About Us

Global Support Team

On this page you will find a description of the various roles in the Global Support Team (GST), as well as the contact details of the people in those roles (click on a name to send an e-mail).

GSC COORDINATORS

GSC Coordinators provide strategic direction to the GSC (advised by the SAG) and engage regularly in the Global Cluster Coordinators Group as well as other inter-cluster coordination fora.

Pablo Medina - IFRC

Pablo Medina is Global Shelter Cluster Coordinator/Co-Lead for IFRC. He previously served as the Deputy GSC Coordinator from 2012 until end of 2023. With over 20 years of experience in humanitarian response and coordination, his career encompasses long-term field experience in the Philippines, Guatemala and Sri Lanka, with many other short missions in other countries in Latin America, Africa and Asia-Pacific. He has worked with national and international NGOs, the UN, and the Red Cross/Red Crescent Movement.

In his various capacities as a humanitarian worker, Pablo has led multi-sector programs and teams in response to conflict, food insecurity, and disasters. He has a postgraduate diploma in humanitarian assistance, a master’s in rural development, and a double undergraduate degree in law and business administration.

Seki Hirano - UNHCR

Seki Hirano is the Global Shelter Cluster Coordinator/Co-Lead for UNHCR. Previously, he served as Global Senior Shelter and Settlement Technical Advisor/Team Leader with Catholic Relief Services for almost 13 years. In this role, he was an active member of the GSC Strategic Advisory Group for more than nine years and co-chair of the GSC’s Urban Settlements Working Group. He was co-author of the shelter and settlements chapter in the 2018 revision of the Sphere Handbook. .

With experience in shelter cluster coordination, shelter program implementation, team management, and global advocacy, Seki began his career in humanitarian shelter and settlements programming and coordination with the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami. He has since worked in more than 45 countries across the Americas, Europe, Asia, and Africa for UN agencies, INGOs, and donors including FCDO and the World Bank. He is a qualified architect with more than 25 years of overall professional experience and has a master’s degree in global diplomacy, a bachelor’s degree and a diploma in architecture, and a certificate in professional practice and management in architecture.

GSC DEPUTY COORDINATORS

Caroline Dewast - IFRC

Caroline has over 12 years of experience working in humanitarian responses including Shelter Cluster Coordination and emergency operations working for IFRC, UNHCR, INGOs and donors. Over the years she has worked in a number of contexts including Afghanistan, Armenia, Colombia, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Fiji, Jordan, North West Syria, Peru, the occupied Palestinian territories, the Philippines and Ukraine.

Caroline joins IFRC after 4 years with UNHCR in the field and at HQ level. In her different roles she has managed teams, developed strategies and guidelines, provided trainings, and carried out evaluations on topics including: emergency shelter response, cluster coordination, cash and voucher programming, market based approaches, housing land and property rights, disability and inclusions, amongst other. She has also co-authored DG ECHO Global Policy on Shelter and Settlements.

She is a qualified Architect and holds a Master’s degree in Development and Emergency Practice from Oxford Brookes University in the UK, and she is fluent in English, French and Spanish.

GLOBAL FOCAL POINTS FOR COORDINATION

GFPs for Coordination have been enhancing the coordination provided by country-level clusters. They oversee that country-level clusters are fulfilling the six core functions defined by the IASC with a particular focus on supporting service delivery, informing strategic decision-making, planning and strategy development, advocacy, and monitoring and reporting.

Angel Pascual - UNHCR

Angel Pascual currently holds the position of Senior Coordination Officer at the Global Shelter Cluster with UNHCR since 2019. Angel developed a passion for urban planning since childhood and went on to study in the UK specializing in the fields of Urban Design, Tourism Planning and Development Studies. Angel initiated his professional career as an Urban Designer and Traffic Engineer in the private sector in London before moving to the public sector at the planning department of a London Local Council. In a pursuit to make a difference to those affected by conflict and disaster, Angel later followed a career in development humanitarian response management having work as Shelter Program Coordinator and Urban Planner in Afghanistan and Lebanon and later as Head of Office and Programs for multiple organizations such NRC, DRC, ACTED, PU-AMI and Merlin among others, managing programs in the fields of Protection, Education, Livelihoods, Logistics as wells as Shelter and WASH. Angel has extensive experience in capacity building and training delivery as well development of policy and technical guidance. Angel has worked and lived in countries such as Afghanistan, Dominican Republic, Haiti, Jordan, Lebanon, Turkey and Syria among others and has a passion for travel having visited over 90 countries around the world

