Ibila Djibril of Benin emerges Adaptation Fund Board chair
Mr. Ibila Djibril of Republic of Benin has emerged as the new Chair of the Adaptation Fund Board. He officially became the new Chair of the Board during its annual change of leadership in a virtual manner held on Thursday 2 April 2020.
The decision was made among a series of procedural moves by the Board in a scaled down virtual meeting held on April 2 aimed at swearing in new members. The full 35th Board meeting scheduled for March 31-April 3 in Bonn was postponed in early March until a tentative June 23-26 date, due to the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. Certain eligible project proposals may be reviewed intersessionally by the Board through email vote in the coming days.
Djibril served as Vice-Chair for the past year and has represented African countries on the Board since March 2017. Mr. Mattias Broman, of Sweden, who has represented Annex I Parties on the Board, became the new Vice -Chair.
Djibril and Broman were elected to their new posts at the 34th Board meeting last October, and assumed the one-year posts this week. Djibril takes over for previous Board Chair Ms. Sylviane Bilgischer, of Belgium, who served as Chair for the last year presiding over the Fund’s robust activities at COP 25 in Madrid in December that resulted in new resources mobilized and solidifying the Fund’s long-term institutional arrangements which contribute to smoothly serving the Paris Agreement.
The Board Chair and Vice-Chair positions rotate between developing and developed country representation each year.
Djibril brings a wealth of knowledge and experience as a specialist and researcher in environmental management, sustainable development, environmental standards and analyzing adaptation vulnerabilities and impacts. He further holds Master’s degrees in business law and taxation, and an advanced studies diploma in environmental management.
Djibril has served in several prominent climate positions for Benin. He was General Director of Climate Change for the Ministry of Environment and Climate Change, and the national Focal Point for UNFCCC. He also served as Acting General Director of Climate Change Management, national director of an integrated adaptation project to address agriculture and food security, Director of Pollution Prevention and Environmental Projects, and senior environmental technical officer, among others. Additionally, he was Benin’s National Designated Authority to the Adaptation Fund (AF) from 2011 to 2017 and also for the Green Climate Fund, from March 2016 to February 2017, and a long-time member and vice-chair of the Least Developed Countries Expert Group on Climate Change supporting vulnerable countries to elaborate and implement their national adaptation plans.
Currently Djibril serves as Coordinator of a large national project, “Building core capacity for implementation, monitoring and reporting of multilateral environmental agreements (MEAs) and relevant sustainable development goals in Benin,” funded by the GEF.
