Asha Bobb-Semple

Asha joined the Global Environment Facility Secretariat in 2016 as an Operations Analyst working on Integrated Programs and the Land Degradation Focal Area. Since 2021, she has served as an Environmental Specialist focused on land degradation, and is also Regional Coordinator for programming GEF funds in Small Island Developing States (Caribbean, Pacific, Archipelagic and Island States). Asha also leads the GEF’s Blue and Green Islands Integrated Program.

Asha has 15+ years of experience in natural resources management working at the non-governmental organization, public sector, and multilateral levels, and engaging at numerous stages of her career with the academic and private sectors. Prior to the GEF, Asha worked as an Analyst at the World Bank in the Water Global Practice, supporting the development of technical assistance projects. Asha has also worked at the UNDP Sub-Regional Office for the Western Caribbean as a Program Associate for Environment, assisting national governments to develop and implement GEF and other multilateral- and bilateral-funded environment and climate change projects. Prior to her time at UNDP, Asha was an Environment Program Coordinator at the Environmental Foundation of Jamaica (established out of the first debt-for-nature swap negotiated by the country), where she spent seven years working with non-governmental and community-based organizations to implement natural resource management and climate change adaptation projects. Asha has an MSc in Environment and Development from the London School of Economics and Political Science (2004), University of London; Post Graduate Certificate in Sustainable Development from the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London (2016); and certifications in Landscape Finance and Landscape Governance from Wageningen University & Research (2020).