Imelda (Dada) Bacudo

Imelda Bacudo is an independent consultant that provides technical advice to the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and its ten Member Sates for strengthened regional and international policies to gain wider access to climate finance. She has been instrumental in guiding the ASEAN Climate Resilience Network---a platform for knowledge exchange and support--to push the agriculture sector into engagement with the UNFCCC. Under her leadership, the ASEAN CRN’s efforts through G77 and China, have contributed to the Koronivia Joint Work Action Plan, a landmark decision for agriculture of the UNFCCC. She has recently worked as Principal Advisor of the Forest and Climate Change Project under the ASEAN-German Programme on Response to Climate Change (GAP-CC) programme implemented by the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH. Currently, she remains the guiding technical expert for the newly established ASEAN Negotiation Group for Agriculture (ANGA) which is pushing the agriculture sector of ASEAN to jointly shape climate policies of the UNFCCC that equips the region to better face impacts of climate change. She is on various assignments which includes the UN-Food Agriculture Office (FAO) to support ASEAN on tasks as described above. She is also the international coordinator for the UN Environment Programme's Climate and Clean Air Coalition (CCAC) programme in Vietnam assisting the Ministry of Agriculture in ensuring several low-emissions agriculture practices contribute to its Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs); and also as a regional climate change expert for E-READI an EU-ASEAN dialogue programme. Recent past assignments include the EU-supported Technical Centre for Agricultural and Rural Cooperation (CTA), exploring how agriculture can contribute to Samoa and other Pacific Island’s Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) under the Paris Agreement; the Stockholm Environment Institute (SEI) supporting an evaluation of the effectivity of ASEAN climate-smart land use guidelines; the Southeast Asia Research Center for Agriculture (SEARCA) supporting jurisdictional approach in forest climate finance.

She has over 20 years' experience in the areas of biodiversity conservation, sustainable development, and conservation finance in the Philippines, Latin America, Uganda and Southeast Asia, working with NGOs, national governments, and international development agencies. She acquired her Master’s Degree in Environmental Science from the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Science under a Fulbright Scholarship.

Joined 2021

Organisation

ASEAN-CRN