Gender-Inclusive Carbon Markets: Innovative Solutions for Women's Participation and Benefits

Nisha Singh works with CGAP on addressing gender norms in financial inclusion and climate-related finance. With over 20  years of experience in financial inclusion and women's economic empowerment, her work spans research, learning, strategic program design, facilitation, and capacity building across Africa, MENA, and South Asia. She has worked on gender-inclusive business models, women's entrepreneurship financing, and the intersection of gender and renewable energy access. She is a contributor to various publications and toolkits that have shaped industry practices. Previously, she served as a Thematic Lead for FinEquity, a global community of practice convened by CGAP. 

Nisha holds a Master's from the University of Pennsylvania and an MBA from the University of Hyderabad, India.

Sandeep leads Value Network Ventures (VNV), a social enterprise working in carbon finance and adaptation with frontline communities for the last 17 years. He oversees VNV programs on coastal restoration, sustainable agriculture, waste management, social forestry, and rural energy access. With over 20 years of industry experience, he advises the private and public sectors on numerous aspects of decarbonization, value chain-based interventions, and climate adaptation at scale. Sandeep is also the co-founder at ‘Carbon Initiative Forum’, a non-profit working on climate policy awareness for the youth, and co-founder of a Blue Carbon revolving fund called "Mangroves. Now". Under VNV’s banner, he has pioneered a joint venture based in the Central Asian landscape called "The Silk Road Project", and more recently launched a climate change impact fund to invest in start-ups related to climate solutions. He serves on the board of organizations such as IETA, BBF, POD, EPC, and Spring Health Water Pvt. Ltd is on the executive board of the CEGET of the UN global compact. He also serves on the expert advisory group for VCМІ and as a working group member with ICVCM.

Jeannette has over 30 years of experience designing and delivering capacity strengthening programs to integrate gender and women’s empowerment into climate, agriculture and environment-related  organizations and programs in over 25 countries. She has been an innovator at the nexus of gender equality and climate-related sectors, working with both public and private organizations and projects. She is founder and Executive Director of WOCAN - a global network with over 1500 members in 114 countries- to support capacity building for women’s leadership and empowerment and gender integration with teams of WOCAN members in Africa, Asia and Latin America. She is a thought-leader in innovative financing for climate, gender and impact investing and creator of the W+ Standard ™ to measure, quantify and monetize impacts of projects and supply chains on women’s empowerment, through the use of a results-based financing approach designed to provide incentives to projects and companies and new revenue streams to community-level women’s groups and enterprises. Jeannette is co-founder of the developing Women and Climate Impact Fund -  a unique blended finance social investment fund to provide capital to projects that impact women's empowerment and gender equality while reducing the effects of climate change, while using the W+ Standard to assure quality impacts.  From her home base in Hawai’i, she is developing a Climate-resilient & Agricultural Innovation Hub for Women Farmers in Hawai’i County, to pilot innovations and practices to achieve climate and economic resilience through support to women farmers.  

Jeannette has expertise in certification and ESG standards, Voluntary Carbon Markets, impact measurement, monitoring and evaluation, training and facilitation, research, gender and organizational analysis, policy advocacy and network building. She has a MSc in forestry from the University of Washington, and a PhD in Gender and Development from the University of East Anglia. She is currently a member of  the Climate Impact X International Advisory Council, Solutions Group for Livestock and Climate Finance of Livestock for Development, Sustainable Development Advisory Group of Verra, the Women in Carbon network, and the Gender and Environment Data Alliance Technical Guidance and Learning Working Group. She is a Strategic Advisor to the Climate Finance Accelerator of the U.K.She has lived in several countries of South and SE Asia and worked in 25 countries. 

Haseeb is a Lead Consultant at Climate Focus. His current areas of research focus on food systems, agriculture and land use topics. During his tenure at Climate Focus, he has contributed to many projects. These include the annual New York Declaration on Forests progress assessment and several projects on the role and potential of food systems and nature-based solutions for climate change mitigation and adaptation. 

Prior to joining Climate Focus, Haseeb held a role at the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) in Afghanistan. Here Haseeb provided assistance to public universities in setting up their public administration faculties. He also provided his expertise in the guise of advisor to national and international organizations such as Samuel Halls, specifically focused on public policy and governance in Afghanistan. 

Haseeb holds a degree from Mysore University (BA.LLB) in India and a degree in International Law from the London Metropolitan University (LLM International Law) in the UK. In addition, he earned his master’s degree in Public Policy and Administration at Potsdam University in Germany. 

In his free time, Haseeb enjoys the outdoors, especially running and hiking. He is also a keen reader and derives great pleasure from going to the movies. 

Elizabeth Kiamba works across a range of projects at CGAP. She engages with funders, global advocacy bodies, and support organizations to provide guidance, and advocate for effective financial inclusion. She also works on projects on digital finance solutions for last mile clients, micro and small enterprise (MSE) finance and the linkages between financial services, improved livelihoods, and access to basic services.

Before joining CGAP, Elizabeth was the FSD Network Manager at FSD Africa where she managed a portfolio of projects covering varied financial sector themes such as credit, insurance, remittances, housing finance, digital finance and financial integrity. Prior, Elizabeth was a management consultant at PwC’s Public Sector Advisory team where she provided strategic support on project design, implementation and management to government agencies, donors and non-profits, working in different development sectors.

Elizabeth holds Master of Arts degree in Development Management from the Institute of Development Research and Development Policy (IEE) at Ruhr University (Germany), a Bachelor’s degree in Business Management (Finance and Banking) from Moi University (Kenya). She is a certified Project Manager (PRINCE2 Practitioner) and Accountant (CPA).