Empowering Tomorrow: A Sustainable Approach for Off-Grid Communities in Developing Nations

Dr. Andante is an environment and energy engineer with focus work on the sustainable development of the emerging Asian countries. Her research interests are about sustainable and renewable energy, municipal waste management, and green mobility. She particularly enjoy getting data from the field and analyze them from the social, technology, and economic perspectives

Building Resilient Communities in the Face of Climate Crisis

Dr. Funda Atun is an Assistant Professor of Strategic Spatial Planning in the Department of Urban and Regional Planning, Faculty of Geoinformation and Earth Observation at the University of Twente. She is an urban planner with research interests in disaster risk reduction, climate change adaptation, nature-based solutions and societal resilience. Dr. Atun is currently coordinating the ‘Promoting disaster preparedness and resilience by co-developing stakeholder support tools for managing the systemic risk of compounding disasters’ (PARATUS, 2022-2026) Horizon Europe Project together with Prof. Dr. Cees van Westen. The project aims to provide stakeholders in disaster risk management with tools to account for cross-sectoral impacts and the dynamic nature of compounding disasters. The team develops an open-source platform for dynamic risk assessment and evaluating multi-hazard impact chains, risk reduction measures, and disaster response scenarios. Dr. Atun has a vast experience in EU-funded projects. She was WP and case study coordinator in ‘European Disasters in Urban Centres: A Culture Expert Network (EDUCEN, HORIZON 2020, in 2015-2017)’, assistant coordinator in ‘Knowledge for Disaster Risk Reduction and Climate Change Adaptation (KNOW4DRR, FP7, in 2013-2015)’, one of the researchers in ‘Enhancing European resilience and response to threats and crisis situations (DRIVER+, FP7, in 2018)’, ’Building Resilient Urban Communities (BREUCOM, Erasmus+, in 2019-2020)’ and ‘Enhancing resilience of communities and territories facing natural and Na-tech hazards (ENSURE, FP7, in 2008-2011)’ projects. She is also leading a research project together with Dr. Javier Martinez about the role of children as active agents in the planning of climate-adaptive cities.

Department Urban and Regional Planning and Geo-information Management 

Dr. Monika Kuffer, Associate Professor at the Faculty ITC (University of Twente, The Netherlands). Her research focuses on remote sensing, urban spatial analysis, SDGs, urban equality and urban environments. She is (Co) PI of several research projects on urban deprivation and environment, e.g., IDEAtlas, ACCOUNT and IDEAMAPS Data Ecosystem. She is the project director of two NUFFIC-funded training grants (IDeAMapSudan - Capacity strengthening for gender-responsive and sustainable urban development and DATA4HUMANRIGHTS, Nigeria). She is part of the Steering Committee of the Joint Urban Remote Sensing Event (JURSE) the Dutch representative of the European Association of Remote Sensing Laboratories (EARSeL) and SIG chair for Developing Countries. She is also a member of the Steering Committee: EO for Sustainable Cities and Communities Toolkit.

Community Development: Action Research

Dr. Naori Miyazawa is a lecturer of the Faculty of Social Sciences, Institute for Advanced Social Sciences, Waseda University. She holds a Ph.D. in International Studies from the University of Tokyo, and a Master’s degree in Environment and Development from the University of London. Dr. Miyazawa received an award for her distinguished book from the Asian Law Academic Society. Dr. Miyazawa was stationed in Bali, Indonesia from 2019 to 2022 for international collaboration research. She worked as the head of office and environmental specialist with the United Nations Office for Project Services in Tokyo from 2004 to 2008. From 2001 to 2005, she worked in Timor-Leste as the country project manager for Timor-Leste for the International Development Center of Japan (IDCJ). Experiences in Timor-Leste include a lectureship at the national university in environmental studies. Before her tenure in Timor-Leste, with the Environment and Sustainable Development Programme of the United Nations University, she researched environmental governance issues in East Asia and published in several books.

Roles of local farmers' organization in the agricultural and rural development

I am Gede Sedana as a lecturer and researcher in Dwijendra University, Bali, Indonesia. I have experiences in doing research relating to agricultural and rural development areas since 1987. In 1987-2002, I had worked action researches about subak as traditional irrigation system under the grant from The Ford Foundation. With the Nippon Koei, I was a community organizer in the Bali Beach Conservation Project under the loan from JBIC (2001-2003). Then, I had been a Rural Institution Development Specialist in the Project of Sustainable Development of Irrigated Agriculture, under the grant from European Commission (2003-2007). In 2008-2012, I had worked as an agriculture specialist for the Cocoa Development Project under the grant from USAID. I had worked for coffee and rice business development since 2014-2017 under the grant from AUSAID. Recently, I have some programs regarding rural and agricultural development.

