Maya Atieh

Water Resources Engineer PhD, President Lebanese Youth Parliament for Water

Dr. Maya Atieh received her PhD in 2017 in the field of Water Resources Engineering from the University of Guelph, Canada. She is the recipient The Women in Science 2018 L’Oréal Fellowship and the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) scholarship for her work exploring novel engineering tools to more accurately predict streamflow and sediment at ungauged remote sites. Dr. Atieh worked on projects analyzing temporal and spatial variability of precipitation and propagating its effect on flow, and allocation of water resources for satisfying irrigation water demand in Lebanon. Her current research evaluates water quantity at ungauged basins using artificial neural networks, gene expression programming models and geographic information system.  Dr. Atieh is the President of the Lebanese Youth Parliament for Water (LYPW) that was initiated in 2019. She is also a member of the youth committee at the Ibrahim Abd ElAl foundation aiming at raising awareness regarding the UN Sustainable Development Goals. She hopes that the coming generations will feel the urgency of preventing and reversing the damage done to Earth.

Urs Hagnauer

Head Project Office Zahle, Embassy of Switzerland

As Project Manager for the Embassy of Switzerland in Lebanon, on the project; “Contribution to improved access to water and sanitation services in Bekaa Valley”, Urs is responsible for the overall implementation of the activities and the collaboration with the local partners, in particular the Bekaa Water Establishment. His professional background is in Project Management and Human Resource Development and his professional experience extends to over 40 years. The past 37 years being focused exclusively in the development sector while implementing programs and projects aiming on poverty reduction and improvement of living conditions of vulnerable groups of people.

Urs has been holding direct line and advisory positions in projects and programs related to the Water, Sanitation and Health, Technical Vocational Education and support of Small and Medium Enterprise sector. Lately he worked more in organizational development and capacity building of local partner institutions in the WASH sector and activities related to the adaptation and mitigation of climate change. Urs has also led large multi-disciplinary teams in diverse cultural settings in remote areas of Bhutan, Kyrgyzstan, Lesotho, Nepal, Costa Rica, Honduras, Nicaragua, Pakistan, Lebanon and Paraguay.

Jihan Seoud

Program Manager Energy and Environment Programme at UNDP

Jihan Seoud has been working for the Energy and Environment Programme at the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in Lebanon since 2004.  She works on managing a team of experts that implement environmental projects throughout Lebanon in support of the government as well as local communities.  She also provides technical policy support to the UNDP on environmental matters and mobilises resources for projects in the sector.  She has experience in sustainable energy and climate change, conservation of natural resources, water management and protection and environmental policy initiatives.  She holds a bachelor degree in Environmental Health from the American University of Beirut and a graduate degree in Environmental Science and Technology, with a focus on water chemistry, from UNESCO-IHE Delft, The Netherlands.

Dr Atif Kubursi

Emeritus Professor of Economics at McMaster University, Canada

Atif Kubursi is Emeritus Professor of Economics at McMaster University, Canada. He taught economics at Purdue University in Indiana, USA, was visiting Scholar at Cambridge University, Fellow of the Institute for Social and Economic Policy at Harvard University, Adjunct Professor with the Faculty of Environmental Studies at York University and served as the Acting Executive Secretary, and Undersecretary General of the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia. In 1981 he worked for the United Nations Industrial Development Organization as senior Development Officer and was consultant to the Organization throughout the 1980s and 1990s. He consulted regularly with the UNFAO, UNCTAD, UNILO, UNESCO, UNEP, UNDP and many other international organizations and governments. He authored 12 books including The Economic Consequences of the Camp David Accords (Institute of Palestine Studies in Arabic and English) and Oil, Industrialization & Development in Arab Gulf States (Routledge), Food and Water Security in the Arab World (World Bank in Arabic and English), Co-operation & Development in the Energy Sector (Croom – Helm with T. Naylor), Input – Output Analyses of Fiscal Policy in Ontario (Ontario Economic Council), The Economies of the Arabian Gulf (Routledge) and over 250 papers in academic and professional journals and technical reports.

He holds a Ph.D and M Sc. degrees in Economics from Purdue University, USA. B.A in Economics from the American University of Beirut. He completed three years towards a law degree at the Faculty of Law, Lebanese University 1961-1964.  In 1972 he formed Econometric Research Ltd. and has served as its president since then. He sits on a number of community and academic boards including Global Carbon Footprint Foundation, Trans Arab Research Centre (TARI), Wellwood, Raising a Village, Canadian Journal of Development Studies, and Development Economics.