Project Coordination Unit

The United Nations Development Programme and United Nations Environment Programme oversee a joint IW:LEARN project coordination unit that includes staff working for the United Nations Office for Project Services, UNDP & UNEP themselves, as well as SeaStart Southeast Asia. Although joint, the PCU is itself distributed across three centers, the UNDP Regional Bureau for Europe and CIS at the Bratislava Regional Centre in Slovakia, the United Nations Office in Nairobi, Kenya and finally, SEA START RC in Bangkok, Thailand.

The PCU includes the following staff:

Bratislava

Mish Hamid, IW:LEARN Project Manager, UNOPS

Contact: mish@iwlearn.org, +421.2.59337.168
Role: The PM leads and manages the day-to-day implementation of the work plan and budget of GEF IW:LEARN3 based on the UNDP Project Document. The PM leads a multi-disciplinary PCU, including staff and consultants from various partner organizations.Responsibility: The PM has technical as well as project management duties. The PM is responsible for the implementation of all activities of the project, as well as the supervision of the PCU.
Brief Bio: On and off since 2000, he has performed many roles and fulfilled many responsibilities for GEF IW:LEARN, ranging from project management & development, to partnership building, training services, and the development of information management solutions for GEF IW projects. He has assisted or led the management of more than 3 phases of the project, helping to manage its million dollar budgets and the partner/consultant agreements with multilateral agencies, governments, NGO's to the private sector. Mish supported more than a dozen targeted trainings, organized nearly twenty project-project learning exchanges, co-managed three large international waters conferences, edited more than a dozen project newsletters and other communications tools, co-developed the project's content management platform, iwlearn.net.Previously, Mish has also worked for the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe in Serbia/Kosovo, Russia, Ukraine and Albania on election supervision and post-conflict peace implementation. He holds a master's degree in conflict management and international economics from the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies and a bachelor's degree from the George Washington University. Aside from English, Mish speaks conversational Dutch & German and very primitive Serbian/Croatian

Marcela Fabianova, Water Programme Officer

Marcela BioPic

Clement Lagalice, Energy and Environment Practice Intern, UNDP

Contact: clement.lagalice@undp.org, +421.2.59337.214

Brief Bio: Clem graduated with a MPhil in marine and environmental biology at the University of Portsmouth (UK) and holds a PGCert in Scientific Research methods and communication. He is currently attending the Master's Course in international Cooperation and Development at ASERI -Postgraduate School of Economics and International Relations of the Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore in Milan, Italy.

He previously worked as a demonstrator and tutor in Marine Biology at the University of Portsmouth (UK). He also worked as an environmental consultant in Marine Biology for an Italy-based company regarding an innovative biotechnology-based recycling project of the marine plant Posidonia oceanica. More recently, Clem was working as a junior account manager in Water Treatment for the UK B&V Group, where all his tasks were related to water quality investigation and legislation. He is bilingual French-English, with conversational Italian and basic German.

Nairobi

Christian Ledermann, IT Specialist

Contact: christian.ledermann@gmail.com, +254.20.7623266

Role: The IT Specialist manages the IW:LEARN platforms and related information systems. This includes administering current Plone sites (backups, upgrades, scaling), researching applicable technologies (new versions and components) and planning for their integration with the IWLEARN platforms. The IT Specialist facilitates software development and integration work for project websites, trains and educate content providers on how to effectively use the platforms and functionalities, and analyzes site usage (looking at web server statistics, search engine traffic, user surveys, links and citations).
[brief bio]

Damaris Waigwa, Technical Assistant, UNEP

Contact: damaris.waigwa@unep.org, +254.20.7623266
Role: The Technical Assistant is mainly responsible for updating and maintaining the IWLEARN portal (http://iwlearn.net) by updating the project database, IW calendar, archiving of project results and experiences. The Technical Assistant provides support in the preparation of monthly eBulletin and periodic users needs surveys, provides technical assistance to users of IWLEARN platforms, and performs project management related tasks including coordinating implementation of project activities between Nairobi and Bangkok, preparation of project reports.
[brief bio]

