Nancy Atiemo is a legal and regulatory professional with over 25 years' experience in private law practice and public service. She is currently Legal Director of the Public Utilities Regulatory Commission of Ghana. Her areas of interest include rule-making and process development to constantly enhance corporate governance, rate-making, consultation and dispute resolution structures. She supervises a high-performing team advising the governing body of the Commission and providing legal support to its key departments on energy, water and consumer issues. Since joining the Commission, she has created value by proposing and contributing to the development of tariff and consumer related policies and regulations. From 2018 to 2020 she spearheaded a comprehensive consultation process which culminated in the drafting and passage of Consumer Service Regulations, which further refine consumer rights and obligations in the utility services sector in Ghana. Her current focus is on the development of an all-inclusive legal framework for drinking water in the country' Nancy holds a post-graduate degree (LLM) in Energy Law and Policy from the University of Dundee (UK) and a Certificate in Legislative Drafting from RIPA International, London UK. She is serving as the African Regional Forum Liaison Officer of the International Bar Association Power Law Committee.
H.E. Mr. Oike Atsuyuki was appointed Permanent Representative of Japan to the United Nations Office at Geneva in January 2024.
Prior to his appointment to Geneva, Mr. Oike had been serving as the Permanent Delegate of Japan to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization since 2020. From 2017 to 2020, he was Deputy Chief Negotiator, Trans-Pacific Partnership Headquarters, Cabinet Secretariat (Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership and Japan-United States negotiations). He served as Deputy Chief of Mission at the Embassy of Japan in the United States from 2016 to 2017; and Assistant Minister and Director-General for Global Issues, and Chief Negotiator for Climate Change (Paris Agreement) from 2014 to 2016.
Mr. Oike joined the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan in 1983. He has held a number of other posts, including Economic Minister at the Embassy of Japan in China from 2012 to 2014; Economic Minister at the Permanent Mission of Japan to the United Nations Office at Geneva, in charge of the World Trade Organization, from 2010 to 2012; and Economic Minister at the Embassy of Japan in the Republic of Korea from 2007 to 2010.
Mr. Oike was born on 26 August 1960 in Osaka. He has a Bachelor of Arts in law from the University of Tokyo and a Master of Letters in international relations from the University of Oxford.
Ms Kiran Atwal is Head of the FCDO SIDS Hub.
She oversees delivery of the Small Island Developing States Capacity and Resilience programme and the Sustainable Blue Economies programme.
She was previously UK Institutional Lead to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, Private Secretary to the Minister for South and Central Asia, UN and the Commonwealth, and Head of Country Programmes, post Hurricane Irma, to the Overseas Territories.
Sandra Averous-Monnery, Economic Officer at WTO, brings her environmental expertise to the Trade and Environment Division of the WTO. She is seconded by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP).
She is a development economist by training, and an environmentalist by experience, in the areas of Chemicals and Pollution, Resource Efficiency and Sustainable Consumption and Production, Climate Change and Disaster Preparedness.
She joined UNEP 18 years ago and has been involved since then in international processes and negotiations on SCP, chemicals and waste, and climate change, she led the development of knowledge products, as well as projects portfolio with local and national implementation.
In WTO since September 2023, she works on trade and environmental topics, focusing on trade, as part of the solution to address global environmental challenges of climate change, biodiversity loss and pollution.
Mr. Gonzalo Ayala is Knowledge Management Officer at the Human Resources Development Section (HRDS) – TrainForTrade (TFT) at United Nations Trade and Development (UNCTAD) in Geneva, Switzerland. He holds a degree on Engineer in Electronic Systems with a master degree in Network Conception and Architecture from “Telecom Paris”. Before joining the UN system he worked in the private sector in Bolivia, where he developed his expertise in telecommunications and data networks.
Mr. Ayala, 18-year experience in the United Nations System. He is the Coordinator of the UNCTAD Port Management Programme for Latin America and the Caribbean with the goal to support efficient and competitive port services. He also coordinates the technical assistance projects facilitating sustainable economic development through training and capacity development in Latin America and the Caribbean.
Nursel Aydiner-Avsar is an Associate Professor at Akdeniz University, Serik Faculty of Management, Department of Economics and Finance in Antalya, Turkey. Prior to joining Akdeniz University, she worked as a consultant for the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), Trade, Gender and Development Programme in Geneva, Switzerland.
Nursel research interests are in the fields of Development Economics, Labour Economics, and the Economics of Gender. One area of her research is centred on the labour market, including employment, wage inequality, working poverty, and education inequality; another area explores welfare issues from a gender perspective. During her time at UNCTAD, she specialized in gender and trade issues in the context of developing countries, contributed to international projects on Africa, Latin America and the Pacific, and drafted reports. She received a PhD in Economics from the University of Utah in the USA, an MA in Economics from Istanbul Technical University (ITU), and a BSc in Management Engineering from ITU in Turkey.
Mr. Mukhtar Babayev was the President of COP29, the 2024 United Nations Climate Change Conference, which took place in Baku, Azerbaijan.
He has served as Azerbaijan's Minister of Ecology and Natural Resources since 2018.
Prior to his ministerial role, he held various positions within Azerbaijan's state oil company, SOCAR.