Francisco Monteiro - IFRC

Francisco is seconded to the Global Shelter Cluster from the Australian Red Cross, and brings wide experience in post disaster shelter and construction coordination and implementation (Philippines, Mozambique, Nepal, Vanuatu) humanitarian response & coordination training – sphere, shelter, wash and logistics (Australia, Fiji, Indonesia, Malaysia and Nepal) and management of large scale conflict and post conflict reconstruction programmes (World Bank Timor-Leste, UNOPS Iraq, UNESCO World Heritage Centre Mozambique).

An Architect by trade and a humanist by choice, thrives working in teams, alongside and learning from local experts.

Fluent in Portuguese, English, French and Spanish.

ROVING COORDINATORS

The Roving Shelter Cluster Coordinators are experienced cluster coordinators readily available to be deployed to activate and support cluster operations for the top tier emergencies. These deployments are done together with a Roving Shelter Cluster Information Manager. Between deployments, they support the Global Shelter Cluster initiatives and provide remote support to country-level clusters.

Mamen Sancha - UNHCR (supported by NORCAP)

Mamen has been working in the humanitarian sector since 2013. Since then, she has combined shelter practitioner positions with Shelter Cluster Coordination roles and consultancies, within the Red Cross and INGOs. Trained as an architect, she developed her original experience in the private sector and the Spanish Agency for International Development Cooperation. These opportunities have led her for the time being to Mozambique, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Peru, Haiti, Ecuador, the Philippines, Sierra Leone and Cambodia.

Mamen graduated in Architecture and holds a master in Advance Architecture Design and a postgraduate diploma in WASH in Developing Countries.

She speaks fluently Spanish, French and English.

Alexandre Koclejda - UNHCR

Alexandre is an architect and holds the position of Senior Roving Cluster Coordinator. He started his humanitarian career as a volunteer for a local organization to supervise the reconstruction of a settlement for cyclone-affected people in Madagascar. Based on this experience, he wrote his thesis on resilient locally based solutions and sustainably safer housing and settlements. Since then, he has worked in disaster and conflict situations in sixteen countries in Asia, Middle East and Africa, including emergencies, protracted displacement, and recovery work.

Alexandre has worked for international NGOs, the Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement, governments, UN-Habitat and more recently UNHCR as the Snr Cluster coordinator in Somalia and Northwest Syria.

His experience in many countries increasingly and severely affected by droughts, floods and cyclones led him to specialize in environmental issues and climate change, its causes, potential impacts, mitigations and adaptation responses.

REGIONAL FOCAL POINTS FOR COORDINATION

Regional focal points for coordination provide support to country-level clusters with preparedness and contingency planning activities. They also provide surge capacity when required to help set-up clusters or fill specific gaps. Between deployments, they provide remote support to country-level clusters in their regions according to their skills, in areas such as contingency planning, urban responses, settlement approach, and others.

Robert Dodds - IFRC/Australian Red Cross (Asia Pacific)

Robert (a.k.a Robbie) Dodds is currently the Roving Shelter Cluster Coordination Focal Point for Asia Pacific. This is as part of a shared leadership agreement between IFRC and the Australian Red Cross, with a focus on preparedness.

He brings to the team extensive shelter and settlements program/project management and coordination experience in the humanitarian, private and public sectors. Over the past 20 years, he has carried out short and long-term assignments in Africa, Asia, the Pacific, the Americas, and regional and remote Australian communities. This has been in natural disaster and conflict scenarios during the preparedness, emergency response, recovery, and reconstruction phases, and largely within the Red Cross Red Crescent Movement.

Robbie holds degrees in architecture (Bachelor of Science, and Bachelor of Architecture) and is currently pursuing further studies in environmental design.

