In the lead up to UNFCCC COP30 and the second World Summit on Social Development this year, and delivered directly after UNDRR’s Global Platform for Disaster Risk Reduction (GP2025), the Currents of Change symposium and retreat creates a unique space for leaders and practitioners to advance systemic approaches to global risks.

Our aims are to:

1. Advance understanding of systemic risk and cascading effects, bridging gaps between theory and practice

2. Showcase innovative frameworks and methodologies for assessing and managing complex risk, providing hands-on experience with emerging tools

3. Identify actionable pathways for transformative action across scales, exploring real-world examples from diverse contexts

4. Foster cross-sector collaboration and knowledge exchange, bridging sector and discipline siloes and nurturing lasting relationships.

Alice Ruhweza

Alice is President of AGRA. She brings a wealth of experience and a visionary approach to her new role. She joins us from the World Wildlife Fund (WWF), where she served as the Regional Director for Africa since July 2019. In this capacity, Alice led WWF’s efforts to shape the sustainability agenda across the continent, driving impactful initiatives aligned with global conservation priorities. Before her tenure at WWF, Alice made significant contributions at Conservation International. She initially served as the Executive Director of the Vital Signs Programme and later became the Interim Vice President of Sustainable Production, where she collaborated across sectors to promote sustainable practices in agriculture, mining, and energy. Alice’s career also includes a pivotal role at UNDP, where she led the Global Environment Finance Unit in Africa.

Ayan Mahamoud

Ayan is a Senior Programme Coordinator at the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD), where she is the Head of Partnership and Resource Mobilisation. Dr. Mahamoud is an expert in regional and transboundary climate security and climate fragility. She is also an international resilience programming expert with over 10 years of experience in supporting strategic programming for the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD), a leading Regional Economic Commission.

Ben Okri

Ben is the Nigerian-born poet, cultural activist, and author of thirteen novels, including the Booker Prize-winning The Famished Road, the first in a trilogy, and Astonishing the Gods, which was selected as one of the BBC’s ‘100 novels that shaped our world’, as well as collections of poetry, short stories, plays and essays. His work has been translated into more than 27 languages. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and has won numerous international prizes. His poem following the Grenfell Tower tragedy was widely viewed on television and on social media. He was a Fellow Commoner in Creative Arts at Trinity College, Cambridge. He was awarded an OBE in 2001 and a Knighthood in 2023.

Bryan Bixcul (Maya-Tz’utujil)

Bryan is Global Coordinator for the SIRGE Coalition. Comes to SIRGE after three years at Cultural Survival, where he served as Executive Assistant, Executive Coordinator and Advocacy Coordinator. He has supported advocacy efforts within the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) Bryan also serves on the Indigenous Advisory Group for the Banks and Biodiversity Initiative. This group guides the steering committee on issues intersecting biodiversity and Indigenous rights, aiming to hold financial institutions accountable for activities that impact critical ecosystems and Indigenous territories.

Catalina Jaime

Catalina is the Head of Climate and Conflict at the Red Cross Red Crescent Climate Centre, a founder member of the Anticipation Hub, and a trustee at MapAction. She has more than 20 years of experience in humanitarian action, focusing on climate change adaptation and disaster risk reduction in humanitarian settings. She is a contributing author to the IPCC’s sixth assessment report. She is currently doing a PhD at the University of Twente on aspects of early warning and early action in situations of conflict and is a guest lecturer at a number of universities.

Dame Christiana Figueres.

Christiana is a Costa Rican citizen and an internationally recognized leader on climate change. She was Executive Secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change from 2010 to 2016, where she oversaw the delivery of the historic Paris Agreement. Today she is the co-founder of Global Optimism, co-host of the podcast “Outrage & Optimism” and is the co-author of the book, “The Future We Choose.”

Jack Denton

Jack is a Director at TMP focused on socio-political instability and biodiversity. Following work on community climate change responses and founding a social enterprise focused on improving supply chain transparency, Jack worked in advocacy for minority and indigenous communities and on green policy. Since joining TMP in 2014, he has led work on land rights, community forestry, sustainable agriculture and climate risks to transition mineral supply chains.

Jacob Ellis

Jacob is the Director for External Relations and Culture at the Office of the Future Generations Commissioner for Wales, supporting public bodies and Welsh Government to implement the Well-being of Future Generations Act. Jacob has an extensive career advising organisations to embed sustainability and future generations models and governances. He is the Founder and Co-lead of the Impact Coalition for Future Generations which seeks to tackle a critical issue in global governance: the lack of long-term thinking that safeguards the interests and rights of future generations. The Impact Coalition is a dynamic umbrella network of over 600 members that serves as a global docking station for partnerships committed to sustainable governance.

Jordan Schwartz

Jordan, a USA citizen, was appointed Executive Vice President of IDB starting June 1, 2023. In his role as Executive vice President (EVP), he is the Chief Operating Officer (COO) of the IDB and oversees the quality control and risk management of all Bank operations. He serves as chair of management committees responsible for the Bank’s operational activities and provides oversight and direction to the Vice Presidents and all other senior staff. Prior to joining the IDB, Mr. Schwartz worked in the field of economic development for over 30 years, focusing on infrastructure economics, finance, the role of the private sector, and sustainability. He has extensive work experience, both at the World Bank and in the private sector, primarily in Latin America and the Caribbean as well as across East Asia and the Pacific and Central Europe. He holds a Master’s degree in Foreign Service from Georgetown University and a Bachelor’s degree in International Relations from Tufts University.

Laurent Bontoux

Laurent is a Senior Foresight for Policy Expert at the EU Policy Lab of the European Commission's Joint Research Centre where he works to provide the best possible foresight evidence to EU policymaking.

He has engineering degrees in food technology (FR) and in environmental engineering (USA). Prior to joining the European Commission, he worked in environmental risk assessment of chemicals and household products at Procter & Gamble. At the European Commission, he spent most of his career working at the science/policy interface with a focus on sustainable development, health and environmental risk assessment before shifting to foresight for EU policy.

Shama Karkal

Shama is a social impact professional with 28+ years of experience. Her core expertise has been with community systems strengthening with a focus on marginalized communities (women in sex work, LGBTQAI, urban and rural poor, factory workers), where people and their organizations work with a range of providers (health, justice, finances, etc.) to achieve well-being, individually and collectively.

She has been with Swasti and the Catalyst Group, a social enterprise platform, since 2006. She works with diverse collaboratives to solve wicked problems.

Ruth Richardson

Ruth is the Executive Director of the Accelerator for Systemic Risk Assessment (ASRA). She previously led the Global Alliance for the Future of Food and was the first Director of the Unilever Canada Foundation. Richardson was also founding chair of the Canadian Environmental Grantmakers’ Network and the first Environment Director at the Metcalf Foundation. She has served on advisory committees for the 2021 UN Food Systems Summit, the UN Committee on World Food Security (CFS), and the Steering Committee of TEEBAgriFood by UN Environment.

Jean-Francois Mercure

Jean-Francois works between public policy, the private sector, international organisations and academia, on policy and strategy for a resilient, equitable and orderly zero-carbon transition. Formerly senior climate economist at the World Bank, where he co-founded the program Coalition on Capacity for Climate Action (C3A), he also works as chief economist at the startup Transition Risk Exeter (TREX) and is Principal Economist at Cambridge Econometrics. His publications use complexity science and new economics to develop resilient action on climate change and the polycrisis. He authored the book ‘Complexity Economics for Environmental Governance’.