Ibrahim Bakarr Bangura graduated from Njala University with a BSc in Rural Development Studies. He currently works as a Junior Researcher at SLURC. He was previously part of the SLURC team working with ASF-UK’s Change by Design Methodology on Community Action Area Plans (CAAP) and worked with the Amazonian Initiative Movement as a Facilitator. He has also helped to facilitate ASF-UK’s Community-Led Data Collection for Informal Settlement Profiling workshop. He is currently involved in the OVERDUE and Urban KNOW projects. Ibrahim has been part of the ESD learning alliance over the last four years.
Hawanatu Bangura (Awa) has a background in Accounting and Finance and is currently working at SLURC as a Field Researcher in the action research project “Community-led solution: Assistive Technologies in Informal Settlements” in Freetown (Sierra Leone). Awa is the lead person in the action research project and acts as a liaison for two informal settlement communities (Dworzak and Thompson Bay), with a focus on people with disabilities. She is also leading the coordination of the development of the Transform Freetown Plan of Freetown City Council, where is she co-ordinating four main sectors. She has previously worked on the post Ebola Recovery Program, where she worked in the Operation Clean Freetown Initiative as part of the President's Delivery Team, Office of the Chief of Staff. This is the second year she is supporting the ESD learning alliance.
Amadu Labor is a Research Officer at SLURC with a BA in Development Studies and a BSc in Agricultural Education from EBK University of Science and Technology. He has acquired extensive work experience in community development, including multiple contributions to SLURC research and data collection for FEDURP before joining SLURC as a Research Officer. He has previously supported the ESD learning alliance both as an intern and as a SLURC staff member.
Mary Sirah Kamara graduated from Njala University with a BSc (Hons.) in Environment and Development and an MSc in Environmental Management and Quality Control. She was part of the SLURC team that worked with ASF-UK’s Change by Design Methodology to pilot the Community Action Area Plan (CAAP) and she is currently working on a ESRC funded research project that explores health and infection control in informal settlements. She also plays a pivotal role in the Accountability for Health Equity (ARISE) project, which aims to acknowledge the needs of the marginalised and urban poor through accountability mechanisms. She has been part of the ESD learning alliance for the past four years.
Musa F.M Wullarie is a Community Youth Leader in Cockle Bay-Mafengbeh. He is the Founder of the ‘Foundation for the Future Educational Syndicate and Library’. Musa has extensive experience in community organisation and data collection, where he has worked as a Data Collector for the Federation of Urban Rural Poor (FEDURP). Musa has previously been involved in multiple research projects by SLURC (as an intern) and has been community facilitator in all SLURC-UCL Learning Alliances thus far.
Fatima Kabba is a volunteer field officer at the Center of Dialogue on Human Settlement and Poverty Alleviation (CODOHSAPA). She holds a BSc degree in Social Work from Fourah Bay College, University of Sierra Leone. Fatima joins the Learning Alliance for the third time as volunteer field officer at the Center of Dialogue on Human Settlement and Poverty Alleviation (CODOHSAPA), where she currently has two year’s fieldwork experience.
Michael Garrick is a geology graduate and MBA student at the Institute of Public Administration and Management. He is a passionate believer in the power of research as a development tool and has previously worked with students on water and sanitation services within the Learning Alliance.
Henry David Bayoh is an Expert Certified Development Project Manager (CDPM) who also holds a BSc (Hons.) in Environmental Sciences as well as a MB and MA in Sustainable Development. He is the Focal Point for the Pan African Climate Justice Alliance (PACJA) and a Senior Planning and Development Officer/Head of Climate Change at the National Tourist Board. This is the fourth year he joins the ESD Learning Alliance as an intern.
