Opening Plenary Session

Bruno Dercon is a Senior Human Settlements Officer at the UN-Habitat Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific, Fukuoka, Japan. He has supervised and supported UN-Habitat programmes in Asia since 2005. He specializes in urban development and urban planning. In Indonesia, he was the UN housing coordinator for the reconstruction of Aceh and Nias after the Indian Ocean Tsunami in 2004. In Myanmar, he was the Shelter Cluster Coordinator after Cyclone Nargis (2008). In Pakistan, he supported the country team in addressing shelter recovery programming after the floods of 2010, 2011 and 2012. In Mongolia, he supported Ulaanbaatar programmes in support of migrant settlers in 2012 and 2013. He has supported UN-Habitat Nepal since the Earthquake of 2015. He is currently still supporting programmes and teams in Nepal and Myanmar. Bruno Dercon adds to this a keen interest in general urban development including urban planning. He oversees the UN-Habitat programmes in China. He has been a lead author on urban planning in the “Future of Asia Pacific Cities Report” (UN-ESCAP – UN-Habitat 2019) and on the urban economy in the “Cities and Pandemics” report (UN-Habitat 2021).

Contact: bruno.dercon@un.org

Hafsar Tameesuddin is a former Rohingya refugee from Myanmar based in New Zealand. During her time as a refugee in Malaysia and now in New Zealand, she has been involved in advocacy and activism on statelessness, refugee rights, prevention of sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV) and LGBTQI rights. For 8 years in Malaysia, she worked with refugee communities on the prevention and response to SGBV including child marriage as a Refugee Women Protection Corp with International Catholic Migration Commission (ICMC). She is now the newly elected chair of APRRN, the steering committee member of APNOR and the New Zealand country coordinator of Free Rohingya Coalition.

Contact: hafsar29@gmail.com