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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

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 2024. 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

Stephanie

Stephanie Loose - UNHCR

Stephanie Loose joined UNHCR’s Division of Resilience and Solutions as Senior Global Shelter Cluster Coordinator in March 2023, after her assignment to the Joint IDP profiling Service (JIPS) as Senior Policy Advisor for Durable Solutions and building upon her experiences at UN-Habitat, as Chief Technical Advisor for UN-Habitat in Burkina Faso and different HQ positions.
 
Prior to this engagement in Burkina Faso, Stephanie was part of UN-Habitat’s Programme Development Branch, Global Solutions Division at UN-Habitat’s Headquarter in Nairobi, as UN-Habitat’s focal point for the work on urban migration and displacement, focusing on integrated programming on urban displacement and towards durable solutions in urban contexts, in different country contexts. She strongly advocates for the humanitarian-development-(peace) nexus and led the development of normative guidance tools as well as operationalizing projects in countries facing large scale migration to cities (forced and voluntary migration).
Stephanie brings experience in leading multi-agency and multi-stakeholder partnerships and fostering knowledge exchanges on urban topics, including between with humanitarian and development partners, government authorities, CSO and academia. In different roles, she managed global partnerships as well as advocacy and outreach on urban displacement and development topic and has conceptualized and conducted capacity development activities for government authorities and other stakeholders in different countries.
 
 
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

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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.

 

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

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.

 

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.

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.

camilla

Camilla Wuensch - UNHCR (supported by NORCAP)

 
Camilla has been working in the humanitarian sector for seven years, during which she specialised in assessments and analysis conducted to inform evidence-based decision-making, and other information management related activities. Throughout, she was based in multiple locations, including in Niger, Chad, and Iraq. Before joining the team as roving IMO, she worked with the GSC as GFP for Assessments, Monitoring & Evaluations. 
 
Fluent in English, French, and Italian. 

 

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.
 

sarah

Advocacy: Sarah Pilchick - CANADEM

Sarah has over nine 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.

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

 
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.

 

ROVING SHELTER-HLP ADVISOR

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.

 

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.

 

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.