De-activated Working Groups
Support Team Draft
GSC 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). For an overview of how much support the various roles provide to each country, please see the GST dashboard (note that the time dedicated to the cluster by each individual is subject to a separate agreement).
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.
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Ela Serdaroglu - IFRCEla Serdaroglu is currently holding the position of Shelter Lead at the International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) at the organization’s headquarters in Geneva. In this capacity, she is also the Global Shelter Cluster Coordinator for the IFRC, co-leading the Shelter Cluster with UNHCR.
Ela’s humanitarian career started in 1999 following the Marmara Earthquake in Turkey. Before assuming her current position, Ela worked for the IFRC, Netherlands Red Cross, HealthNet International and UNICEF at field and headquarters levels on a variety of programs covering the full range of disaster management continuum, including organizational development and capacity building.
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It was a conscious career choice for Ela to focus on humanitarian shelter and settlements sector as of 2010, when she joined the IFRC. In addition to constantly being on the lookout for improving shelter coordination, her recent professional interests include green response, linkages of shelter with other sectors and working in urban contexts. As part of her dedication to progressing the humanitarian shelter, Ela was one of the chapter lead authors for shelter and settlements in the 2018 revision of Sphere handbook.
Born and raised in Turkey, Ela holds a Bachelor of Science in city and regional planning from the Middle East Technical University in Ankara and master’s degrees from Harvard University in the USA and University of Groningen in the Netherlands on urban planning and international humanitarian assistance respectively. When not working and thinking about humanitarian challenges, she translates and edits children’s books and works on improving her silversmithing skills.
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Brett Moore - UNHCRBrett Moore is Chief of Section in the Division of Resilience and Solutions of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, where he coordinates humanitarian shelter actors in both preparedness actions and disaster response. Brett also co-leads the Global Shelter Cluster, a collective of humanitarian agencies that undertake emergency shelter responses. Prior to joining UNHCR, Brett was humanitarian shelter, infrastructure and reconstruction advisor with World Vision International, deploying to conflict and disaster zones around the world. He led teams to ensure a coordinated humanitarian response for significant global emergencies, and guided rebuilding efforts for disaster and conflict-affected communities ranging from refugee camps to urban slums.
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GSC Deputy Coordinators
GSC Deputy Coordinators are alternates to the GSC Coordinators in the Global Cluster Coordinators Group and in other inter-cluster coordination fora. They ensure the day-to-day running of the cluster.
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Pablo Medina - IFRCPablo Medina is currently the Deputy Global Shelter Cluster Coordinator for the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC). 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 natural disasters.
As Head of Country Programmes and Operations Coordinator with the Red Cross Movement, he has extensive experience overseeing humanitarian response and programming at the country and global levels.
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Sahdia Khan - UNHCRSahdia has more than 15 years of professional experience in provision of humanitarian shelter, housing and basic services. She has specialised in implementation and coordination of housing and shelter programmes in various countries in Africa (Central African Republic, Chad, DRCongo, Uganda), in the Middle East (Lebanon, Yemen), in Asia (Indonesia, Bangladesh, Nepal, The Philippines) and the Caribbean (The Bahamas, Haiti).
She has advised Governments on recovery strategies, implemented shelter/ housing programmes with UN agencies (UN-Habitat, UNHCR, IOM), NGOs and the private sector, and worked as Senior Cluster Coordinator for Shelter and Camp Coordination Camp Management.
Sahdia holds degrees in Civil Engineering, Architecture and Strategic Spatial Planning.
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GFP 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.
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Angel Pascual - UNHCRLorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit. Maecenas porttitor congue massa. Fusce posuere, magna sed pulvinar ultricies, purus lectus malesuada libero, sit amet commodo magna eros quis urna. Nunc viverra imperdiet enim. Fusce est.
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Rodolfo Magirena - IFRCRudy is seconded to the Global Shelter Cluster from the Canadian Red Cross Rapid Response Manager team. He brings experience in managing disaster response operations with the IFRC globally, the Canadian International Development Agency and provincial government agencies. Rudy deploys in surge leadership and coordination roles including the Global Shelter Cluster and in technical programing roles for the shelter sector.
Rudy holds diplomas in Natural Resource Management and Construction Technologies.
He is fluent in English, French and Spanish.
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GFP 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.
