People

Clare Shakya

Clare Shakya was IIED's director of strategic impact until November 2023

Clare Shakya's picture
clareshakya
Languages: English, Nepali, Spanish (rusty)

Clare is formerly director of IIED’s Climate Change research group, where her work focused on the role climate finance can play to create inclusive and equitable delivery mechanisms that incentivise action to tackle the poverty, climate and nature crises.

Clare worked on improving access to climate finance as well as on its quality and quantity. 

She supported the Least Developed Countries (LDC) Group leadership on their LDC Initiative For Effective Adaptation and Resilience (LIFE-AR) – developing vertically integrated delivery mechanisms that can channel resources and authority for climate action to local actors country wide. 

She also worked with partners who have endorsed the principles for locally-led adaptation in improving the quality and effectiveness of adaptation support.

Expertise

Clare’s applied experience includes: 

  • Governing climate risk and uncertainty through flexible, adaptive and politically astute development 
  • Shock responsive social protection, parametric risk insurance and climate information services 
  • Strategic policy influence through amplifying real-time learning and the voices of women and other excluded groups for social justice 
  • Coherent governance of landscapes (water resources, land and forests) 
  • Enterprise development for affordable energy services and resilient value chains, and 
  • Strengthening Southern climate capabilities through peer learning and shifting institutional culture.

Before IIED

Clare has over 30 years of experience on climate change, energy and natural resource management, including 15 years with the UK Department for International Development (now the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO)) where she led Asia and then the Africa Division’s climate change response.

She has experience working in Asia, Africa and Latin America.

Education

  • MSc (Oxon) forestry and its relation to land use, University of Oxford (Director’s Prize) 1996
  • BSc (hons) environmental science and development studies, University of East Anglia (first class) 1991
     

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