Bilal brings extensive experience and expertise to his position as a social sector economist in the Human and Social Development Sector Office of ADB. Focused on labor market reforms and the education sector in Southeast Asia, Bilal is deeply committed to advancing inclusive and sustainable development in the region. Before joining ADB, he served as an economist at the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB), where he gained valuable insights into infrastructure financing and development. Bilal completed his Ph.D. in Economics at the University of Southern California in 2017.

Anju Sharma is the Global Lead on Locally Led Adaptation at the Global Center on Adaptation. She has previously worked for Oxford Climate Policy as Deputy Director;  and for European Capacity Building Initiative; UN Environment Programme; Oxfam GB; and the Centre for Science and Environment as Associate Director. She has also worked as a consultant for several international organisations, including the Secretariat of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, the UN Development Program, and International Institute for Sustainable Development.

Ritu Bharadwaj has more than 20 years of senior policy development, research and management experience in government, funding agencies and international NGOs. She has worked extensively on climate resilience, resource conservation, social protection, migration and gender issues.

Jothiganesh Sundaram (Jothi), is Regional Technical Lead on Climate and Weather-related risk and PRISM, at United Nations World Food Programme Regional Office for Asia-Pacific at Bangkok. At WFP, he focuses on strengthening capacity of Government systems in the Asia-Pacific region on climate risk analytics, impact-based forecasting, last mile climate services and climate informed decision making. He has more than 10 years of experience in implementing Climate Risk Management, Disaster Risk Reduction projects, in collaboration with several International, UN, and Government agencies.

Nguyen Thi Yen is the climate change and disaster reduction advisor of CARE International in Vietnam. She has approximately 20 years experience in areas of community-based disaster risk reduction and climate change adaptation, particularly in climate and disaster vulnerability and capacity analysis (CVCA), community resilience capacity building, resilient livelihood linked with nature-based solutions, and agro-climate information services targeting poor ethnic minority women.

Daniel is WFP’s social protection and cash adviser for Asia Pacific. He has over a decade of operational and analytical experience with WFP and other UN agencies, academia, think tanks, and development organizations in social protection, resilience, DRM and climate adaptation. He has previously worked on similar issues with the likes of German Development Cooperation, FCDO, FAO, UNICEF, Humanitarian Outcomes, and the Institute of Development Studies.