Country Director, Helvetas Pakistan

Dr. Arjumand Nizami is the International Advisor for Climate Change at Helvetas Swiss Intercooperation and Country Director for its Pakistan Program. With over 30 years of experience in development, she combines expertise in natural resource governance and institutional development to build climate-resilient communities. She holds a PhD in Natural Resource Governance from the Netherlands, a Master’s in Sociology of Development from Wageningen University, and an MSc in Forestry from Pakistan. As Vice Chair of the Board of Governors of the Sustainable Rice Platform (SRP), she actively promotes climate adaptation in agriculture, water management, and smallholder systems through multi-stakeholder engagement and public-private partnerships. Her landmark contribution includes facilitating Pakistan’s Integrated Water Resource Management Strategy (2020) under the National Water Policy and leading agroecological zoning studies for two sub-national governments of in Pakistan in the North and North-west. A prolific writer, she has authored numerous studies, policy papers, articles and books on issues related to climate change and resilience building, water, and sustainable agriculture. 

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