Glimpse of Balinese culture: Reinventing the traces of Ancient Kingdoms Majapahit - Bali

Catrini, or familiarly called Ari, has a background in planning and architecture. Graduated her bachelor degree from Urban and Regional Planning of Institut Teknologi Bandung (ITB) in 1996 and received her master degree from Department of Architecture of KU Leuven, Belgium in 1997, and received her doctoral degree in Architecture at School of Archicture, Planning and Policy Development of Institut Teknologi Bandung (ITB) in 2021. She has strong eagerness in heritage field as shown by her activities for more than 20 years in developing community based organisations in the field of nature and culture heritage conservation in West Sumatera, Bali, and Jakarta. She actively facilitates the coordination between local governments in Indonesia and the Organization of World Heritage Cities. She has formerly served as a member of Board of Executive Committee of International of National Trusts Organisation (INTO) based in London (2010-2021). She is currently the Chairperson of The Indonesian Heritage Trust (BPPI/Bumi Pelestarian Pusaka Indonesia) based in Jakarta and Chairperson of Southeast Asian Cultural Heritage Alliance (SEACHA) based in Bangkok.She is currently living in Bali and she is actively contributing her time to support the nature and culture conservation in Bali as her homeland, through her family foundation named Bali Kuna Santi Foundation based in Jero Tumbuk in Selat Village, Karangasem, Bali. She initiated Bali International Field School for Subak (BIFSS) to provide opportunities to have first hand learnt about Balinese tradition in farming village activities and especially the relation with Balinese traditional practices and its harmony with nature. It has been started in 2015, held annually and still ongoing today. She worked professionally at The World Bank Jakarta Office for the period of 2006-2012, before she appointed as the Executive Director for Arsari Djojohadikusumo Foundation on 2013-2023. She managed the wildlife conservation units under the Arsari Djojohadikusumo Foundation, namely Pusat Rehabilitasi Harimau Sumatera in Dharmasraya (PR-HSD ARSARI/Centre of Sumatran Tiger Rehabilitationn Dharmasraya, West Sumatra), Pusat Suaka Orangutan (PSO-ARSARI/ Centre for Orangutan Sanctuary) in East Borneo, and Pusat Konservasi Riau (PKR-ARSARI/ Centre for Wildlife Conservation in Riau). She received several awards: The Most Inspiring Woman (2007), Asia 21 Young Leader (2007), The Climate Reality Leader (2020), and The Figure of Nusantara Culture and Nature Safeguards (2021) acknowledged by Indonesian Ministry of Environment and Forestry.

Between the formal and informal: gaps and guidance for good practice in climate vulnerability assessments

Research Associate (AiO) at Faculty ITC (University of Twente, NL), developing research on climate vulnerabilities at the neighborhood level, using Citizen Science and Earth Observation techniques. Her current focus is flood vulnerability frameworks co-designed with local stakeholders adapted to slum contexts. She holds an MSc from ITC with a focus on unsupervised machine learning for mapping deprived areas and received the best thesis award for her MSc thesis. She is also one of the winners of the Notre Dame-IBM Tech Ethics Lab 2022 funding with a innovative research in scalability methods to map deprivation. Her expertise lies in spatial analysis to tackle urban challenges, particularly reduction of social disparities and climate impacts in vulnerable communities. 

Work engagement in Japan: Can the younger generation serve as catalysts for change?

I am 27 years old and I come from Bucharest, Romania.For the past 9 years of my life I have often moved between Romania, the UK, Hong Kong and Japan. I have previously studied International Business at the University of Hull in the UK, graduating in 2019. After working for 2 years Deloitte in Romania, I decided to study again.  I am currently studying in Japan under a MEXT scholarship for research. I have always been interested in Culture and Psychology which is why I am now combining that knowledge with Organisational Behavior to perhaps discover something useful for Japanese employees.

MachiGo Project: The contribution of international students to rediscover the lesser-known destination in Japan

My name is Farren and I am currently studying in Waseda University in the school of social sciences. I was born and raised in Indonesia, a country with various backgrounds and culture. Hence, I gained interests on sustainability including environment and culture. Currently, I am working on a project with my fellow TAISI friends which promotes rural revitalization and responsible tourism in Japan. Our project is called MachiGo where we try to introduce rural areas that are quite unknown for tourism. In Japan, we have an ongoing aging population which resulted in our interests for developing this project. 

Accelerating Sustainability with Social Entrepreneurship Development and Community Building

Trang is a graduate of the School of Social Science and a former Hult Prize Campus Director at Waseda University. While being a member of The Nippon Foundation Scholars Association, Trang received Social Innovation Award by Waseda International Student House in 2019, and Waseda Campus ASIA Community Development Award in 2022 for her active contribution in promoting activities engagement among university students. Majored in Economic Development and Environmental Sustainability, she is currently working with Social Impact Lab Japan as a Managing Director, focusing on supporting social entrepreneurs to develop their ideas and launch their products into the market. As an optimistic problem solver, she is passionate about innovation and sustainable business that create positive changes in people’s lives. With several years of living in Japan as an international student, she is adept at understanding the challenges and opportunities that the country has in building and leading global community for the future to come.

Community’s Sustainability and Resilience from the Youth Perspective

After completing my education at an international school in Japan, I continued my studies at a boarding school in the United States. I am currently in my fourth year at Waseda University's TAISI program. Beyond my academic pursuits, I am passionate about soccer, a sport I have been involved in since the age of three, and I enjoy watching Formula 1. Alongside my academic commitments, I also work as an intern at an investment bank. I have plans to pursue a career in investment banking upon graduating from university.