Speaker

Ms. Kate Lazarus

Kate Lazarus is the team leader for IFC’s hydro advisory program in Asia. Since Kate joined IFC in 2012, she has been developing and managing an advisory program on environmental and social (E&S) standards for the hydropower sector in Asia including Lao PDR, Myanmar, Nepal and Pakistan. This work focuses primarily on engaging the private sector to help raise standards and help lower development impacts. Kate was instrumental in developing the ground-breaking Hydropower Developers’ Working Group in Lao PDR, which will soon be established in Myanmar. Her expertise focuses on water governance, multi-stakeholder dialogues, natural resources management, environmental flows, cumulative impact assessment and management, human rights, and policy-level advice. Prior to joining IFC, Kate worked for the CGIAR Challenge Program on Water and Food managing a program on advancing sustainable hydropower in the Mekong, coordinated the Mekong Program on Water Environment and Resilience (M-POWER), led IUCN’s Regional Water and Wetlands Program for Asia, and was a Regional Program Officer for Oxfam America. She has extensive experience working in the Mekong and Himalayan regions with particular emphasis on China. Kate holds an MA in International Development and Social Change from Clark University, Massachusetts, USA and a BA in Planning, Public Policy and Natural Resource Management from University of Oregon, USA. She is the editor of the book Water Rights and Social Justice
in the Mekong; lead author of the chapter on ‘Negotiating Flows in the Mekong’ in the publication Politics and Development in a Transboundary Watershed: The Case of the Lower Mekong Basin; and co-author of the chapter on Demarginalising the Mekong River Commission in the book Contested Waterscapes in the Mekong Region.