Dóchas Conference 2024 Speakers Announced
We are delighted to share the Dóchas Conference 2024 esteemed speakers!
25 Apr 2024
Dóchas at 50: Sustainable Development in a Time of Climate Crisis
Panel 1 - A Just Transition for the Global South
Prof. Attiya Waris 
UN Independent Expert on Foreign Debt, Other International Financial Obligations and Human Rights
Attiya is the current UN Independent Expert on Foreign Debt and other related international financial obligations of States on Human Rights and is the only Professor of Fiscal Law and Policy in Eastern Africa. She is a Commissioner on the Lancet-O'Neil Commission on racism and Structural Discrimination in Health and Chairs the Supervisory Board of the Capabuild Foundation. She holds a PhD in Law and is a specialist in Fiscal Law, Policy and Development. She has published widely and her book 'Tax and Development’ (2013) is the first publication globally that links the areas of tax and human rights and her more recent publication ‘Financing Africa’ (2019) is the first publication globally to map out African fiscal systems.
Mr. David McNair
Executive Director Global Policy at The ONE Campaign
David McNair is Executive Director at the ONE Campaign, a movement of millions of people fighting to end extreme poverty and preventable disease. He sits on the European Council on Foreign Relations Council and is a founding executive board member of the Africa Europe Foundation. Previously, he worked on successful campaigns to reduce child mortality and crack down on grand corruption and tax evasion. In 2012 he was named one of the ninety-nine top foreign policy leaders under 33. He holds a PhD in social geography from the Queen’s University of Belfast.
Ms. Karol Balfe 
CEO ActionAid Ireland
Karol Balfe is CEO of ActionAid Ireland and oversees the organisation’s work on women’s rights, emergency and development work. ActionAid focuses on systems change that are needed to secure women’s rights and end poverty, particularly in responded to economic and climate injustice. Karol has worked for over 20 years in the fields of international human rights, development and peacebuilding and has published policy and learning papers on a range of human rights, peacebuilding and development issues. Karol has a Masters in Globalisation and has worked extensively with a range of civil society partners and communities in Africa, Asia, the Middle East and Latin America.
Mr. Zachary Lager
Global Carbon Coordinator at Self Help Africa
For the last 15 years Zachary’s professional career and personal passion has focused on the nexus of sustainable natural resource use, community governance and sustainable livelihoods in Southern Africa. This interest and passion lead Zachary to engage with Climate Finance and carbon offset projects in 2016 as part of his Masters studies. Since then, Zachary has developed a deep understanding of carbon markets and how to develop quality offset projects. Most recently, Zachary has been working as Self Help Africa’s Global Carbon Coordinator and is supporting the organization to develop a high integrity portfolio of carbon projects aimed at supporting transformative sustainable development while also addressing the key drives and impacts of global climate change.
Moderated by Ms. Sadhbh O'Neill 
Senior Climate Activist at Friends of the Earth
Sadhbh is a lecturer and advocate in the fields of climate and environmental policy with 30 years experience. She has worked for numerous environmental advocacy organisations, climate coalitions and public representatives, as well as lecturered on climate policy and governance, climate law and environmental politics at DCU and UCD. I am currently writing up my PhD at the school of Politics and International Relations UCD in the ethics of carbon trading.
Panel 2 - Adapting Humanitarian Action in a Climate Emergency
Dr. Hugo Slim 
Hugo Slim is a Senior Research Fellow at the Las Casas Institute for Social Justice at Blackfriars Hall at the University of Oxford and at the Institute of Ethics, Law and Armed Conflict at Oxford University. He is also Visiting Professor at the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Academy at Suzhou University. Hugo has had many publications on the topics of humanitarian action, including a recent essay titled ‘Humanitarians and the Climate Emergency: The Ehtical, Practice and Cultural Challenges’.
Paul Knox Clarke
Prinicpal of the ADAPT Initiative
Paul Knox Clarke is the principal of the ADAPT initiative, an organisation that works to support a wide range of humanitarian and disaster management organisations to prepare for the realities of climate change. In this role he conducts awareness raising around the potential impacts of climate change and options for humanitarian response; leads research into effective approaches to respond to climate change, and supports organisations in the development of strategies, programmes and tools to prepare for and respond to the crises of climate change.
Ms. Nishanie Jayamaha 
Moderated by Ms. Réiseal Ní Chéilleachair