Advisory Group on the Post-2015 Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction & the Global Platform

Member of the Parliament of Bangladesh Mr. Saber Chowdhury is a Member of the Parliament of Bangladesh. He chairs the Bangladesh Parliament’s All Party Parliamentary Group on Climate Change & Environment and is an active and influential Member of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Forests & Environment. He is also a Member of the Commonwealth Parliamentary Union’s Task Force on Climate Change and the Advisory Group of Parliamentarians for Disaster Risk Reduction. Mr. Chowdhury has tabled and promoted legislation on the Prohibition of Custodial Torture and Extra Judicial Killings, rights of slum dwellers, and changes in the Criminal Code to protect rights and civil liberties of citizens. He was also the promoter of Bangladesh Parliament’s Resolution supporting UN Secretary General’s 5 Point Plan on Nuclear Non Proliferation and Disarmament.

Advisor to the Secretary General of the League of Arab States on Climate Change Ms. Fatma El Mallah has a Bachelor's degree in economics from Cairo University 1967 and a Master's degree in economics from the American University in Cairo 1971. She joined the League of Arab States / General Secretariat in 1974. She became Senior Economist in 1990. She has been Director of Environment, Housing and Sustainable Development as well as Director of the Technical Secretariat of the Council of Arab Ministries Responsible for the Environment (CAMRE) for the period 1994-2009. In December 2009 and till her retirement end of 2011, she has been Advisor to the Secretary General of the League of Arab States on Climate Change.

Independent Consultant Dr. Marco Ferrari served as the Chair of the Main Committee of the World Conference on Disaster Reduction in January 2005 which led to the adoption of the Hyogo Framework for Action. Since 1975, he has played an active role in development and cooperation and has worked for the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (Swiss Ministry of Foreign Affairs) as Deputy Head of the Humanitarian Aid Department. He also served as the Permanent Representative of Switzerland to the Senior Civil Emergency Planning Committee of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. He is presently Member of the Board of the Global Risk Forum GRF Davos.

Deputy Advocacy and Campaigns Director, Oxfam International Stephen Hale has worked on global development and environment issues for almost twenty years. During that time Stephen Hale has held a variety of leadership positions, building national and global strategies and alliances to achieve change primarily in the voluntary sector but also in government and business. Prior to joining Oxfam in 2010 he was Director of a charity and think tank in the UK from 2006-10 and a trustee of Christian Aid. He was a political adviser to Ministers in the UK government on national and international issues 2002-2006. Stephen has a lifelong commitment to development issues and to making the greatest possible contribution to tackling poverty and injustice.

Co-Chair of the Inter-American Disaster Mitigation Network of the OAS, Director-General, Office of Disaster Preparedness and Emergency Management As Director General for the Office of Disaster Preparedness and Emergency Management, Mr. Ronald Jackson plays an integral role in shaping Jamaican national policy in the areas of disaster preparedness and emergency response. Mr. Jackson is an urban planner and environmentalist by training. He has also worked with Alcan Jamaica Ltd., the Urban Development Corporation and the Green Island Planning Authority.

Chair of the European Forum for Disaster Risk Reduction, Head of Natural Hazards and Chritical Infrastructure Section, Swedish Civil Contingencies Agency (MSB) Ms. Mette Lindahl Olsson is a Fire Protection Engineer by training and has over twenty years experience in the field of civil protection, prevention and natural disasters. She has been the Head of Planning for the Construction and Environment section (Accident Prevention Department) at the Swedish Rescue Services Agency. Presently, she is the Swedish National Focal Point for the Hyogo Framework for Action and during 2010 she serves as the Chair of the European Forum for Disaster Risk Reduction.

Chairman, MunichRe Foundation Thomas R. Loster, a geographer, was a member of the Geoscience Research Group at Munich Reinsurance Company, Munich, the world’s leading reinsurance company, for 16 years. He was in charge of issues relating to weather perils, climate change and climate policy. His responsibilities also included the statistical analyses of worldwide natural catastrophes and trend analyses that appeared in a number of papers and publications. Mr. Loster was appointed chairman of the Munich Re Foundation in July 2004. The Foundation addresses major global challenges – environmental and climate change, water as a resource and risk factor, population growth and disaster prevention – and is committed to helping people exposed to risk situations. True to its motto “From Knowledge To Action”, the Foundation aims to prepare people to deal with risks and to improve their living conditions as well as to minimise the risks to which they are exposed. The Foundation clarifies the key issues and provides support, not only in developed but also in developing countries.

