The Resilience Paradox: The Role of Faith Actors in Addressing Climate Challenges and Vulnerabilities Faced by Small Island Developing State...

Objectives

• Highlight common issues faced by SIDS and why they are relevant to the mission of the Church and interlinkages with SDGs
• Equip attendees to understand key issues and to advocate member states to meet their international commitments to SIDS
• Showcase examples of faith based partnerships that are good examples of meaningful engagement and civic participation in national/regional/sub-regional resilience strategies
• Identify opportunities for partnership among governments, UN agencies, faith actors, and civil society
• Highlight the role of young people and indigenous communities in shaping this agenda

Register

Date: Monday, 12 July 2021

Time: 17:00- 18:00 EAT/ 10:00- 11:30 EDT/ 14:00- 15:30 UTC

Meeting Details: Via Zoom (Spanish & Portuguese interpretation provided)

Register here: bit.ly/FaithAtHLPF 

• Jillian Abballe, Advocacy Manager and Head of New York Office, Anglican Communion Office at the United Nations
• H.E Dr Walton A Webson, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary, Permanent
• The Most Rev. Howard K. Gregory, Bishop of Jamaica and the Cayman Islands and Archbishop of the West Indies
• Ms. Shalomi Perera, Coordinator, Disaster Resilience Programme, National Christian Council of Sri Lanka
• Fe’iloakitau Kaho Tevi, Pacific Regional Advisor for the Mare Nullius programme, University of Bergen
• Dr. Lisa Emelia Svensson, Principal Coordinator, SIDS & Regional Seas Programme, United Nations Environment Programme

Jillian Abballe, Advocacy Manager and Head of Office for the Anglican Communion Office at the United Nations (Moderator)

Jillian (she/her) currently serves as the Advocacy Manager and Head of Office for the Anglican Communion Office at the United Nations . She is an experienced global advocacy and policy professional who is passionate about fusing bottom-up and top-down approaches—connecting the global and the local—to create a just, equitable, and relationship-centered world. Her expertise in advocacy strategy, policy analysis, and coalition building in international fora, particularly within the United Nations (UN) system, is informed by her prior experience working with community-based organizations in the Bronx and organizing for racial and economic justice in New York City. 

With over 11 years of experience working with non-profits, and six of those years working with INGOs, Jillian has a demonstrated history of working across a diverse array of cultural, geographic, and thematic areas and is a flexible and adaptive leader. Passionate about shifting power and creating inclusive and participatory processes, Jillian has worked with international delegations of community leaders to link their engagement with local and national issues to the global arena, seeking impact and self-determination for those whose voices are often left out of high-level policy discussions and decision-making.

In October 2019, Jillian was the recipient of the Spirit of the United Nations Award, bestowed by the NGO Committee for Spirituality Values and Global Concerns, which recognizes those individuals whose work is an expression of the core principles, spirit and vision on which the United Nations was founded. She is currently pursuing a Master of Science degree at the Center for Global Affairs at New York University, concentrating in Peacebuilding with a specialization in Gender.

H.E Dr Walton A. Webson, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary, Permanent Representative of Antigua and Barbuda to the United Nations, Chair of Alliance of Small Island States (AOSIS)

H.E. Dr. Walton Webson holds a Bachelor of Science degree, a Master of Science in Management of Non-Profit Organizations, a Post Graduate Diploma in Organizational Development from the New School for Social Research, and a DM in Management from Case Western Reserve University. He worked for several international nongovernmental organizations including: Sight Savers International of the (UK), The Caribbean Council for the Blind, (Antigua and Barbuda), Hellen Keller International of New York and Perkins International where he worked from 1992 to 2014 and was the organization's Chief Executive from 2011.  Dr. Webson is an Antiguan diplomat. He has served as the Permanent Representative to the United Nations in New York of Antigua and Barbuda since 2014.  