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Neil Bauman - IFRCNeil 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.
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VACANT - UNHCR |
GFP for Technical Coordination
GFPs 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.
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Dipti Hingorani - IFRCDipti has a multi-disciplinary background in architecture, structural engineering and international development. She has Masters Degree in Structural Engineering & Architecture from University of Sheffield, UK and MA in Development & Emergency Practice from Oxford Brookes University.
Previously, Dipti worked as the National Shelter and NFI Cluster Coordinator with IOM based in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia as well as Capacity Development Specialist with UN-Habitat in Nairobi for implementing a project to strengthen accountability systems and monitoring of the SDGs.
Dipti has over 10 years of professional international experience working in the humanitarian and development sectors, coordinating, designing and implementing shelter and settlements response and recovery programs in a variety of post disaster /conflict countries including Haiti, Nepal, Lebanon, Turkey/Syria and Ecuador.
Dipti is fluent in multiple languages: English, French, Spanish, Hindi, and intermediate in Sindhi and Haitian Creole.
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GFP for Research & 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.
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Research: Lizzie Babister - Habitat for HumanityLizzie 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.
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Advocacy: Kimja Vanderheyden - CANADEMKimja started working in the international aid sector in 2008 in communication and advocacy roles, which brought her to live and work in Belgium, Rwanda, Ecuador, Morocco and the DR Congo. She has 13 years of experience both in the development and humanitarian sectors in different areas of intervention, including gender, environment, migration, SRH, WASH, rural development, and public health. These last few years, Kimja worked mainly in the DR Congo in the humanitarian coordination system, where she advocated extensively on the displacement and protection crisis, humanitarian access, the underfunding of the crisis and the HD Nexus. Since the end of 2020, Kimja is working as an independent consultant and led on research projects on localisation and humanitarian access.
Kimja is currently based in Portugal, and speaks fluently English, French, Spanish, Dutch and Portuguese.
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GFP for Assessment Monitoring and Evaluation
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.
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Camilla Wuensch - REACHCamilla has been working in the humanitarian sector for six years, during which she specialized in needs assessments conducted to inform evidence-based decision-making of humanitarian actors. She has been with REACH since 2017, primarily based in multiple field locations, first in the Sahel region, then in Iraq, before joining the team in 2020 in Geneva to focus on global REACH programs relating to Shelter. Prior to REACH, she worked at the International Committee of the Red Cross as an analyst for the Health Care in Danger project.
Fluent in English, French and Italian.
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Regional Focal Points
Regional Focal Points (RFPs) 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.
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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.
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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.
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Roving Shelter - HLP Advisor
The Roving Shelter-HLP Advisor will support country-level Shelter Clusters, and Cluster-like mechanisms on Shelter-HLP related issues. The Advisor 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.
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Ibere Lopes - IOM (supported by NORCAP)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.
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Roving Shelter Cluster Coordinator
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.
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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.
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Roving Shelter Cluster Information Management Officer
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.
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Fredrick Hanga - UNHCR (supported by NORCAP)Fredrick is an accomplished team worker with over twelve years’ experience in Information Management and Communications. A graduate with extensive postgraduate training on Information/Knowledge management and Communication, thrives in cultures where skills and experience are recognized, nurtured, and valued for its contributions to the organization’s mandate, vision, short-term and long-term goals.
Fredrick has worked in the implementation and coordination of Information Management programmes in various countries in Africa (Kenya, Uganda, Sudan, South Sudan, Ethiopia and Cameroon), in the Middle East (Lebanon, Jordan, Iran and Qatar), in Asia (Philippines) and South America (Venezuela) He also provided remote support to other operations. Fredrick has worked in Shelter, Protection, WASH, Education, Child protection, GBV and Development with various INGOs and the UN.
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Fredrick is now holding the position of Global Roving Information Management Officer in this capacity He provided 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.
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Shirin Narymbaeva (Coordination Officer) - IFRCShirin has been with the Shelter Cluster since 2014. In her role she supported several country level cluster teams via deployments In Nepal, Bangladesh and Indonesia as well as preparedness activities in South Caucasus and Central Asia.
In her role Shirin also assists with grant management, provides remote support to country-level clusters on website management and administrative tasks as well as the organization of the Humanitarian Shelter Coordination Training.
She speaks Kyrgyz, Russian, English and intermediate French.
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