Director Environment, Climate Change and Disaster Risk Reduction
Mr. Hasan A. Rizvi is an accomplished professional who brings leadership, vision and innovation into whatever work he undertakes. With 40+ years of experience spanning academia, development sector and technology entrepreneurship, Hasan has been a pioneer in more than one area.
The first 10 years of his career were devoted to academic research culminating in his work at the European Centre for Nuclear Research (CERN), Geneva, for four years. Moving to the use of Information and Communication Technologies for development, he played an instrumental role in bringing email and Internet to Pakistan – under the aegis of a UNDP project - and set up the first knowledge portals and networks of practitioners highlighting the issues of development– including environment, climate change and water resource management - for the country. He became one of the Programme Directors of the World Conservation Union (IUCN) in Pakistan, and led its Education, Communications and Knowledge Management programs. Pivoting to a stint in entrepreneurship he helped set up and managed (as its CEO) FiveRivers Technologies (Pvt.) Ltd., one of the most innovative technology companies in Pakistan – known for its cutting-edge work in distributed computing and information management; all this while also teaching applied science, knowledge management and technology entrepreneurship courses at a private university. Later, during 2012-17, he worked in LEAD Pakistan for more than five years as its Chief Knowledge Officer (CKO), spearheading its work in research, training and knowledge management with a special focus on the themes of climate change and disaster risk reduction. He has now been working in these areas for more than 12 years. His contributions span the domains of policy, planning and research.
As Chief Knowledge Officer of LEAD Pakistan, during 2015-16, he led the teams formulating climate change policies for KP, Punjab and Sindh, and in case of KP, also chalked out five-year action plans based on the policy guidelines. Working at the planning level, he also formulated district disaster management plans (DDMPs) and adaptation plans (APs) for a number of districts in Sindh, Balochistan and Punjab. As head of the knowledge management of the Asia region’s Climate Development and Knowledge Network (CDKN), he had a vantage position to critically evaluate research studies and initiatives in climate compatible development in India, Bangladesh, Indonesia and Nepal in addition to CDKN’s work in Pakistan. During 2017-19, he worked as an independent consultant on a whole gamut of development themes under the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Later (2019-2021), he worked for a public health research outfit, where, among other things he had the opportunity to look at the impact of climate change on communities’ health and how to respond to this emerging challenge. Since 2022, he has been managing the Environment, Climate Change and DRR portfolio of AiD Pvt. (Ltd.). During this period, among other projects, he led a research study on assessing the climate resilience of secondary cities in Pakistan as well as a pioneering study on climate resilient livelihood enhancement in three southern districts of KP.