The ripple effect: water as a tool for peace and sustainable development

An expert on the politics and governance of water resources, Naho Mirumachi leads King’s Water, an interdisciplinary research hub on water, environment and development. She also co-chairs the Water Governance core group of the Sustainable Water Futures Programme of Future Earth and has experience in training policymakers on water security and water cooperation. The author of Transboundary Water Politics in the Developing World and co-author of Understanding Water Conflicts: Analysis for Transformation, Mirumachi served as lead author on freshwater policy for the 2019 UN Environment Global Environment Outlook-6 report.

Therese Noorlander is responsible for driving The Coca-Cola Company’s corporate sustainability agenda in Europe and works together with Coca-Cola’s bottling partners to ensure that her organisation meets the sustainability commitments of the company’s Western European This is Forward strategy. Noorlander has experience in both the public and private sector, having previously worked at Heineken, Nutricia Advanced Medical Nutrition, Pfizer and the Dutch Ministry of Health.

Dominic Porter’s experience in the European institutions goes back over 20 years. During this time he has served in London, Brussels, New York and as Deputy Head of the EU Delegation to the UN and other International Organisations in Geneva. Having started his EU career working on trade policy – including on the negotiation of China’s accession to the World Trade Organization (WTO) – he went on to work as an advisor and speechwriter to former European Commissioner Chris Patten. Porter later served in the Middle East department where he was responsible for relations with Iran, Iraq, Yemen and the Gulf States.

Sundeep Waslekar leads the Strategic Foresight Group, an India-based think tank that has worked with governments and institutions of 60 countries across four continents to create new policy concepts in conflict resolution, water diplomacy and global foresight. He has been involved in diplomatic exercises to find common ground in the times of crisis and has facilitated dialogue between Indian and Pakistani decision-makers, as well as water authorities in Africa and the Middle East. Waslekar is the creator of the Blue Peace Framework and the Water Cooperation Quotient and is also Senior Research Fellow at the Centre for the Resolution of Intractable Conflicts at Oxford University’s Harris Manchester College.

Shada Islam is responsible for policy oversight of Friends of Europe’s initiatives, activities and publications. She has special responsibility for issues related to the Future of Europe, Migration, the Asia Programme and the Development Policy Forum. Shada is Visiting Professor at the College of Europe (Natolin) where she teaches Asia-Europe relations and has been selected as a fellow by the Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB). She has been named as one of twenty most influential women in Brussels by Politico. Shada is the former Europe correspondent for the Far Eastern Economic Review and has previously worked on Asian and Migration issues at the European Policy Centre. She is one of the authors of Friends of Europe’s much-read “Frankly Speaking” commentary and is sought after as a speaker, commentator, columnist and moderator at high-level European and global events. Shada also continues to write on EU foreign and security policy, EU-Asia relations and trade and development issues for leading Asian, European and international publications and academic journals.