Masoom Hamdard is the founding director of the Institute for Mountain Studies in Afghanistan. He holds a Master degree in Environmental Governance from IHE-Institute for Water Education in Delft the Netherlands. Masoom has over 13 years of working experience in the field of natural resources governance, water and environmental management, and capacity building and has worked with organizations like DFAT, the World Bank, UNESCO-IHE Institute for Water Education in Delft (https://www.un-ihe.org/), and Ministry of Agriculture, Irrigation and Livestock. As a certified lecturer and capacity building trainer, Masoom taught subjects on adaptive management, and integrated natural resources governance for five years at Institute for Water Education in Delft, the Netherlands, and has led research and capacity development projects such as EU funded AfroMaison (http://afromaison.net/) and NICHE. Masoom remained the Country Team Leader for DFID's funded Action on Climate Today program for Afghanistan, which resulted into climate proofing of a number of national policy documents, and introduced climate financing mechanisms in Afghanistan. He has worked on a number of short term assignments for the World Bank and other donors. Masoom has also published several research and policy papers.

Masoom Hamdard

Siawash has completed his masters in Environmental Planning and Management from IHE Delft Institute for Water Education in Netherlands. He has more than 6 years of work experience with various government and non-governmental organizations in Afghanistan. Apart from his professional experience, He is active in hosting explorers and travelers to discover Afghanistan from across the world. Siawash is using his social networking to attract more mountaineers and researchers through social platforms such as Couschsurfing, Facebook, Instagram etc. He has previously organized several events of day-trips and mountain camping in Central and Northern parts of Afghanistan.

Siawash

Dr. Chris Dickens is an environmental scientist (ecologist). He has over 30 years of experience in ecosystems management, environmental impacts and the management of water resources. He has served as Head of Office for the International Water Management Institute (South Africa). Dr. Dickens has published numerous papers on topics ranging from aquatic ecosystems, environmental protection and water management related issues. Similarly, Dr. Dickens has lead projects on environmental flow assessments in Africa. In the process the team designed a new state of the art model for EF determination called Probflo that makes use of Risk Assessment and probability modelling (using Bayesian Networks). Following on from this project, he has carried out the Environmental Flow Assessment for the Upper and Inner Niger Delta, and recently completed the design of the Framework for EF management for the Nile Basin Authority. Over the past 30 years Dr. Dickens has successfully managed several multi-disciplinary and complex projects in countries across Africa.

Dr. Chris Dickens

Prof. Mohammad Nasim Nasimi is the dean of faculty of Environmental and Water Resource Engineering at Kabul Polytechnic university and a board member of IMSA. He has over 30 years of extensive professional experience in field of environmental, water resource and hydraulics engineering in Afghanistan. Prof. Nasimi has numerous scientific publications on natural resources, their harnessing relating to climate change in Afghanistan. Moreover, Prof. Nasimi has represented Afghanistan in various international platforms and advices on technical and scientific aspects is an asset for IMSA.

Prof. Mohammad Nasim Nasimi

Shahpour Abdulrahimzai has over 10 years of professional experience in various fields ranging from research and education, agricultural training, planning and policy and natural resource management with national and international organizations in Afghanistan. He earned his first masters in field of Management of Development with specialization in Rural Development & Communication from Van Hall Larenstein University of Applied Sciences, Wageningen, the Netherlands. He completed his second masters in Leadership and Management of Higher Education from Kabul University and University of Massachusetts. Mr. Abdulrahimzai has remained the General Director of National Agriculture Education College, a Dutch agriculture TVET project in Afghanistan. Besides that, he remained the Chief of Staff of Ministry of Agriculture, Irrigation and Livestock and currently he is serving as Director General of Plan and Policy at Ministry of Rural Rehabilitation and Development. Mr. Abdulrahimzai’s education and extensive professional background is a strength for IMSA in decision making and planning.

Shahpour Abdulrahimzai