H.E. Mrs. Garama Saratou Rabiou Inoussa holds a Master 2 in project management and a degree in Sociology, she is a volunteer and program manager of circle-dev 1.
She coordinated the “Prevention of youth violent extremism in the peri-urban neighbourhoods of Niamey PREV” project and the “Sport-dev” project in Tillabéry2 before being appointed Minister of the Environment and the Fight against Desertification in April 2021.
One of the great driving forces for the promotion of peace, she is a hand-on woman.

Professor Youba SOKONA, With more than 40 years of experience in the fields of energy, environment and sustainable development in Africa, Professor SOKONA led a number of national and continental initiatives. After having been Co-Chair of the IPCC Working Group III and Lead Author since 1990, he is currently Vice-Chair of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). Youba Sokona has a proven track record of organisational leadership and management, for example as Coordinator of the African Climate Policy Centre (ACPC) and as Executive Secretary of the Sahara and the Sahel Observatory (OSS). He is affiliated with numerous boards and organizations, including as an honorary professor at the University College London, member of the World Academy of Science and the African Academy of Science, and member of the Scientific Advisory Board of the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis. In short, Youba Sokona is a global figure, with deep technical knowledge, extensive policy experience and an unreserved personal commitment to African led development.

Agricultural engineer and Remote Sensing and Geographic Information Systems specialist, he started his professional career in 1995 at the National Remote Sensing Centre of Tunisia before joining the Ministry of the Environment. He firstly held the position of Sustainable Natural Resources Management expert in charge of Monitoring-Evaluation with the Sahara and Sahel Observatory (OSS) in 2003 and then as the Environment Program Coordinator since 2008. In November 2020, he was appointed Executive Secretary by the OSS Executive Board. During the 27 years of his experience, he worked on sustainable natural resources management, the development of observation and environmental monitoring tools as well as the development of climate change mitigation and adaptation programs.

Luc Gnacadja is a political figure from Benin. He is an architect, he was Minister of the Environment and Urban Development of Benin, from 1999 to 2005. In March 2003, he was honoured with the World Bank's Green Award, a prize to the best achievements for sustainable development. From 2007 to 2013, he was the Executive Secretary of the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD). In this capacity, he came up with the "land degradation neutrality" concept that he successfully promoted at the Rio+20 summit in June 2012 and which became target 15.3 of the SDGs. He is the Founder and Chairman of GPS-Dev (Governance & Policies for Sustainable Development), a think tank whose mission is to make governance systems more conducive to sustainable development, particularly in Africa. Since 2005, he is Special Representative of the Local Climate Adaptation Financing Facility (LoCAL).

Mourad Briki was born in 1971 in Algiers (Algeria), he is an Ecology and Environment Engineer – Steppe and Saharan ecosystems. He started his career as a teacher at the Houari Boumediène University of Science and Technology in Algiers. In 2004, he joined the Sahara and Sahel Observatory (OSS), as a Coordinator of the "Maghreb drought early warning system" and "Improving the resilience of Sahelian populations to environmental changes - REPSAHEL" projects . Since 2020, he became the OSS Watch & Prospective Department Coordinator.

Gilles Kleitz (PhD)
Executive Director, Sustainable Development Solutions, French Development Agency (AFD)
General Engineer for bridges, water and forests, and PhD in political science, he has worked for 30 years on the links between biodiversity conservation and sustainable development. He has led biodiversity projects and policies in several countries and in France, for the administration of research organizations, NGOs and the AFD. He was Adviser to several ministers in France (Environment and development assistance sector). He has participated in many international negotiations, in particular as Coordinator of the France-IUCN framework agreement and Expert for the UNCBD.
He was Director of the national park in French Guiana before he became Director of the Ecological Transition and Natural Resources Management Department (agriculture, rural development, biodiversity, water and sanitation) at the French Development Agency in 2018. In the spring 2022, he was appointed Executive Director in charge of Sustainable Development Solutions with the AFD