Dr. Ehdaie serves as Special Assistant to the Under Secretary for Economic Growth, Energy and the Environment and Senior Advisor on women’s economic issues to the Assistant Secretary of Economic and Business Affairs at the U.S. Department of State. She led in the conception and now the development of the Economic Bureau’s “Providing Opportunities for Women’s Economic Rise” (POWER) initiative. In her role as Special Assistant to the Under Secretary, Dr. Ehdaie works on foreign policy matters pertaining to global health and climate, which entails organizing and shaping the Department’s engagement on economic response to climate change and the global pandemics, including inclusive and equitable infrastructure. Women’s economic empowerment is a critical component to economic development and response to the global pandemic and climate change. In this vein, Dr. Ehdaie supports U.S. policy implementation aimed at fostering gender equality, women’s economic empowerment and equitable response to economic recovery and development. Dr. Ehdaie is a recipient of the Science Policy Fellowship of the American Association for the Advancement of Sciences and the U.S. Department of State Swanee Hunt Award for advancing women in foreign policy. Dr. Ehdaie is a graduate and Rodman Scholar of the University of Virginia, where she obtained her Bachelors, Masters in Biomedical Engineering, and Ph.D. in Civil and Environmental Engineering, and completed her Postdoctoral Fellowship at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.

Christine Auclair is the Head, Advocacy and Campaigns Unit at UN-Habitat, External Relations, Strategy, Knowledge and Innovations Division. Christine leads the World Urban Campaign, a global coalition and advocacy platform to raise the urban agenda and promote sustainable urbanization worldwide. PhD in Urban Studies (Institut Francais d’Urbanisme, Paris), housing policy specialist, practiced architecture and planning in France up to 1993. 

She joined UN-Habitat in the Urban Indicators Programme to develop city data for the Habitat II Conference (Istanbul, 1996) and the Global Urban Observatory. She then worked on the development of the State of the World Cities Report. She dedicated six years to global partnerships and developed private sector engagement for the agency (2007-2011). Dedicated two years to City Climate Action Planning (2018-19) and climate advocacy in 2021

Anantha Krishnan has over 36 years of experience in international development work, including over 15 years of work with the UN in in Nairobi Kenya ( UNEP and UN Habitat) engaged in Youth empowerment initiatives, policy and research, CSR, advocacy, program management including development and implementation of projects. Recent work includes a consultancy assignment for the Norwegian Government , a strategy document for UNIDO on youth employment and entrepreneurship. Very recently a position paper was developed by him for UN-Habitat on Urban Basic Services. he has also conducted housing market studies in Myanmar, Mozambique and Tanzania.

Currently associated with organizations in China and the UN on setting up a Youth entrepreneurship Award. Currently he is also associated with the International Centre for energy, environment and Development (ICEED Nigeria) engaged in clean and safe fuel and energy to internally displaced persons.

He has worked at the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ministry of Local Government and the Ministry of Environment. Other organizations that I has been with in Norway include the International Peace Research Institute, Forum for Environment and development and the Anti-racist Centre and NORAD, the Norwegian agency for international development. He has lived and worked in Tanzania, India, Kenya and the UK. He is a Rotarian in Nigeria. He is a Norwegian national of Indian origin with strong African connections.