Since at the United Nations, Ambassador Webson served as President of UNICEF, 2017 and was Vice President of its Board in 2016. Ambassador Webson chaired the Special Committee on the Situation with regard to the Implementation of the Declaration on the Granting of Independence of Colonial Countries and Peoples also known as the Special Committee on decolonization or C-24 in 2018. He was appointed by the President 72nd session of the UN General Assembly to co-facilitate with the Ambassador of Japan the high-level meeting on tuberculosis which took place in September 2018 and was appointed by the President of the UN General Assembly in 2019 to be a co-facilitator on the Steering Committee on Accessibility and continues to chair that committee  on the reappointment from the president of the 74th session of the General Assembly. 

Ambassador Webson is an innovator and a leader. He founded the Friends of Vision at the United Nations; a group responsible for advocating for eye health to be included in universal health care. He was successful in getting eye health  for the first time included in a UN resolution on UHC.

Ambassador Webson with the Ambassadors of Denmark and the UAE formed the informal group of the Presidents of the UN agencies to coordinate the work of the Funds and Programmes of the United Nation agencies.

 He was the lead sponsor on two resolutions affecting the lives of persons with disabilities around the world and is considered as a champion on disabilities issues and a leading voice on issues of Small States.

Ambassador Webson served in 2020 as the President of the board of the United Nations Development Programmed (UNDP, UNOPS AND UNFPA). He is the current co-chair of the UN Steering Committee on the Small Islands Developing States (SIDS) and has had the honor to lead the CARICOM Caucus at two General Assemblies over his first four years at the UN.

In 2017, Ambassador Webson was the lead voice of the initiative for raising pledges in support of global response to the needs of the Caribbean to Hurricanes Irma and Maria. The UN sponsored activity attracted more than 2.1 billion dollars in pledges.

He continues to sit on several UN committees including committees responding to the challenges of COVID19.

Ambassador Webson led Antigua and Barbuda’s   team on the negotiations on the resolutions of the SDGs 2015. He also led the Antigua and Barbuda’s team at the 2016 meeting on climate change and he has led several climate change meetings for Antigua and Barbuda since his appointment at the United Nations.

Ambassador Webson has spearheaded several initiatives on Antigua and Barbuda including: a para-transit programmed for persons with disability, the Antigua Barbuda Science Park, driving solar energy in support of the Department of Environment, the diaspora response to Hurricane Irma and Maria and support to areas of sports, education, gender issues and youth development.  

Ambassador Webson is a published author and has recently contributed in  The Lancet Global Health Commission on Global Eye Health: vision beyond 2020 and in the ICEVI journal 2021.

Ambassador Webson is married with three children.

The Most Rev. Howard K.A. Gregory S.T.D., D.D. Bishop of Jamaica and the Cayman Islands and Archbishop of the West Indies

The Most Rev. Howard Kingsley Ainsworth Gregory was elected as the 13th Archbishop of the Church in the Province of the West Indies (CPWl) on May 27, 2019.

The 14th Bishop of Jamaica and the Cayman Islands, he was enthroned on May 17, 2012 in the Cathedral of St. Jago de la Vega, Spanish Town. Prior to his election as Lord Bishop, Bishop Gregory served as Suffragan Bishop of Montego Bay for 10 years. His pastoral journey began in 1973 when he was ordained a Deacon, and he was ordained a priest in 1974.

Archbishop Gregory was President of the United Theological College of the West Indies for 12 years, and a member of the Faculty for 22 years, from which position, he was elected to the Episcopal Office.

The Archbishop holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Theology, and a Diploma in Education from the University of the West Indies. He also holds a Diploma in Ministerial Studies from the United Theological College of the West Indies (UTCWI). In addition, he holds a Master of Sacred Theology degree from the Virginia Theological Seminary in Alexandria, Virginia, a Doctor of Sacred Theology from Columbia Theological Seminary in Decatur, Georgia, and a Master in Business Administration from the Graduate Theological Foundation in South Bend, Indiana.

He has been conferred with the Doctor of Divinity degree (honoris causa), by the Graduate Theological Foundation and the Virginia Theological Seminary, respectively.

