On 24 March 2025, UNU will host “Shaping the Future of Resilience: A Vision for a Thriving Planet”, a conversation with Dr. Youssef Nassef, Director of the Adaptation Programme at the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). The event will start at 18:30 in the 2F Reception Hall at UNU Headquarters in Tokyo.
As global challenges accelerate, and the tenets of the post-industrial revolution world become outdated, traditional approaches to addressing risks and opportunities, and planning for long-term socioeconomic development, are in need of reinvention.
Dr. Youssef Nassef will join Dr. Xiaomeng Shen, UNU Vice-Rector in Europe and Director of the UNU Institute for Environment and Human Security, to discuss the need for forward-looking strategies that anticipate future conditions, integrate emerging technologies and social shifts, and ensure that resilience remains dynamic, inclusive and effective over the long term. How can we make systems more resilient in a post-industrial world? Can socioeconomic development be balanced with considerations for sustainability? How can foresight and future planning influence national and international policymaking?
The UNU Conversation Series aims to foster audience participation; you are encouraged to engage with the speakers during the conversation and at the reception that will follow, where all event attendees are invited to enjoy hors d’oeuvres and drinks while exchanging ideas and making new contacts.
Please note that this event will be in English. Advance registration (by 21 March at 15:00) is required. Please click on the REGISTER button above to access the online registration page.
Please be prepared to present identification at check-in.
About the speaker
Dr. Youssef Nassef has led the adaptation workstreams under the UNFCCC since their inception. He possesses over 36 years of experience in diplomacy and international environmental policy and is a seconded ambassador from the Egyptian Foreign Service.
While assuming progressively higher levels of leadership at the UNFCCC, he led UNFCCC support for a number of ongoing initiatives on adaptation. These include the inception and support for national adaptation programmes of action and national adaptation plans; the Nairobi Work Programme — an international knowledge hub for impacts, vulnerability and adaptation; the global goal on adaptation; and the Warsaw International Mechanism for Loss and Damage. He recently created the Resilience Frontiers initiative which applies foresight for attaining post-2030 resilience.
Dr. Nassef holds a PhD in International Technology Policy and Management and an MALD in International Environmental Policy from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, as well as an MA in Middle East Studies and a BSc in Computer Science and Physics from the American University in Cairo.