Lilia Blades - IFRC (Americas)

Architect and regional planner (Msc Regional Planning) with 14 years international experience in sustainable human settlements. She is part of the Canadian Red Cross, seconded to IFRC providing shelter coordination support in Latin America and the Caribbean. Areas of expertise include climate change adaptation, urban planning, disaster risk reduction, housing and capacity development. Team player with experience in municipal governments, the private sector, NGO’s and the United Nations (UN-Habitat, UNAMA, UNFCCC and UNDP) in Canada, Latin America, Asia, Europe and Africa.

Fluent in Spanish, English, French and German.

GLOBAL FOCAL POINTS FOR INFORMATION MANAGEMENT

GFPs for Information Management support country-level clusters by consolidating guidance, setting up IM systems in new emergencies, supporting coordination teams in country directly or remotely, and developing training materials.

Neil Bauman - IFRC/Canadian Red Cross

Neil is an architect, senior shelter advisor, and information management specialist with the Canadian Red Cross who has been supporting the Shelter Cluster since 2005. His work has supported both operations and coordination activities in more than a dozen countries at field level and many more through remote support.

During his time with the Shelter Cluster, Neil has been involved in many different elements of its support to cluster partners. He has been a lead facilitator of the Humanitarian Shelter Coordination Training (HSCT) and has delivered a number of trainings focused on information management and shelter technical skills.

Hussien Ahmad - UNHCR

Hussein is from Syria and has previous experience in IMO roles in Syria, Libya and Bangladesh on IDP and refugee programs over the last 10 years including Shelter and Protection Clusters. Hussein has a PhD in data science with extensive experience in academic research, data management and analysis including advanced artificial intelligence and machine learning techniques; and software development using multiple platforms and programming languages.

Hussien brings strong language skills, speaking English, Arabic (native) and intermediate French and Spanish.

ROVING INFORMATION MANAGEMENT OFFICERS

The Roving Shelter Cluster Information Management Officers readily available to be deployed to activate and support cluster operations by consolidating guidance, setting up IM systems in new emergencies, supporting coordination teams in country directly or remotely, and developing training materials.

Audrey Gallecier - UNHCR

Audrey has extensive experience in humanitarian research and analysis, with a strong focus on leading multi-sectoral needs assessments and delivering capacity-building trainings. Over the past six years, she has held various roles with IMPACT Initiatives, as GIS Officer and Assessment Officer, working in Iraq, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Jordan for the Yemen mission. She has also undertaken shorter missions in Northwest Syria, Moldova and Somalia. In addition to her work with IMPACT, she has collaborated closely with UNDAC, where she has facilitated training workshops on assessment methodologies and deployed in response to emergencies, including the flash flood response in Gambia.

Audrey is fluent in French, Spanish and English.

Daniela Salazar - IFRC

Daniela Salazar studied International Relations at the University of Rosario in Colombia. She holds two master’s degrees: one in International Cooperation and Development from the Institute of Political Studies of Bordeaux, and the other in Development Studies from the Geneva Graduate Institute. Daniela has over five years of professional experience in international cooperation, external relations, partnerships, sustainability, and climate action, with a focus on developing and implementing projects aimed at expanding partnerships and promoting climate action and sustainable practices.

She has worked across various sectors, including government agencies, semi-private organizations, NGOs, and international organizations. She has also collaborated on different research projects with international organizations, particularly in the areas of just transitions and the climate-health nexus. In the past year, Daniela worked with the IFRC’s Climate, Environment, Urban, and Resilience Unit, focusing on communications, event management, and coordination activities related to Early Warning and Anticipatory Action, specifically supporting Pillar 4 of the Early Warning for All initiative.

GLOBAL FOCAL POINTS FOR RESEARCH AND ADVOCACY

GFP for Research advances and fosters links with academia while GFP for Advocacy ensures that the GSC Advocacy efforts are guided by research and inform practice, policy and guidance.

