Dr Joanne Jordan

Joanne is a PlanAdapt Fellow, based in Belfast, Northern Ireland.

Joanne is a senior climate change specialist, policy advisor and communicator with 17+ years of experience addressing major challenges of global environmental change and sustainable development across South Asia, Latin America, and South-East Asia with multilateral and bilateral development agencies, academic institutions, non-governmental organisations, and policy research institutes. Her core area of expertise is in intersectional approaches to vulnerability reduction and climate resilience-building, people-centred approaches that integrate indigenous and local perspectives into climate change adaptation interventions, gender equality and climate change, participatory approaches to co-developing and sharing knowledge, and arts-based approaches to engagement with climate change. She is a multi-award-winning climate communicator with extensive experience in leading and delivering transformative climate communication and multi-country public engagement programmes that centre marginalised voices.

Since 2017, Joanne has been a senior research Consultant for leading development agencies such as the Foreign and Commonwealth Development Office, Asian Development Bank, and UK Research and Innovation, to name a few. Her work includes setting the strategic evaluation agenda, establishing programme design, implementation, monitoring, and evaluation systems, and providing evidence-based guidance to inform strategic decision-making to drive adaptation action, among other responsibilities. Prior, she served as a Lecturer in Climate Change and Development at the University of Manchester, Chapter Scientist at the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, Post-doctorate Research Fellow in Climate Change Resilience at the Institute for Sustainable Development and International Relations in Paris, Lead Researcher in Climate Change Resilience at Queen’s University Belfast, and has worked at a range of not-for-profit organisations in Cambodia, Peru and Belize.

This experience is complemented by a strong multidisciplinary educational background in environmental and natural resource planning and management, including a PhD focused on climate resilience-building, sustainable livelihoods, and social networks in Bangladesh from Queen’s University Belfast, in partnership with Bangladesh Centre for Advanced Studies, an MSc in Environmental Sustainability at the University of Edinburgh, a Postgraduate Diploma in Environmental Planning (Best student award) and a BSc in Environmental Planning.

Some highlights of Joanne’s work include:

– The Lived Experience of Climate Change: A Story of One Piece of Land in Dhaka 
– Home is where the heart is: ‘I would like to go back to my village, it would bring me peace’ 
– Climate shocks and adaptation strategies in coastal Bangladesh: does microcredit have a part to play? 
– Deconstructing resilience: why gender and power matter in responding to climate stress in Bangladesh. Climate and Development. 

For more info, please see Joanne’s LinkedIn profile.