MIT Media Lab

Lycee Francais de New York

London School of Economics and Political Science

Harvard University

Brown University

Agribusiness specialist

Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States

I am Project Coordinator for a joint World Bank - IFC project to support access to irrigation for smallholder cotton farmers in Burkina Faso.For IFC, I have helped prepare program documents and legal agreements, participated in negotiations with the client, prepared communications materials (speech, press release) for a signing ceremony, and helped with hiring project consultants.For the World Bank, I coordinate inputs from finance, procurement, and safeguards specialists; and help draft and review project documents in  French and English.  Overall, I coordinate an international project team consisting of specialists in irrigation, farm ponds, finance, legal agreements, and monitoring and evaluation.Previously, I helped the Global Partnership on Output-Based Aid scope potential irrigation projects.

World Bank

Project Coordinator, Global Partnership on Output-Based Aid

2015 – present: Core team member, IFC Crop Production platform, with a focus on sustainable water management.1997-2015 – Contribute to various IFC projects on climate change, biodiversity, and corporate water sustainability, and to strengthening the way water is addressed in IFC's Social and Environmental Performance Standards.For IFC’s Crop Production Platform, I have prepared program documents (proposals, log frames, legal agreements), participated in negotiations with the client, prepared communications materials (speech, press release), developed Terms of Reference for consultants, engaged with other teams within the World Bank Group, and worked very closely with the client, technical specialists, and others, to build and implement effective projects.Recent projects include:-Cotton Sector: -Climate-smart erosion management and improved soil fertility, to improve productivity for IFC clients in Northern Côte d’Ivoire (SECO) and in Burkina Faso (SOFITEX).-Led the preparation of a proposal to CotonTchad for climate-smart erosion management.-Agricultural lime / Mali-Support to Malian company Carrières et Chaux du Mali (CCM) to develop the Malian market for agricultural lime-Millet / Senegal	-Improved millet yields through soil water management, for IFC client OCP-Rice / Côte d’Ivoire 	-Higher yields through improved soil and water management, for IFC client OCP-Horticulture / Haiti-developing horticulture supply chains in Port-au-Prince and Ouanaminthe, for IFC clients in Haiti-Internal-Contribute to development of new products and training materials, prepare internal proposals, presentations and applications, etc.-Mentor/onboard new team members

International Finance Corporation (IFC)

Water Specialist

For the Global Green Growth (3GF) forum in Kenya in May 2015, prepared a briefing document which summarized a hydro-economic analysis and highlighted opportunities for partnership with the 2030 Water Resources Group.

2030 Water Resources Group

Consultant

Helped organize a high-level workshop on climate change finance, for directors of bilateral finance institutions, leading up to the Copenhagen COP.  The workshop was jointly organized by UNEP and AFD, participants included directors or senior staff from DBSA, DFID, EIB,  JICA, KfW, SIDA, and others.  Reached out to participants in advance of the workshop, and prepared conference agenda, white paper, and summary.

UNEP

Coordinator, climate change workshop for bilateral finance institutions

Conducted market research to assess the role that Biodiversity Conservation Certificates could play in reducing the impact of the palm oil industry on tropical rainforest habitat. The Certificates come from the Malua Wildlife Habitat Conservation Bank, which was established by New Forests in Sabah, Malaysia, as a pioneering initiative to make conservation financially sustainable.Assisted New Forests in the preparation of a report on market-based tools for biodiversity conservation.

New Forests Inc.

Based on consultations with experts and stakeholders (multinational corporations, NGOs, agricultural producers, financiers etc), I was the lead author, on behalf of a Consortium led by PwC, a proposal to the Global Environment Facility (GEF) for a $8 million project to mainstream biodiversity considerations into markets for four agricultural commodities: cocoa, palm oil, sugarcane, and soy (target countries: Indonesia, Malaysia, Brazil, Ghana, Côte d'Ivoire).  Also helped finalize program design, including including management structure and monitoring & evaluation. Proposal was endorsed approved by the GEF CEO.

PricewaterhouseCoopers Limited

Lead Consultant, Biodversity and Agricultural Commodities Program

Developed a concept paper for the Sakhalin Salmon Initiative, a salmonid preservation plan for the island of Sakhalin in the Russian Far East, where oil and gas operations are taking place.  Work involved meetings with oil companies (Shell, BP), with the EBRD’s Environment Department and Executive Directors, with local environment and social groups on Sakhalin, and with potential funders, to design an effective long-term strategy for salmon preservation, and to obtain funding for it.

Wild Salmon Center

Strategist

Reviewed Suriname’s first National Communications to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change.

UNDP

Reviewer of Suriname National Communications to the UN FCCC

Panel member for Secretariat-Managed Reviews of three GEF projects: Low Cost/Low Energy Buildings in the Czech Republic (UNDP), Energy Efficiency Market Development in Côte d’Ivoire (World Bank), and Redirecting Commercial Investment Decisions to Cleaner Technologies (UNEP).  Reviewed project documentation, spoke with project implementers via phone and in the field, and discussed the projects with fellow panel members in order to complete a consensus-based panel questionnaire.

Global Environment Facility

Climate Change Expert for Independent Project Review

Reviewed seven GEF projects that use market mechanisms to increase the penetration of energy-efficient products and services (“market transformation” projects).  The report reviews market transformation approaches in use worldwide, and analyzes experience and lessons learned from the seven GEF projects. A short version of the report appeared in Energy Policy.

Lead Author, Market Transformation Portfolio Review

Supervisor for Efficient LIghting Initiative (ELI) in the Czech Republic, Hungary, Latvia, and the Philippines. ELI was a $15 million GEF project to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by accelerating the uptake of energy-efficient lighting.

Program Supervisor, Efficient Lighting Initiative

A few additional (and quite colorful) biodiversity projects: I was part of the project design team for an IFC/GEF project in Peru, to help preserve the Peruvian Amazon by supporting sustainable production of frogs (e.g., colorful poison dart frogs) for the US and EU frog hobby market. The term of art for this kind of operation is the wonderfully evocative "frog ranching"! I also conducted due diligence on potential private-sector based biodiversity projects around conch mariculture in the Carribean, and winemaking in Georgia. Conchs are vegetarian, and as such are a sustainable source of marine-based protein.  The project was stopped because of due diligence concerns.Georgia is the birthplace of wine, and thanks to its varied topography, the country has a multitude of soil types.  Thus Georgia has an extraordinarily rich agro-biodiversity for grapes, which is under threat from increasing standardization in the wine sector.  The project did not move forward because there was no accompanying IFC investment.On the energy side,  I advised a Costa Rican utility setting up an ESCO; co-authored a study on efficient lighting for the EU; and for the IFC, I managed  the Poland Efficient Lighting Project and was team member for the preparation of a proposal on the China Utility Energy Efficiency Project (CHUEE).

Other biodiversity or climate change assignments

Project manager in the Washington DC, Bangkok and London offices of IIEC.

International Institute for Energy Conservation

Project Manager

Performed financial and economic analyses of electric utilities’ energy efficiency programs.Wrote testimony filed before state Public Utility Commissions; topics included design of Demand-Side Management (DSM) programs, Integrated Resource Planning (IRP), and the environmental externalities of energy provision.

Sabrina Birner