Research: Lizzie Babister - Habitat for Humanity

Lizzie brings to the team two decades of supporting those affected by humanitarian crises to recover their shelter and settlements after disasters and conflict. Her fieldwork as a government donor, senior manager, humanitarian practitioner and researcher, includes: Asia, Africa, Latin America and Europe. She is an Associate Director for Habitat for Humanity International, a researcher with the Open University, an Associate Lecturer with Oxford Brookes University and an Associate Trainer for RedR.

She is co-founder of the UK Shelter Forum and prior to her humanitarian career she qualified and practiced as an architect in the UK.

Advocacy: Sarah Pilchick - CANADEM

Sarah has over ten years of experience in humanitarian communications and advocacy. Since starting her career at UNHCR in 2014, she worked with various UN agencies and international NGOs on humanitarian emergencies and election integrity in the Middle East, East Africa, Eastern Europe, and Central Asia. She also spent two years working as spokesperson/press attaché for the UK Foreign, Commonwealth, and Development Office at NATO, where she also led strategic communications and counter-disinformation policy. She has master’s degrees in political sociology and journalism and a bachelor’s in history and international studies and is currently a PhD candidate in history at Maastricht University.

Sarah speaks English, intermediate Spanish and German, and basic French, Czech, and Arabic.

GLOBAL FOCAL POINTS FOR THE ENVIRONMENT

The GFP for Environment is responsible for coordinating the greening activities, supporting implementing partners and clusters, and supporting the monitoring framework for the relevant initiatives.

Madeleine Marara - CANADEM

Madeleine has over 15 years of combined experience in development and humanitarian sectors. She has been working with UNHCR since 2014, first as an Assistant National Program Officer in Rwanda, serving as the focal person for various technical sectors (Shelter, WASH, Energy and Environment). In 2017, she joined the Environment and Energy team of UNHCR HQ in Geneva where she coordinated two multi-stakeholders’ projects related to energy access in Ethiopia, Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda & Jordan; and the piloting & rollout of NEAT+ (Nexus Environmental Assessment Tool) in UNHCR Operations, in collaboration with JEU (UNEP/OCHA Joint Environment Unit). As part of the UNHCR’s Greening and Sustainability Team based in Nairobi, Madeleine coordinated the Greening the Blue 2021 reporting exercise for UNHCR.

Prior to joining UNHCR, Madeleine worked for various development projects aiming at improving the livelihood of the most vulnerable population in rural Rwanda.

Madeleine holds a Bachelor degree in Civil Engineering, and a Master degree in Environmental Planning & Management.

Mandy George - IFRC

Mandy George is Senior Environmental Adviser to the Global Shelter Cluster and the International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) Shelter Team. Mandy is an expert in environmental mainstreaming in humanitarian action, with a particular interest in the Shelter and Settlements sector. She also has a background in community engagement and accountability. With over 15 years of experience in the humanitarian sector, her experience includes long term field experience in Haiti and Myanmar, with many other short missions across the globe, working primarily with the UN and the Red Cross Red Crescent Movement.

Mandy has focused the last ten years of her career on environment in humanitarian action, supporting organisations and operations to reduce their environmental impact during response and recovery. This includes designing and implementing environmental assessment and screening tools such as NEAT+, and writing and implementing guidance on environmental mainstreaming, including for the Sphere Standards and resources such as EHA Connect. Mandy has a MA in Environment and Development Studies from King's College London, and a BA in Modern European Studies from University College London.

Charles Kelly - WWF

As a member of the Global Shelter Cluster Green Team, Kelly focuses on integrating environmental issues into Shelter and Settlements operations to improve the impact of humanitarian assistance. Kelly's professional background is in disaster risk management and has been working on the environment-humanitarian nexus for over 25 years. He currently co-chairs the Environment Community of Practice of the Global Shelter Cluster.

ROVING SHELTER-HLP ADVISOR/SUPPORT TEAM

The Roving Shelter-HLP Advisors will support country-level Shelter Clusters, and Cluster-like mechanisms on Shelter-HLP related issues. The Advisors will support with strategy development, contextualizing tools and templates, and will bring best practice from one country to another. The emphasis for this position will be on capacity building and awareness raising for securing good enough tenure security across a variety of contexts and shelter responses.

