Susan Sekirime
Senior Policy Advisor, CAPA Africa Lead
Susan is a senior international policy and program leader with more than 16 years of experience designing and overseeing large, multi-country, donor-funded initiatives at the intersection of climate resilience, biodiversity conservation, and sustainable development. Her work focuses on protected and conserved areas, landscape approaches, and nature-based solutions, with a strong emphasis on translating policy into measurable, on-the-ground impact at scale.
Susan currently leads IISD’s Climate Adaptation and Protected Areas (CAPA) Initiative in Africa, overseeing program delivery across Uganda, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Namibia, and Angola. In this role, she provides strategic leadership, manages donor engagement, oversees delivery risk management, and ensures quality assurance. She works closely with protected area authorities, wildlife agencies, and government counterparts to align field-level action with national and global policy frameworks, including national adaptation plans, national biodiversity strategy and action plans, and climate adaptation strategies.
In parallel, Susan serves as a senior policy advisor in IISD’s Resilience Program, advising governments, donors, and partners on climate adaptation, biodiversity conservation, nature-based solutions, and policy integration. She has led the design and delivery of capacity-building programs for protected area managers on integrating climate change into protected area management and is a lead author of practical guidance used across the KAZA and Greater Virunga Landscapes.
Throughout her career, Susan has managed complex donor-funded portfolios worth over USD 30 million and contributed to successful fundraising efforts exceeding USD 60 million. She is recognized for upholding high standards of compliance, safeguarding, and program integrity in complex institutional and political contexts.
Susan holds master’s degrees in biodiversity conservation, project management, and evaluation from the University of Cambridge and the University of Antwerp. She has additional training in policy analysis from Carleton University.