Head of Extreme Events and Health Protection, Health Protection Agency, United Kingdom Prof. Virginia Murray is a health protection expert working on preparation for and management of extreme events and chemical incidents. Additionally, she is a member of the Science and Technical Committee of UNISDR. She is a Visiting Professor in Health Protection, MRC HPA Centre for Environment and Health, King’s College/Imperial College London UK. In the past she has been an advisor to government and academic bodies on extreme weather events and other natural hazards, chemical incidents, toxicological issues and other public health events.

Director, Land and Real Property Market, Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism of Japan Graduate, Tokyo University; 1982, Master's degree; 2008, PhD in Engineering, Nagoya University. Former: Deputy Director for Disaster Mitigation, Prime Minister's Office; Senior Relief Coordination Officer, UN Department of Humanitarian Affairs, Geneva; Executive Director, Asian Disaster Reduction Center; Director for Disaster Preparedness, Public Relations and International Cooperation, Cabinet Office, Japan. 2005, hosted World Conference on Disaster Reduction where the Hyogo Framework was adopted. Formerly, Director of Water Resources Policy, Director of Regional Planning, Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism (MLIT), Japan. Present, Director of Land and Real Property Market Division MLIT. Member of: Architectural Institute of Japan; City Planning Institute of Japan; Business Continuity Advancement Organization. Academic board member of Institute of Social Safety Science. Chair, World Economic Forum Global Agenda Council on Catastrophic Risk.

Director, IGAD Climate Prediction and Applications Centre, Nairobi, Kenya Prof. Ogallo has made significant contributions to the understanding of the climate of Africa. His work on African rainfall processes is greatly respected. His knowledge of statistical applications and extraction of climate information have earned him a lead role in the field of meteorology. Prof. Ogallo is a member of the ISDR Scientific and Technical Committee, the Kenya Academy of Sciences and an Associate Member of the African Academy of Sciences, a winner of WHO Research Award for Young Scientists and a fellow of TWAS.

Special Rapporteur on Protection of Persons in the Event of Disasters UN International Law Commission, New York

CEO, Titan America Aris Papadopoulos is a member of Titan Group's Executive Committee. He joined Titan in 1992 to develop its US business, later becoming CEO of Titan Atlantic, which in 2000 became Titan America. He serves as Chairman of the Portland Cement Association (PCA), chairs the Concrete Industry’s Joint Sustainability Initiative (JSI) and is on the Board of Directors of the CTL Group. He formerly chaired PCA’s Sustainability and Communications Committees. He also currently serves as a steering committee member of the MIT Concrete Sustainability Hub (CSH).
With over 30 years of industrial experience, he previously held engineering and management positions in the power generation and petroleum industries.

Chair of the African Regional Platform, Commissioner for Rural Economy and Agriculture, African Union Commission Her Excellency Tumusiime Rhoda Peace is the Commissioner for Rural Economy and Agriculture at the African Union. Prior to assuming this portfolio, H.E Tumusiime held various senior positions in the Government of the Republic of Uganda, including Commissioner for Agriculture Planning and Commissioner for Women and Development. She is a holder a Bachelor’s Degree in Agricultural Economics, a Master's Degree in Economics, Planning and Managing Rural Development, and a Diploma in Women and Development.
Throughout her career, she has demonstrated leadership and championed causes such as women empowerment, poverty eradication, agricultural development, strategic planning and partnership building, among others.
Her portfolio as AU Commissioner covers multiple sectors ranging from crop agriculture, livestock, fisheries, forestry, land, water, environment, climate change, climate services, disaster risk reduction to rural development. She has mobilized and closely worked with other Pan African Institutions and Development Partner Agencies in all those areas to secure and provide support to AU Member States. Her efforts have yielded increased responses in the framework of the Comprehensive African Agriculture Programme (CAADP). From one country which had signed a CAADP Compact over a period of four years to 26 within less than 2 years. She spearheaded the coordination of Africa’s preparations for global climate change negotiations and the formulation of a continent-wide climate change strategy in addition to steering Africa’s preparation of the Disaster Risk Reduction Action Plan in line with the global Hyogo Framework.
Her expertise and experience as well as commitment have won her a number of key positions on regional and international organizations, such as membership of the High-level Advisory Panel of UNISDR, Advisory Board of Expo 2015 dedicated to the Theme: Feeding the Planet, Energy For Life, Governing Board of the International Fertiliser Development Centre (IFDC), Chair of the African Fertiliser Financing Mechanism (AFFM), Chair of the ALive Platform for livestock development in Africa, among others.
She continues to serve the African Union and its Member States with vigour and dedication.

