She is a doctoral candidate of human geography at the University of Manchester. Her research in Bangladesh focuses on waste politics, resource recovery and waste governance and building sustainable cities.

Dr. Deshpande is a post-doctoral research fellow at the LSE-Fudan Global Public Policy Hub, Department of Social Policy, LSE. Her research, primarily qualitative, has focused on cities, climate and disaster governance and justice in the global South.

She is a doctoral candidate in international relations and politics at the University of Kent. Her research interests are in Climate Change Adaptation, focusing on climate policies and governance, people's participation and voices, community-based adaptation, locally led adaptation, and nature-based solutions. She is keenly interested in disaster risk management, focusing on anticipatory action.

She is a doctoral candidate at the Global Disaster Resilience Centre at the University of Huddersfield and a lecturer at the University of Colombo. Her research focuses on disaster risk reduction, disaster governance and justice concerns in Sri Lanka.

She is a post-doctoral research associate at ClimateXChange, University of Edinburgh. Her PhD research focuses on public participation for Disaster Risk Reduction in Nepal. More specifically, her work lies at the interface of local governance, disaster risk reduction, and participatory research.

Dr. Yasmin is a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Birmingham. Her research focuses on environmental and water resource governance, urban adaptation challenges, and disaster risk reduction (DRR), with an emphasis on resilience-building. Her work explores the intersections of climate vulnerability, governance frameworks, and adaptive capacity, particularly in rapidly urbanizing and resource-constrained environments.

Patrick is an associate professor of urban planning and Co-Director of the Informal Urbanism Hub at the University of Melbourne. He is a leading academic commentator on urban planning in Africa whose research continues to unsettle and challenge the existing geo-politics of knowledge production in planning and climate management by providing a deeper understanding and enriching Africa-focused theorization.

Mark is an Urban Designer and Disaster Risk Reduction scholar focused on African urbanism. He has 10 years of grounded experience spanning advocacy, policy, and technical advisory, with research interests in institutions and social relationships shaping urbanism and disaster risk creation. At UN-Habitat, he specializes in Urban Mobility and Disaster Resilience.

Ruby Haddad is a grassroots leader and National Coordinator of HPFPI, a network of 92 organized urban and rural poor groups across 14 cities and municipalities in the Philippines. She has 25 years of grounded experience in community organizing, training and education; local and national government coordination; and network formation.

Dr Gilbert Siame is a lecturer and researcher in the Department of Geography and Environmental Studies at the University of Zambia (UNZA). Dr Siame investigates the complex state-society relations in co-production engagements in the cities of the global South and has published widely on urban co-production, informality, climate and cities.

Professor Cathy Sutherland from the School of Built Environment and Development Studies and WASH R&D Centre at the University of KwaZulu-Natal works at the interface between social and environmental systems with a focus on sustainable development. Her research interests are in the relationship between society, space and environment and how this shapes environmental politics and policy making.

Gina Ziervogel is Director of the African Climate and Development Initiative and Professor in the Department of Environmental and Geographical Science at the University of Cape Town, South Africa. Her research focuses on climate change adaptation and development with a focus on urban governance and water and transdisciplinary approaches.

Anne Leitch has extensive experience in climate change adaptation practice and theory that she applies through working in multidisciplinary research teams in Australian and international projects to advance climate adaptation/resilience, natural resource management and integrating Indigenous knowledge. She is currently employed in the Climate Action Beacon at Griffith University, Australia.

Full professor at ÉTS, Canada Research Chairholder in Sustainable Multifunctional Construction Materials, she studied sustainability at the United Nation University, Tokyo, before her PhD (University of Cambridge) and postdoc (ETH Zurich). She is a Canadian expert in the IEA EBC Annex 72 and 89, and project nominated principal investigator.

Dr. Deshpande is a post-doctoral research fellow at the LSE-Fudan Global Public Policy Hub, Department of Social Policy, LSE. Her research, primarily qualitative, has focused on cities, climate and disaster governance and justice in the global South.

Gina Ziervogel is Director of the African Climate and Development Initiative and Professor in the Department of Environmental and Geographical Science at the University of Cape Town, South Africa. Her research focuses on climate change adaptation and development with a focus on urban governance and water and transdisciplinary approaches.