Bangkok

Khristine Custodio, Project Manager, SEA START RC

Contact: khristine@iwlearn.org, +66.2.2189469
Role: The Project Manager/UNEP Project Coordinator directly manages the day-to-day execution of UNEP-led activities under the IW:LEARN project. The Project Manager/UNEP Project Coordinator takes full responsibility mainly for the timely and efficient undertaking of Comp 4 activities (Information Management and Communications Platform to Support GEF IW Projects Learning and Dialogue) activities and provides support to Comp 3c (IW:Science Conference).
Brief Bio: Tine officially joined IW:LEARN in early 2008 but her first encounter with IW:LEARN was in 2002 in GEF/UNDP/IMO PEMSEA as Webmaster and Senior Communication staff. Tine managed http://pemsea.org and developed e-communication activities extending to partner organizations, including the development of ICM websites for member countries (Malaysia, Vietnam, Indonesia, Philippines, China and Thailand), providing training and continuous technical assistance to project staff. She steadily conducted communication research and promotional activities using ICT tools, and has written stories for both PEMSEA E-Updates and Tropical Coasts magazine. Tine was twice part of the Secretariat for the East Asian Seas (EAS) Congress (2003 and 2006), ensuring that all online services, e.g., online registration, online payment system, are up and working, and proliferating online promotion for the activities. She also coordinated the first East Asian Seas Youth Forum in Haikou, PR China during the 2006 EAS Congress. She holds an undergrad degree in Advertising Arts and master’s in Development Communication focusing on social marketing, multimedia production and e-learning. With no formal background on IT, she gained hands-on learning in web development when she was worked as Project Development Officer and Web Designer for the Philippine President’s Culture and Arts in Cyberspace Project (http://www.ncca.gov.ph) in 1997 until 2002. This inspired her to believe that anyone with no or limited IT/ICT knowledge can use any prevailing technology for a greater cause with a clear goal and strategy in mind. She has also managed events and exhibitions, produced commercial websites and multimedia projects, and was deeply involved in Cooperatives and other community activities for more than a decade in the Philippines. Since 2008, she helped in the full development of 11 project toolkit websites and has co-facilitated 3 ICT workshops. In her free time, she scuba dives, travels, paints, or just sings on the karaoke.

Jean Jordaan, IT Consultant, SEA START RC

Contact: jean@iwlearn.org, +66.2.2189469
[role]
Brief Bio: Jean joined IW:LEARN in 2008, but his first encounter was in 2005 when he provided training on the platform to a group at UNEP in Nairobi. The group included the project manager and technical staff of IW:LEARN, and subsequent contact led him to join the team. Jean is a 15 year veteran of open source technology, and a firm believer in open software as an important enabler of independent and unbiased discourse -- for information to become a living record, it should be embodied in standard formats and accessible using freely available tools. To this end, the IW:LEARN platform is built using a software that is under the stewardship of a Foundation, ensuring its integrity and continued availability (http://plone.org/foundation). Before joining IW:LEARN, Jean worked with Upfront Systems (http://www.upfrontsystems.co.za), building web-based applications mainly using Python, Zope and Plone. He has consulted and presented training in Europe, the UK, the USA, Kenya, Singapore and Thailand. In his free time, Jean likes to practice his Thai on innocent bystanders in rural areas.

Taya Santives, Web Developer, SEA START RC

Contact: taya@iwlearn.org, +66.2.2189469
Role: The Web Developer provides technical support to IW:LEARN's web development activities, including designing of templates, setting up of functionalities, link integrity checking for the IW:LEARN ICT platforms (http://iwlearn.net, Community Workspace, Website Toolkit, Issue Tracker) and assists the IT Specialist. The Web Developer also provides technical support, responds to stakeholders queries and requests in relation to the IW:LEARN platforms.
Brief Bio: One of the new members in the team, Taya joined IW:LEARN last year to help with the migration of the iwlearn.net to the current version as well as the upgrading of the Toolkit website template, and to provide technical assistance to project websites that use IW:LEARN toolkit. Taya holds a master's degree in Information Science from King Mongkut's Institute of Technology Ladkrabang, Thailand, and has 7 years experience on various aspects of website developing.

Montakan "Nan" Chimmuang, Communication & Administrative Officer, SEA START RC

Contact: montakan@iwlearn.org, +66.2.2189469
Role: The SEA START IW:LEARN Communications/Administrative Officer facilitates financial transactions and reporting, and ensures that general office operations are running smoothly. These include processing of invoices/payments, filing, and assisting with staff visa and work permit applications, assisting in organizing meetings, workshops, and travel arrangements. Communicating and liaising with GEF IW projects, the Communications/Administrative Officer ensures that IW:LEARN's project and contacts database are up-to-date. The Communications/Administrative Officer assists in the overall updating of the iwlearn.net website.
Brief Bio: Nan holds a degree in Business English and Marketing from the Assumption University in Thailand and is currently completing her master’s degree. She has vast experience in coordinating people and facilitating documents from both local and international organizations in Thailand. She has been cheerfully assisting the team since October 2008.

Emeritus members of the IW:LEARN PCU

• Dr. Dann Sklarew, Ph.D., Director/Chief Technical Advisor, UNOPS (2000-2008)
• Ms. Janot-Reine Mendler de Suarez, Deputy Director/Project Coordinator, UNOPS (1998-2009)
• Sean Khan, Project Manager, UNEP
• Dr. Richard Cooper, SEA START RC
• Deepa Jani
• Jerod Clabaugh
• Shayne Gardner
• Sheldon Annis
• Many others whose essential contributions cannot be ignored and felt even in the present.