Mr. Mahesh Pradhan, COBSEA Coordinator a.i., has over 25 years of experience with UNEP. In September 2021, he facilitated the first part of COBSEA’s 25th Intergovernmental Meeting (IGM 25.1) which approved COBSEA’s Biennial Programme of Work for 2021‐2022, the COBSEA Regional Action Plan on Marine Litter (RAP MALI), and other key documents. Earlier, Mahesh was based at UNEP’s International Environmental Technology Centre (IETC) in Osaka, Japan, during 2016-2019, where he focused on holistic waste management at the global, regional and national levels, with linkages to climate change as well as mainstreaming of disaster waste management. Mahesh was based at UNEP’s Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific in Bangkok, Thailand during 1993-2010, where he focused on regional and sub‐regional environmental partnerships, proposal development and implementation, as well as capacity building and support for environmental protection and management across the Asia Pacific region.