Usman Iftikhar

Usman is the Policy Specialist Environment Economics, Sustainable Development Cluster, the Bureau for Policy and Programme Support (BPPS), United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) based in New York. He leads UNDP’s work on environmental economics, focusing on the interface between natural capital and poverty, jobs and livelihoods and broader economic indicators while collaborating with teams across UNDP’s Regional Hubs, Country Offices and Global Policy Centers. This entails providing quality policy services and advancing UNDP’s credibility, delivering coherence and technical advice in economics of the environment thematic area. In particular, he leads the work on ecosystem valuation and using economic arguments for advocating for the environmental dimensions of sustainable development. He also leads in designing UNDP’s policy framework in this field, based on analysis of the new opportunities in shaping how public and private investments can be redirected and catalyzed to address in a more integrated fashions. Usman possesses two masters’ degrees: one focusing on Environmental and Natural Resource Economics, University College London and the other Development Studies, School of Oriental and African Studies. Combined with 12 years' experience in different country and development contexts, provides him with a unique set of knowledge, skills and practical developing countries’ experience.