Ibere Lopes - IOM

For the past 15 years Ibere has been working on land and property issues related to displacement. He has worked in large-scale, donor-funded land claims adjudication projects and have extensive experience developing solutions for land tenure issues that emerge as the result of conflict and natural disasters.

A lawyer with a Master’s degree in Political Science, Ibere has worked as a land and property specialist in Sri Lanka, Nepal, Timor-Leste, Haiti, Kenya, Indonesia and Namibia and carried out emergency deployments in Ethiopia, DR Congo, South Sudan, Nigeria and Vanuatu.

Melina Holder - IOM

Melina Holder is the HLP Officer with IOM’s Shelter and Settlements team, based at IOM HQ in Geneva, with seven years of land use experience. Since joining IOM nearly three years ago, she has supported missions in Peru, South Sudan, Somalia, and Afghanistan, focusing on operational HLP capacity building and due diligence. Previously, she worked as a municipal land use planner, specializing in environmental and cultural impact assessments and urban master planning. Melina is particularly interested in expanding the network for HLP practitioners and promoting HLP as a key cross-cutting sector in humanitarian assistance.

She holds a bachelor's degree in Urban Planning and Sustainable Environments and a Master's Degree in International Development.

GFP FOR ASSESSMENTS

The GFP for Assessment, Monitoring and Evaluation (AME) is responsible for planning, developing and carrying out assessments (as commissioned by the GSC) as well as supporting the cluster in extrapolating evidence-based information, lessons learned and best practices from the field.

Elsa Perreau - Impact Initiatives

Elsa has been working in research and assessments for the past 9 years. She started her career as a consultant in public policy research and evaluation in the development sector. She joined IMPACT Initiatives in 2021 as a Senior Assessment Officer. Since then, she's been deployed in Haiti, Uganda and Central African Republic. She is currently the shelter and energy focal point at IMPACT Initiatives.

Elsa is fluent in French, English, Spanish and German.

GFP FOR TECHNICAL COORDINATION

The GFP for Technical Coordination support country-level clusters on shelter and settlement technical issues. In addition, they support country-level clusters by developing global level tools on technical issues. They moderate the GSC Community of Practice and participate in GSC initiatives, working groups and fora upon request.

Pascal Panosetti - IFRC

Pascal is seconded to the Global Shelter Cluster from the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC - Construction Expert Group) and is based in IFRC headquarters in Geneva.

Pascal is a construction technician and draughtsman with almost 20 years of experience in construction project management, both for architectural firms in Geneva and for humanitarian organizations in crisis-hit countries (Indonesia, Haiti, Bangladesh, Nepal, Madagascar, Syria and Morocco). Pascal has worked nearly 10 years in the field particularly for Natural Disaster Responses, with various organizations: the SDC, international NGOs, the Red Cross/Red Crescent Movement and IOM.

Pascal is also certified from the University of Geneva in Strategy and Project Design for Humanitarian Action and has also expertise in the development, coordination and management of multi-sectoral projects and cash-based programming.

He speaks French, English and Italian.

GFP FOR SETTLEMENTS APPROACH

The GFP for the Settlements Approach is responsible for mainstreaming the Settlements Approach into global and country-level strategies and programming, promoting more integrated, evidence-based and localized responses. Their role includes providing advisory and technical support, building capacity, capturing key learnings, and supporting broader Settlements Approach advocacy and collaboration efforts.

Stephanie Anderson - Impact Initiatives

Stephanie is seconded to the Global Shelter Cluster from IMPACT Initiatives, with ten years of experience in applied research and analysis within humanitarian contexts. She brings expertise in advancing evidence-based programming and operationalizing the Settlements Approach at both coordination and partner levels. With a strong background in resilience, early recovery, and humanitarian-development nexus applications, she has supported responses in Syria, Lebanon, and Iraq. Passionate about learning and collaboration, Stephanie is dedicated to enhancing support for crisis-affected communities and promoting accountable, localised, and people-centered assistance.

She holds a master’s degree in international development and bachelor’s degrees in cultural anthropology and international studies.