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    • Speaker detail

    Serdar Jorayev - Founder

    Katja Schafer

    Inter-Regional Advisor, United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UNHabitat)

    As an Architect and Urban Development Practitioner, Katja Schafer has more than twenty years of professional experience in teaching, research, analytical and advisory services and programme administration in the fields of housing, urban development and management, institutional development and capacity building. She has worked at global, regional, national and local levels, ranging from development to fragile and (post) conflict environments, emergency support, disaster mitigation and urban recovery. Her wide expertise is in innovative, participatory and responsive solutions to urbanization challenges through socially and culturally acceptable, economic viable and environmentally sustainable interventions that take into consideration physical, legislative and financial aspects. She has been working with UN-Habitat for more than 17 years, in field, regional and headquarter functions. For the past 7 years, she has been technically supporting member states and local governments in the Eastern European, South Caucasus and Central Asian regions to mainstream urbanization into their development agendas as an Inter-regional Advisor. From 2020 to 2022, she led Sub-Programme 1 of UN-Habitat’s Strategic Plan 2020–2023, addressing poverty and spatial inequality in urban and rural communities, as well as two of UN-Habitat’s Global Flagship Programmes focusing on (1) Inclusive and vibrant neighbourhoods and communities, and (2) People-Centred Smart Cities. In this context, she led for two years ad interim the United Nations’ Innovation Technology Accelerator for Cities (UNITAC) in Hamburg. Previously, Katja worked for 8 years in UN-Habitat’s Regional Office in Cairo supporting programmes being implemented in the Arab States. Earlier she worked as the Urban Heritage Management Expert for GIZ in Sana’a, Yemen; Urban Planner for UN-Habitat in Hargeisa, Somaliland; and City Rehabilitation Advisor for UN-Habitat in Galle, Sri Lanka. Katja holds a MSc in Building and Urban Design in Development from the Development Planning Unit (DPU), University College of London; and a degree in Architecture and City and Regional Planning from Bauhaus Universitet Weimar, Germany.