Yvonne Aki-Sawyerr OBE
Mayor of Freetown, Sierra Leone
Yvonne Aki-Sawyerr OBE was sworn in as Mayor of Freetown in May 2018 with a commitment to transform Freetown using an inclusive, data-driven approach to address challenges in the city. A chartered accountant with over 25 years of private sector experience in strategic planning and risk management, Mayor Aki-Sawyerr’s public sector engagement began with her work as Director of Planning at the National Ebola Response Centre during the 2014-15 Ebola epidemic. Mayor Aki-Sawyerr is co-founder of the Sierra Leone War Trust for Children (SLWT) which supports disadvantaged children in Sierra Leone today.
Harjeet Singh
Global Climate Lead at ActionAid
Harjeet Singh is the global lead on climate change for ActionAid. Based in New Delhi, India he supports countries across the world on climate change policy and advocacy. Prior to this, he managed disaster resilience programme globally and coordinated emergency response and preparedness work in Asia and the Americas. Until 2007, he led the tsunami response programme in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands for ActionAid India. He writes regularly on climate change and disaster resilience issues and tweets at @harjeet11.