Chair Huairou Commission Jan Peterson, Chair of the Huairou Commission (HC), was awarded the UN-HABITAT Scroll of Honor in 2009, for four decades of activism bringing the development priorities of grassroots women to global policy arenas. Under her leadership, HC’s membership has expanded to include grassroots organizations in more than 50 countries across the globe. Over the last 15 years, HC’s Community Resilience Campaign has developed unique strategies, including peer-learning and partnership-building methodologies designed and implemented in collaboration with women at the grassroots level. These strategies have opened up dialogues between local and national governments and organized groups in poor, disaster-prone communities.

At the global level, Jan Peterson has led sustained advocacy to ensure that grassroots women are recognized as experts in development, who have innovative solutions to problems affecting their lives. As a result of these pioneering efforts, global agencies such as UN-Habitat, UN Women and UN ISDR have included women from poor communities in advisory and planning groups. The Community Practitioners Platform for Resilience is one such example, in which Huairou Commission and member network GROOTS International are partnering with UN ISDR to build a global coalition to foster community leadership and scale up community-led resilience initiatives.

In her work in global coalition-building, Ms. Peterson draws on decades of experience in education, policy making, and community organizing. In the Carter White House, she worked as the Associate Director of the Office of Public Liaison, as well as the Office of Policy and Planning in Action (Peace Corps/VISTA). She has most recently taught at the New School Graduate Program in International Affairs and was a member of the Commission on the Legal Empowerment of the Poor, chaired by Madeline Albright. She continues to work as a leading organizer on housing and neighborhood development issues her own neighborhood in Brooklyn, New York.

Group Leader, International Geoscience Australia Dr. Schneider is an internationally recognized expert in natural hazards risk assessment and in the application of risk information to support decision making for disaster risk reduction and climate change adaptation. John heads the newly formed International Group at Geoscience Australia, which is charged with developing and applying geoscience information internationally, in line with Australia’s interests, especially through partnerships with developing countries in the Asia-Pacific region and supported by the Australian Agency for International Development (AusAID). From 2000 to 2011, John established and led the Risk & Impact Analysis Group at Geoscience Australia. Over this period, the group gained an international reputation for the development of tools, databases and methods for assessing the risks of a wide range of natural and man-made hazards in Australia and the Asia-Pacific region. They provided advice to government and private industry on the application of this work for risk management and disaster resilience issues including emergency preparedness, critical infrastructure protection, climate change adaptation, land-use planning, and building regulation.
Dr. Schneider has authored over a hundred peer-reviewed papers and reports on earthquakes, tsunamis and climate change hazards and serves on a number of national and international advisory bodies and committees on these issues. He is currently the Vice Chairman of the Governing Board of the Global Earthquake Model which is developing tools, data and international standards for earthquake risk analysis, and is a member of the OECD’s Global Science Forum Working Group on Global Risk Modelling.  Dr. Schneider has an MS (1981) and PhD (1984) in geophysics from the University of Wisconsin (USA).  From then until moving from the US to Australia in 2000, he gained extensive experience in disaster risk research and applications, first through his research with the Carnegie Institution of Washington on earthquake hazards in Colombia and Peru, with the Electric Power Research Institute on earthquake hazard analysis for the nuclear power industry, and with Aon Corporation on earthquake and hurricane risk for insurance and corporate risk management applications.