Vergel Medina

Vergel Medina is a Senior Safeguards Specialist (Social) and is currently assigned to the Office of Safeguards, Region 2 (OSR2), with country assignments in India, Bangladesh, Nepal, and Sri Lanka. He joined ADB in 2008 and has progressively moved in various departments such as the Regional and Sustainable Department (RSDD), Private Sector Operations (PSOD), Central and West Region (CWRD), the Sustainable Development and Climate Change (SDCC), and the South Asia Region (SARD). 

His work is primarily focused on addressing project-level issues related to Indigenous Peoples, land acquisition and resettlement, and social development, mostly in the energy and transport sectors. He has worked on sector projects in various developing member countries of ADB, such as Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Pakistan, India, Nepal, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, the Philippines, Thailand, the PRC, Lao PDR, among others. 

Prior to joining ADB, Vergel worked with the National Commission on Indigenous Peoples of the Philippines, the Philippine National Oil Company, and Environmental Social for Social Change (ESSC), a Jesuit institution. After university, his work with ESSC involved the piloting of community-based forest management in the ancestral domain of Indigenous Peoples, which was supported by USAID. 

Vergel is a professional forester and completed his university training (1996) in the College of Forestry, University of the Philippines, Los Banos, and completed masteral course (2000) in Forestry for Rural Development at ITC Enschede, The Netherlands.