Ms. Shalomi Perera, Coordinator, Disaster Resilience Programme, National Christian Council of Sri Lanka

Shalomi Perera holds a Bachelors in Town and Country Planning from the Faculty of Architecture, University of Moratuwa and a Masters in Regional Development Planning from the Faculty of Graduate Studies, University of Colombo Sri Lanka. She also has extended her development practices through studying Human Resources Management from Institute of Personnel Management of Sri Lanka and currently holding the associate membership of Institute of Town Planners Sri Lanka.

Shalomi began her career working with National Building Research Organisation to publish Standard Guidelines for Resilient Constructions in disaster prone areas specializing in landslide and flood hazards.  Her research interests included Traffic Impact Assessments and urban congestion in highly urbanized cities in the country.  Between her degrees, she worked as a Coordinator at Institute of Town Planners and later worked for World Vision Lanka in rural community development.  Since 2020, Shalomi has been the Programme Coordinator for Disaster Risk Reduction and Climate Resilience Programme in partnership with the National Christian Council of Sri Lanka, Anglican Diocese of Colombo and Episcopal Relief & Development. 

Fe’iloakitau Kaho Tevi, Pacific Regional Advisor for the Mare Nullius programme, University of Bergen

Fe’iloakitau Kaho Tevi, of Tongan and Fijian descent, is a member of the Anglican Church of Aotearoa New Zealand and Polynesia (ACANZP) and is a member of the General Synod Standing Committee of the church.  Until recently, Mr. Tevi was the advisor on climate change and the environment to Archbishop Emeritus Winston Halapua, and the late Archbishop Fereimi Cama, both former Primates of Anglican Church of Aotearoa New Zealand and Polynesia.  He is also closely involved in setting up the much-anticipated Office of the Climate Change Commissioner of the ACANZP and empowering the youth of the Church to take ownership of the future and build resilience of the church communities towards climate change.

At present, Mr. Tevi is the Chief of Staff in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Kingdom of Tonga. 

Mr. Tevi worked for many regional and international organizations and high-level coalitions aimed to create innovative linkages between political will, conservation and development and promote Pacific perspectives on global issues.  As the General Secretary of the Pacific Conference of Churches, he also developed and pushed the ecumenical movement of the region to take on leadership roles in the region as well as in the global ecumenical movement. 

Mr. Tevi received his master’s degrees from the University of Paris, France and the International Institution for Public Administration (IIAP) in the fields of international relations, strategic economic development, diplomacy and the Administration of International Organizations.  He sits on a number of boards and trusts of Pacific regional organizations and is committed to ensuring that Pacific peoples’ issues are heard at the regional and international level.  He is a polyglot, is married to Eleni Levin-Tevi and are both blessed with 5 children.

Dr. Lisa Emelia Svensson, Principal Coordinator, SIDS & Regional Seas Programme, United Nations Environment Programme

Lisa Emelia Svensson brings twenty years of professional experience in environment, sustainable development, trade and environment and international diplomacy - from the United Nations, European Commission and National Government.

Lisa is the Principal Coordinator for Small Island Developing States and the Regional Seas Programme in UNEP, she was previously chief for the Marine and Ecosystem Branch.

Before joining the UN, Lisa was a Swedish Foreign Service official for 20 years. In 2013, Lisa was appointed Ambassador for Ocean and Seas with global outreach resulted in Sweden co-hosted the first UN Ocean Conference in 2017. She was previously Sweden´s Ambassador for Corporate Responsibility. She been member of the Advisory Committee for UN Global Compact and the Global Reporting Initiative.

In 2008 Lisa joined the European Commission, Directorate General for Trade, as chief negotiator for Trade and Sustainable Development for the EU Free Trade Agreements (EU-FTAs) and Economic Partnership Agreements, she negotiated the Trade and Sustainable Development chapters in the EU-FTAs with Singapore, the Economic Partnership Agreements with Africa, Caribbean, and Pacific.

Lisa holds a doctoral degree in Political Economy and two Masters from Gothenburg University, and has been a research fellow and Diplomat-in-Residence at Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies, Washington D.C. Her publications include books on 'Ocean Governance' (Edward Elgar Publishers, 2017) and on 'Combating Climate Change' (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2008). She been posted in Washington DC, New York, Stockholm, Paris, Brussels, and Nairobi.