Dr. Sasha Koo-Oshima

Sasha has nearly 35 years of experience in international assistance and policy development in agriculture water and environment/natural resource management. Currently, she is the Deputy Director and Head of Water at the UN Food & Agriculture Organization (FAO), leading programs on sustainable land and water management and governance, geospatial data, and integrated water resources management with linkages to climate, energy, health and nutrition. She formerly served as Senior Advisor at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Office of Water on international and regulatory policy, and Secretariat of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). She directed and managed international water programs/compacts with donors agencies; i.e., public-private-partnerships, climate resilience, multi-stakeholder and multi-jurisdictional policy engagements, international conventions to national implementing legislations, blended financing/resource mobilization, and effective policy governance in sustainable water and natural resource-agriculture management. She serves in various Governing Boards of the World Water Council and the CGIAR’s Water Land Ecosystems, and on Steering Committees in Agri-Environment of the OECD and UNEP Global Partnerships on nutrients, circular economy, and has implemented and supervised a substantial set of country and river basin projects. She published, sponsored and peer-reviewed extensively on international water issues, such as the UN World Water Development Reports, FAO-WHO Wastewater Reuse Guidelines for Agriculture, FAO reports on Wealth of Waste: The Economics of Wastewater Reuse, Desalination and Agriculture, Agriculture Water Quality Guidelines for China, and the OECD Water Governance review of the Netherlands: Fit for the Future. In addition, she served on various international technical advisory panels for the GEF and the Ramsar Convention, in support of research and policy-making for planning and management.   

Sasha has nearly 35 years of experience in international assistance and policy development in agriculture water and environment/natural resource management. Currently, she is the Deputy Director and Head of Water at the UN Food & Agriculture Organization (FAO), leading programs on sustainable land and water management and governance, geospatial data, One Health, and integrated water resources management with linkages to climate, energy, health, and food and nutrition security. She formerly served as Senior Advisor at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Office of Water, and as Secretariat of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), where she directed and managed international environment and water programs, strategized in the development of various revolving funds for wastewater financing in the GEF Caribbean Wastewater Revolving Fund and the Millennium Challenge Corporation Cabo Verde Compact on sustainable water infrastructure financing. She is now on the Governing Boards of the World Water Council and the CGIAR’s Water Land Ecosystems, and UNEP Global Partnerships on nutrient and wastewater management, circular economy, and is implementing and supervising a substantial set of country and river basin projects. She published, sponsored and peer-reviewed extensively on international water issues, such as the UN World Water Development Reports, FAO-WHO Wastewater Reuse Guidelines for Agriculture, FAO reports on Agriculture-Nature Based Solutions, Wealth of Waste: The Economics of Wastewater Reuse, Desalination and Agriculture, Agriculture Water Quality Guidelines for China, and the OECD country Water Governance reviews.