Jury 2008

Dr. Singer has more than 30 years of experience in the fields of environmental management systems, environmental auditing, sustainable development, environmental impact assessment and site investigations. He has lectured in most Brazilian States, and works as a consultant to Pan American Health Organization (PAHO), Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (CEPAL), and IDB. He was a member of the ERM Brazil Board of Directors and SEMCO’s Board of Directors and is the founder of the INSTITUTO PHAROS, a NGO dedicated to promote sustainability in Brazil’s coastal areas.

Dr Singer currently is a member of the DNA Institute, a think-tank dedicated to discussing major Brazilian issues, and the president of ECOSORB, the first Brazilian emerging and innovative to receive investments from the Stratus Fund, which has BNDES, IDB, PETROS, BASF among its investors.

Mr Nketsia-Tabiri is the Regional Manager of E+Co Africa, an organisation which aims to stimulate long-term, institutionalized channels of investment in environmentally superior forms of energy production and use in developing countries. As the Chief Investment Officer, he oversees the investment and portfolio management of E+Co Africa’s operations in nine countries across Africa. His responsibilities involve developing overall strategic design, planning, as well as strategic partnerships for the sustainable extension of clean energy access in Africa.

He previously worked as the senior project for KITE, a Ghanaian organization engaged in energy access policy and programs, where he was founding project officer of the African Rural Energy Enterprise Development (AREED) initiative. He is an inaugural member of the Catto Fellowship Program of the Aspen Institute. Mr Nketsia-Tabiri holds a Bachelor of Science (Hons.) in Mechanical Engineering from the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology and a Master of Science in Corporate and International Finance from the University of Durham Business School.

Yves Renard has been involved in natural resource management and sustainable development, mainly in the Caribbean region, over the past three decades. Between 1992 and 2001, he served as Executive Director of the Caribbean Natural Resources Institute (CANARI). Over the past six years, he has worked as a consultant to governments, non-governmental organisations and international bodies, carrying out research projects, policy analyses and formulation, trainings and institutional reviews and facilitating development processes in the fields of poverty and environment, poverty reduction and tourism policy. Mr Renard is part of a team of the International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED) conducting an independent evaluation of a proposal to create a Global Forest Partnership, and currently assists IUCN in the design of a Caribbean Initiative.

Mr Renard has edited books and published a number of guidelines, articles, papers and reports on issues of natural resource management, sustainable development, culture and community development. He serves and has served on the governing bodies of a number of international, national and community-based organisations, inter alia as President of the Caribbean Conservation Association, as Caribbean representative on the Council of IUCN, as President of Panos Caribbean, and as member of the Council of the Québec-based Institut de l’Energie et de l’Environnement de la Francophonie.

Ms Seif is Executive Director of Fair Trade in Tourism South Africa (FTTSA), a position she has held for nearly seven years. She holds academic qualifications in economics, history, social anthropology and business administration, and is currently completing her Ph.D. at the University of Pretoria. Having worked in academia in South Africa and the USA, she still lectures occasionally on responsible tourism and is the architect of a University of South Africa (UNISA) seminar on sustainable tourism. Prior to joining FTTSA, she was Product Development Manager for the North West Parks & Tourism Board in South Africa.

Ms Seif is member of the board of the Tourism Business Council of South Africa, of the Council of the Tourism Grading Council of South Africa, of the Executive Committee of Backpacking South Africa, of the Steering Committee of The Code International and a founding Trustee of Fairtrade South Africa (FTSA) In 2001 and 2003, Ms Seif was recognized by the Ashoka Citizens Base Initiative, for excellence in non-profit resource mobilization.

A medical doctor by profession, Dr. Sudarshan has focused on public health, social work and tribal rights at an early stage. He founded VGKK and Karuna Trust for the sustainable development of tribal and rural poor through rights based approaches to health, education, livelihood securtiy and biodiversity conservation. He has worked, amongst others, with the Ramakrishna Mission, State and National Governments.

He is member of numerous national and international committees, including the Independent Commission on Health in India, the national Commission on Population, the NHRC core Group on Health and the Executive Committee of the governmental Janasamkhya Sthiratha Kosh chaired by the Indian Prime Minister. Dr Sudarshan is an Ashoka Fellow; his engagement in the fields of public health and tribal rights has earned him the Rajyothsava State Award in 1984, the Right Livelihood Award in 1994, the Padmashree Award in 2000 and the Vivekananda Medal in 2004.

Nino Tevzadze is a sociologist and psychologist by training; her work experiences lie in the field of sociology and public environmental education, participatory planning, policy and strategy development, awareness raising activities, training, facilitation and human resource management.

Since 2000 she has been with the Caucasus Environmental NGO Network (CENN), one of the strongest NGOs in the Caucasus region, which engages in multi-stakeholder networking; first as a Country Coordinator, and later a Regional Coordinator on both policy and grassroots levels. From 2005 on, she has been actively involved in the sociological research undertaken by the organization.

Sarah Timpson currently serves as Senior Adviser to UNDP on Community-based Initiatives, working with several UNDP programmes which support community action, including the Community Water Initiative and the Equator Initiative, where she chairs the Technical Advisory Committee. Prior to this, managed the UNDP/Global Environment Facility’s Small Grants Programme (SGP). Has also served as a consultant in the evaluation of Conservation International’s Critical Ecosystems Partnership Fund (CEPF) and the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation’s Global Conservation Fund (GCF).

In the course of a long career with UNDP, Ms Timpson has been a leader and manager of UNDP efforts to reorient its policies and programmes to focus on people-centred development, environmental sustainability, participation and equity. She has managed UNDP offices in developing countries and served in senior policy-making positions at UNDP headquarters, including as head of the Social Development Division and Deputy Assistant Administrator of the Bureau for Development Policy, and established the NGO Division, spearheading UNDP’s outreach to civil society, as well as the interregional programme for the Promotion of the Role of Women in Water Supply and Environmental Sanitation (PROWWESS). Ms Timpson is a member of the Board of the South North Development Initiative and of the Global Rainwater Harvesting Collective, and has served as Vice-Chair of the Board of Trustees of RARE Conservation.

As a President of the Development Alternatives Group, an India-based NGO, Mr Varughese has co-ordinated or actively participated in nearly all the assignments undertaken by the group. He has conceptualised and spearheaded several of the organisation’s major initiatives, including the Community Led Environment Action Network (CLEAN-India), Corporate Environment and Social Responsibility, Development Alternatives Information Network (DAINET), and the Poorest Areas Civil Society (PACS) Programmes. Outside Development Alternatives, he has worked in the construction industry and academia.

George Varughese is a member of several international and national governing bodies, advisory panels and working groups on environment and development issues, including the World Bank Community Development Carbon Fund (CDCF), the Global Water Partnership (GWP), UNEP Global Environment Outlook (GEO), IUCN, the Planning Commission and various ministries of the Government of India. He has spearheaded several NGO initiatives, such as the Credibility Alliance nationally, and the Regional and International Networking Group (RING).