Lizzie Collins

Lizzie Blaisdell Collins is the Vice President of Engineering for Build Change, a non-profit social enterprise with a critical mission of preventing housing losses caused by disasters. After working early in her career with a private sector earthquake engineering firm in San Francisco, USA, Lizzie joined Build Change’s Haiti team as Lead Structural Engineer, supporting the recovery from the 2010 earthquake.

Using Climate and Disaster Information for Designing Pro-Poor Investments in Housing Recording

The urban poor often lives where they can afford to such as in informal settlements, which are often non-compliant with planning and building regulations and lack community infrastructure for essential services. Factors such as rapid urbanization and limited land space continue to drive informal construction of housing in cities in high-risk areas. Precarious living conditions exacerbate their vulnerability to climate and disaster risks such as extreme heat, droughts, flooding, cyclones, storm surge, and sea-level rise.

Smita Rawoot

Smita Rawoot is the Urban Resilience lead at World Resources Institute (WRI). She leads a team of researchers and urban development professionals who are focused on helping cities manage and adapt to their climate risks while advancing human & environmental health, economic opportunity, and social wellness. She is leading the Urban Water Resilience Initiative in Africa that is helping develop strategic plans for water resilience in six cities.

Kirsten McDonald

Kirsten McDonald is an associate principal with Arup’s International Development team in the Australasian region. Kirsten has 28 years’ experience scoping, planning, designing and delivering programs and projects that maximise impact throughout Asia, Australia, and the Pacific for organisations such as the Asian Development Bank (including the UCCRTF), the World Bank, DFAT, the European Union, the Rockefeller Foundation, Mercy Corps, Plan International, and Habitat for Humanity.

Sanjay Srivastava

Sanjay K. Srivastava is presently Chief of Disaster Risk Reduction at UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP). He was ESCAP Regional Adviser on Disaster Risk Reduction from October 2009 to June 2014; Head of SAAARC Disaster Management Centre – New Delhi from 2007-2008; Deputy Project Director of Disaster Management Support Programme at Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO); and Scientist/Engineer at ISRO HQ Bangalore since 1991.