where she served as Resident Representative for Eswatini, and earlier Senior Operations Officer in the Southern Africa Unit. Her previous functions include country programming and portfolio management. Earlier, she served as Assistant Resident Representative for UNFPA (2008-2013) leading development and implementation of country programs. She started her career in Government service (2001-2008) working on restructuring of State-Owned Enterprises and later focusing on good governance and gender equality. She holds a MA (Economics of Development) and Postgraduate Diploma in Poverty and Socio-Economic Security from the Institute of Social Studies, The Hague.
Closing remarks
Kavita Sinha
Director of the Private Sector Facility, GCF
Kavita Sinha is the Director of the Private Sector Facility and provides leadership and management oversight of GCF’s private sector operations. She joined GCF after two years with the European Climate Foundation (ECF) as their programme director for clean energy for Asia and the director of the interim secretariat of the Southeast Asia Energy Transition Partnership. During her time with ECF, she achieved a portfolio growth of 500% and led the successful launch of the Southeast Asia Clean Energy Facility, the first philanthropy-led catalytic blended capital in the region to accelerate private investments in low-carbon energy transition in Southeast Asia. Prior to ECF, she spent 15+ years in senior leadership roles in the corporate world, from start-ups to multinational corporations across multiple sectors (technology, clean energy, sustainable infrastructure among others). She also co-founded and successfully exited start-ups in clean energy and infrastructure services. She also worked for nearly a decade with the U.S. Agency for International Development where she held several program management roles in renewable energy commercialization, power sector reform and restructuring, cross-border energy trade and cooperation, as well as climate policy advisory and negotiations.
She has an MBA from Rutgers Business School and an honors degree in Chemical Engineering and graduate studies in energy systems from one of the leading engineering schools in India. She has also received training in sustainable investing, NDC financing, international relations, and political economy.
Mafalda Duarte
Executive Director, GCF
Mafalda Duarte is the Executive Director of the Green Climate Fund, the world’s largest multilateral climate fund, since August 1, 2023. For decades, Mafalda has challenged business as usual to drive innovative and pioneering development and climate-responsive investments globally. Before her current role, Mafalda was CEO of the Climate Investment Funds, where she steered a multibillion-dollar portfolio of investments pushing the frontiers of clean energy, sustainable land management, and resilience across more than 70 middle and low-income countries. Originally from Portugal, Mafalda is a proud mother to three daughters and a champion of social inclusion and equity. She decided to focus her international development career on climate action after witnessing climate impacts in countries in Africa and learning about climate science.
Joseph Nganga
CEO, Africa Climate Summit