Dr. Nikhilesh Sinha is an Associate Professor of Economics and Management Sciences at the Hult International Business School, London. Nikhilesh completed his PhD at the Bartlett Development Planning Unit, UCL, supervised by Prof. Caren Levy and Dr. Colin Marx. His thesis examines informal rental housing sub-markets in Hyderabad from an institutional perspective. The thesis contributes a novel conceptual framework for the analysis of informal markets, while debunking several commonly held perceptions of the dynamics of rental housing markets in informal settlements. More recently, Nikhilesh has been awarded a research grant by the Knowledge in Action for Urban Equality (KNOW) Project in 2020 to study informal housing markets in Dar es Salam, Tanzania.
Alban Hasson has been a PhD Student at the Bartlett Development Planning Unit since 2018. His main research interests lie in urban agriculture (UA), food sovereignty, environmental policy, grassroots innovations, and the potential for learning to deliver sustainable urban food systems. His PhD research explores the conditions for the expansion of the political space for urban agriculture justice and food democracy, and the resulting democratic effects produced different trajectories. His research draws on theories of environmental justice and democratisation, where his he seeks a better understanding of the pathways available to ensure parity of participation and address distributive and recognitive justice in UA. In his spare time, Alban enjoys growing some of his own food, and is involved in Urban farms in his local neighbourhood.
Loan Diep is a researcher on urban green infrastructure, water and sanitation, and socio-environmental justice in cities, with a focus on informal settlements. She graduated with a BSc in Environmental Geography and an MSc in Environment and Sustainable Development at UCL. Loan has worked as research consultant for organisations like UNEP and IIED, and as project officer for Water and Sanitation for the Urban Poor (WSUP). She is currently doing her PhD at UCL on the urban politics of Green Infrastructure in São Paulo, Brazil.
María José Nieto Combariza is a PhD student at the Bartlett Development Planning Unit, where she researches the value of mobility (in two and three-wheelers) in the context of mass public transport reforms using a critical southern lens. María José is an economist by training and has previously completed an MSc in Development from the National University of Colombia and MSc Environmental Policy and Regulation from the London School of Economics. As a professional in her field, María José aims to encourage knowledge-based strategies to foster urban development by working with local and national government institutions and the UN. She has previously worked on urban sustainable development project in Latin America, the Caribbean and China, where she has supported decision-making within local governments and public institutions.
Donald is an inter-disciplinary development planner with a formal background in urban and regional planning. He has over ten years of international research and practical experience across a variety of pressing urban development issues, ranging from the informal economy to disaster risk reduction, climate change adaptation and public health in the broader context of sustainable development.
Donald has worked with international and local NGOs, policy and research institutions, universities, hospitals, the private sector, communities and their local support organisations. His work has taken him to various countries throughout Asia and Africa, including Malawi, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, Somaliland, South Africa, Bangladesh, Indonesia, Nepal, the Philippines and Thailand.
Zeremariam is an associate professor at DPU UCL. has been involved in several projects in different International Organisations. Over the past three decades, he has worked on medium /short term consultancies, external evaluations and applied research with a variety of UN, International and national NGOs. From 1989 to 2016, he has served as the founding director and head of a Regional NGO (the Pastoral and Environmental Network in the Horn of Africa, PENHA www.penhanetwork.org) over the last 27 years.
Kerry is an urban geographer who has worked on urban sustainability transitions at the academia-policy interface for the last 8 years. During this time, she has worked closely with stakeholders across government, private sector and civil society stakeholders in South Africa and the United Kingdom to produce academic and policy outputs on urban infrastructure transitions, focusing on water, sanitation, and energy. She has also directly contributed to the development of municipal and regional policy on green infrastructure, mining waste landscapes and urban water management.
Kate holds a MSc in Environment, Politics and Development from SOAS, London, during which she focused on critical political ecology perspectives on development. Kate’s research interests lie with agrofuels and the energy transition in a context of climate change.
Diana has several years of experience facilitating multi-stakeholder projects in conservation, sustainability and education in various Colombian cities and in London. Her research interests include the concept of security and the strategies developed by social organisations to resist in areas of armed conflict. She volunteers with activist groups supporting struggles for environmental justice in the global South.
