Participants of this Roundtable will share actionable recommendations and review the progress made after COP28, the negotiations that are being considered under the existing framework for climate change, and its impact on Afro-descendant populations. It will also provide an opportunity address the role of governments, United Nation agencies and other bilateral and multilateral financial institutions.
This event will be a unique platform to develop partnerships with high level officials, experts, practitioners, advocates and negotiators about the challenges and opportunities for Afro-descendants in the region. Participants will be able to identify capacity-building initiative to train and develop participant’s networks created to adapt to and mitigate Climate Change - including mapping, assessing and mainstreaming the climate change adaptation and resilience capabilities of Afro-descendants in the Americas.
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Member of the United Nations Permanent Forum on People of African Descent (UNPFPA) and former Vice President of the Government of Costa Rica (2018-2022).
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Strategist and Public Policy Expert on city and state policy as well as international affairs with expertise in Africa, Latin America, and Central Asia. President of transnational advocacy organization Global Black, she also serves as the Director of Policy & Research for the Movement for Black Lives, Senior Advisor for the Institute on Race, Power, and Political Economy at The New School, and as a Strategy Advisor for organizations, companies, political campaigns, and public sector institutions globally.
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Managing Director of Sustainable Development and Climate Change (SUDECC, Inc.). Previously, he was Deputy Director of the Executive Office of the Mayor of Washington, DC, Office on Latino Affairs. He also worked as a project attorney and an environmental specialist at the Legal Department, the Energy and Climate Change Unit of the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) where he served as the focal point of the working group responsible for the establishment of the Clean Technology Fund (CTF) and the Climate Investment Fund (CIF). He holds a Master of Laws (LL.M.) from Washington College of Law, American University.
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Regional Director of the United for Justice, DAI Honduras. She is a Garifuna leader who fights for the rights of her Afro-descendant community to recognition, justice, and development. She has over 11 years of experience managing projects financed by International Development Cooperation agencies in Latin America. She has a Master degree in Psychology from Catholic University. Tesla is also an Internationally recognized fashion designer, creative and owner of the Museum Collection brand. Tesla was born in the Garifuna community of Sangrelaya Colon, Honduras.
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Currently a member of Ecuador's National Assembly and a former the Governor of Esmeraldas Province (2013 to 2016). He has extensive experience in public management, politics, public relations, and institutional communication. She has a master’s in communication and political marketing from the University of Salvador de Buenos Aires - Argentina.
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Founder and Director of CEADA—Lecture Series on African and African Diaspora Studies and also serves as the Director of Programs at Global Black, a leading civil society organization. He deeply engages in advocacy, awareness-raising, and policy development across critical areas concerning Afro-descendants. With extensive interdisciplinary and intercultural experiences on four continents and in multiple languages, John's expertise encompasses ecology, conservation biology, environmental sciences, and specialized knowledge in African Diaspora Studies. He holds degrees in biology - zoology, and environmental sciences and is pursuing a doctoral degree in educational leadership at the University of Houston.
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Executive Secretary of the Permanent Council of Afro-Descendants of the Americas (COPAFRO). He is also currently part of the Working Group responsible for designing and creating the First Mutual Opportunity Bank of Colombia, which is a community driven development bank to promote socio-economic development and financial freedom to low-income communities. Previously, he served as an Advisor for Afro-descendant Affairs in the Andean International Community of Nations –C.A.N- (Peru, Bolivia, Ecuador and Colombia) and the program of human rights and international humanitarian law at the Office of the President of Colombia.
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Sr. Advisor at SUDECC, Inc where he conducts research on the access to carbon finance, and regional economics of climate change studies. Mr. Rochez has extensive management experience in the field of development of mass consumption products, since their creation, opening, launch, and marketing in Honduras, North America, and the European Union. He has experience in Business Management Processes in SMEs. He is also an Engineer in Industrial Production, Business Administration and Management, graduated from the Technological University of Honduras.
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President of the Global Alliance of Afro-descendant and Indigenous Women Entrepreneurs, where she promotes initiatives to strengthen women in Latin America and the Caribbean from an economic perspective. Yirlehan is part of a network of 1,200 Afro-descendant women in Colombia. Yirlehan is a PhD candidate in Administration at the Externado de Colombia University and completed a doctoral residency at Howard University, Washington, DC. She has a Master's in Business Administration and Public Accounting.