Institution: United Nations Development Programme

Achim Steiner became UNDP Administrator on 19 June 2017. The United Nations General Assembly confirmed his appointment following his nomination by Secretary-General António Guterres. In April 2021, the General Assembly confirmed his appointment to a second four-year term beginning in June 2021. Mr. Steiner is also the Vice-Chair of the UN Sustainable Development Group, which unites 40 entities of the UN system that work to support sustainable development. Over nearly three decades, Mr. Steiner has been a global leader on sustainable development, climate resilience and international cooperation. He has worked tirelessly to champion sustainability, economic growth and equality for the vulnerable, and has been a vocal advocate for the Sustainable Development Goals. Prior to joining UNDP, he was Director of the Oxford Martin School and Professorial Fellow of Balliol College, University of Oxford. Mr. Steiner has served across the United Nations system, looking at global challenges from both a humanitarian and a development perspective. He led the United Nations Environment Programme (2006-2016), helping governments invest in clean technologies and renewable energy. He was also Director-General of the United Nations Office at Nairobi. He previously held other notable positions including Director General of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature, and Secretary General of the World Commission on Dams. Mr. Steiner has lived and worked in Africa, Asia, the Middle East, Europe, Latin America and the United States. He graduated in Philosophy, Politics and Economics (MA) from Worcester College, Oxford University and holds an MA from the University of London/School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS).

Sahba Sobhani is the Director of the UNDP Istanbul International Center for Private Sector in Development (IICPSD). He brings 19 years of experience in the private sector in Silicon Valley, Singapore and at UNDP as Programme Advisor, Team Leader and Programme Manager including as the technical lead for the recently endorsed UNDP private sector strategy. Mr. Sobhani has significant partnership development and advocacy experience with the private sector working with over 100 companies and business organizations and a track record of operational leadership, innovation and management of 6 global UNDP-led strategic multi-stakeholder partnerships and initiatives in the area of business and development including the Business Call to Action Initiative, the Connecting Business Initiative and the G20 Global Platform on Inclusive Business and has been the principal author and content manager of all 5 major UNDP-led reports in the area of the private sector in development, Previously, Mr. Sobhani managed two key UNDP private sector initiatives in the executive office of the former Administrator of UNDP, Mark Malloch Brown, including the Commission on the Private Sector and Development, and the African Financial Markets Initiative. He co-authored Unleashing Entrepreneurship: Making Business Work for the Poor, the seminal report of the Private Sector Commission produced at the request of former UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan. Mr. Sobhani was the managing editor of the African Stock Markets Handbook. He is a graduate of Yale University and the Fletcher School of Diplomacy (USA).

Heriberto is a senior member of the writing-research team at HDRO. He has worked on Human Development Reports 2015, 2016 and 2017. Previously, he served in the Executive Office of UNDP (2012-2014) and in the Economic Commission for Latin American and the Caribbean (1998-2005). He has worked as a consultant to the IMF, UNDP and ECLAC. Furthermore, he has been lecturer at Columbia University (New York), University of Chile (Santiago) and University Diego Portales (Santiago). Heriberto holds a Ph.D. in economics from Columbia University, and a Master’s degree in economics and a Commercial Engineering degree from the University of Chile.

Dr. Marianne Kjellén, Senior Water Advisor at the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), works with UNDP’s Water & Ocean Governance Programme in support of operations through UNDP country offices and regional hubs. She provides in-house and external water-related advice and expertise and oversees project activities for knowledge management and capacity development.

The Water & Ocean Governance Programme focuses on SDGs 6 and 14 with the entry point of governance. This involves managing capacity development and promotion of Integrated Water Resources Management, along with Source-to-Sea and Ridge-to-Reef approaches. Climate resilience, along with cross-cutting issues of Human Rights, Gender Equality and Integrity (anti-corruption) are addressed throughout the work. Representing UNDP at UN-Water, Marianne Kjellén is a regular contributor to UN-Water’s global reporting.

Trained in Human Geography, Marianne Kjellén specialises in water governance as it relates to urban environmental management, water supply and sanitation and inclusive approaches for the reduction of poverty and inequality. Her research background involves studies of public-private collaboration and the relation with formal and informal ways of distributing water, with case studies in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.

Marianne Kjellén has over twenty-five years’ experience of water and development work. Prior to joining the UNDP in 2016, she worked with the Stockholm International Water Institute, and before that with the Stockholm Environment Institute and Stockholm University.

Emma Torres is a senior advisor on sustainability of the PNUD in Latin America and the Caribbean. She has more than 20 years of experience in the UN. She coordinated a strategic initiative in the LAC region called “The Superpower Biodiversity”. Ms. Torres currently serves as the director of the Regional Program for LAC and as UNDP/GEF’s Deputy Executive Coordinator, a partnership between PNUD, PNUMA, and the World Bank. She serves as a Leadership Council member at the Sustainable Development Solutions Network (SDSN), and in that capacity, works on advancing two major initiatives: SDSN Amazon and Rio: A Sustainable City. She holds a masters degree in Economics from Universidad Complutense de Madrid, and holds degrees in Environmental Economics and Climate Change from IIED – Harvard University.

Dr. Daniel Franks is the Chief Technical Advisor and Programme Manager of the ACP-EU Development Minerals Programme at the United Nations Development Programme. Dr. Franks is well known for his research on sustainable development in the extractives sector. He is the author of more than 100 publications including the book Mountain Movers: Mining, sustainability and the agents of change (Earthscan, 2015) and his highly cited study with Rachel Davis on the costs of company-community conflict in the extractives sector, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Originally trained as a geologist, Dr. Franks retrained in political and social sciences. He has field experience at more than 70 mining and energy sites internationally and in more than 37 countries. Prior to joining UNDP he was Deputy Director of the Centre for Social Responsibility in Mining at the Sustainable Minerals Institute, The University of Queensland and a Senior Social Scientist at the Queensland Department of Natural Resources and Water. He has been a Visiting Professor at Universidad Catalica del Norte, Chile; Columbia University, New York; the University of Eastern Finland; and the University of Western Australia. He is an Editorial Board Member of the International Journal of Minerals Policy & Economics (Resources Policy) and Impact Assessment and Project Appraisal.