Flowing Waters: Harnessing Transboundary Rivers in South Asia

Ajaya Dixit is currently the Senior Advisor, Institute for Social and Environmental Transition in Nepal. Previously he has held positions at Institute of Engineering, Kathmandu and Nepal Water for Health among others. Dixit has published extensively in prestigious journals and his research interest include climate change vulnerabilities and ecosystem-based adaptation, water economics, irrigation, disaster risk management ,and adaptation. 

Ashwin Pandya is the Secretary General at International Commission on Irrigation and Drainage and previously served as the chairman of the Central Water Commission. Mr Pandya has years of comprehensive experience in all aspects of water resources engineering, policy and planning, and water resource management.  

Malik Fida A Khan has over 30 years of extensive experiences spanning across the diversified fields of Water Resources Planning and Management, Climate Change, Information Technology, and development projects in Bangladesh. He has skills for development of integrated planning and implementation through multi organizational involvement and participation of stakeholder for optimum utilization of resources. Besides, serving as the Executive Director of Center for Environmental and Geographic Information Services  (CEGIS), he also supervises the activities of Climate Change and Disaster Management Division. 

Runa Khan is the founder and executive director of  Friendship, an international Social Purpose Organization. Friendship works in the areas of sustainable development, climate change and empowering vulnerable communities. Among other efforts, it supports communities mainly in the shifting northern river islands, known as chars, of the Brahmaputra and Jamuna rivers and in the coastal areas of the Bay of Bengal. Friendship's first project was a floating hospital- which converted river barges into medical ship that brought health care access to the most vulnerable river communities. 

Saroj Kumar Jha is the Global Director for the World Bank Group’s Water Global Practice (GP). In his current assignment, Mr. Jha leads the Global Practice senior management team, which drives the policy direction of the Practice, oversees a portfolio of $27 billion in water-related investments, analytical work, multi-donor trust funds and global partnerships. Under Mr. Jha’s leadership, Water Practice is accelerating global and county level water action agenda for green, resilient, and inclusive growth, creating good jobs, and to tackle the water-climate-conflict nexus in shared river basins around the world.

Cecile Fruman is the Director, Regional Integration and Engagement in the South Asia Region (SAR). She is responsible for fostering greater connectivity and collaborative activities amongst SAR countries.

Cecile has dedicated her career to international development across multiple geographies. She has deep experience in trade and competitiveness, strategy development, portfolio management, and partnerships. A French national, she holds an MBA from ESCP Europe, one of France’s top business schools, and furthered her studies at the University of Osaka in Japan.