Parallel session 3B: Nadine Asmar, Blandine Melis & Jamal Hamzeh

Mentoring for sustainable leadership: cases from the environment sector with Nadine Asmar, Blandine Melis & Jamal Hamzeh

Session on 29 October 2021 14:00 UTC - View on timetable

Session

In this session, we will deep dive into one of our innovative ongoing programmes, MAVA Leaders for Nature Academy.

Mentoring is a key component of leadership development for those working in the environment sector – to bring about positive change both for individuals, within and across organisations, increasing their sustainability and impact.

The session will illustrate how trusted human centred relationships and conversations, through mentoring, build resilience, and support organisational change, drawing on concrete examples from the environment leaders themselves. The programme illustrates how the inter-generational and inter-organisational nature of the mentoring programme is strengthening leaders and the contexts in which they work.

The MAVA Leaders for Nature Academy is an inter-generational leadership programme that develops participants’ leadership character, resilience, and skills. Specifically, the Academy strengthens the ability of experienced and emerging leaders to collaborate across generations, sectors and divides to produce innovative solutions to our environmental challenges. The Academy is delivered with partners MAVA, Fondation pour la Nature and Common Purpose.

Bio

Mowgli Mentoring is a specialist mentoring organisation aiming to drive economic progress and social change by making effective mentoring available and accessible for entrepreneurs and leaders. We build conducive mentoring environments that empower them to better solve local and global challenges. We design and deliver in-person, online, and blended programmes globally, complemented by 13 years of experience delivering programmes in emerging and established markets across the Middle East, Africa (North and sub-Saharan), Europe, and the UK. Learn more about our capability, programmes, and impact at www.mowgli.org.uk.  The Mowgli Mentoring Programme is accredited by EMCC Global at Foundation and Practitioner level.

Nadine Asmar began her journey with Mowgli Mentoring as a mentee and since 2012 has become Lead Facilitator for Mowgli Mentoring leader-mentor programs across MENA and Sub-Saharan Africa regions. Nadine has international experience of more than 20 years in business strategy, human resources management, she has led teams, launched brands and worked in volatile markets.

Today, she is a Leadership for Impact catalyst & enabler by building capacity of executives and entrepreneurs to make positive changes for themselves, organization and society at large. She trains and coaches impact ventures on business modelling, scale up, innovation and investment readiness, leadership, cultural transformation, targeting youth, women, leaders and community-based organizations, implementing IES/INSEAD empowered programs. She has worked with numerous local, international organizations and academia such as Berytech, GIZ, UNDP, UNESCO, ILO, MSI, AUB, AMIDEAST, Al Fanar, CSR Ahli group, LLWB, Lebanese Red Cross, Alinov, Medafco, MAVA foundation, IES, public ministries and municipalities and local organizations.

Blandine Melis – Director, Biosfera Cabo Verde

It was while sailing between France and the United Kingdom (North Sea) in my childhood that my passion for the sea was born and the urgency to preserve the oceans has never left me. I studied marine biology, completed by a master’s degree in marine environmental biosciences at the University of Marseille.

I had the chance to practice my profession in many countries and continents and especially in West Africa (Senegal, Mauritania, Cape Verde for periods of 3 to 6 years). The diversity of the structures for which I have worked (public institutions, civil society, national and international NGOs) was a great opportunity for me to discover the richness of cultures and the way Nature is perceived by each of them.

Today, I have acquired more than 20 years of experience in managing programs dedicated exclusively to the conservation of coastal and marine biodiversity.

However, I attach great importance to environmental communication, which in my opinion is a formidable lever to ensure collective awareness and carry our message of mass mobilization for a more rigorous protection of our Nature.

It is with pleasure that I have been leading the NGO Biosfera in Cape Verde since 2018.

Jamal Hamzeh – Senior Project Manager, SPNL – Society for the Protection of Nature in Lebanon

Being a nature lover since childhood and choosing to spend most of my time outdoors, observing what nature offers has given me the curiosity and drive to learn about the environment and its ecosystems.

I am an environmental and community development manager with a background in environmental & health studies from the American University of Beirut (AUB).

Passionate about conservational and sustainable development issues, I have more than two years of experience in managerial functions, and eight years of experience in project management, where I successfully planned, led, and managed a wide range of donor-funded projects (i.e. MAVA, EU, UN WOMEN, BirdLife International, IUCN, Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation) related to sustainable land use management, biodiversity conservation, ecosystem services and human well-being, sustainable economy and livelihoods, capacity building and community development, women empowerment, awareness and education, and communal governance systems.

Currently, I am managing one of the most significant projects being implemented in Lebanon at present, entitled “Strengthening the ecological and socio-economic resilience of West Bekaa and Mount Lebanon Landscapes through sustaining their cultural practices”, funded by MAVA Foundation under the M6 “Cultural Landscapes” Programme, and implemented across the Mediterranean region by 13 partners.