Grazia Pacillo

Grazia dedicated her career to supporting decision-makers in designing and implementing sustainable development projects, programmes and solutions that are sensitive to multiple risks, including climate and security risks.
She currently co-leads the CGIAR FOCUS Climate Security research area, managing a team of more than 50 people in 16 countries coming from multiple backgrounds (climate scientists, peace and security experts, social scientists, spatial analysts, econometricians, policy specialists, etc.) and a close to 5 Mio USD portfolio of projects. Her main responsibilities include co-leading on the design and implementation of the Alliance offer on climate, environment, peace, and security, including resource mobilization, proposal development, project management, partnership development, and advocacy tasks to ensure the alignment of CGIAR land, water, and food systems science with climate security initiatives at global, regional, and national levels.
She works closely with national and international partners (e.g., WUR, IEP, Interpeace, SIPRI, NUPI, African Union, FrancoPaix among others) to position Alliance and CGIAR science in the climate security community and lead high-level engagement to inform strategic policy developments on fragility, governance, stabilization, human mobility, and risk-informed development (e.g., UN Food System Summits, COPs, and related). These efforts have already resulted in a number of successful developments, such as the establishment of long-term strategic partnerships with humanitarian and development actors, (e.g., Long-Term Agreement and MoU with WFP, Joint Research Strategy with the Eastern and Horn of Africa IOM Regional Bureau), and with climate security established players, such as UNDP, Adelphi, SIPRI, NUPI among others, and in the inclusion of the CGIAR Climate Security Observatory (a decision support tool) in the top 10 game-changing solutions presented at the 2021 UNFSS under Action Track 5 (Humanitarian-Development-Peace Nexus sub-cluster).
Finally, she provides thought leadership in the analyses and assessments of climate security risks to inform management and decision-makers at various levels. She leads multiple projects that combine conventional and unconventional mixed method evaluative approaches to qualify and quantify the climate security nexus in Africa, Latin America, and South-East Asia, to provide solutions that are climate security-sensitive and to help define policies that are coherently mainstreaming climate security risks in recovery pathways.
Before this role, Grazia led the impact assessment research area in South-East Asia, including Thailand, Viet Nam, and the Philippines. Previously, she worked with humanitarian actors, such as Save the Children UK, on the design and evaluation of climate-resilient programs in emergency settings, (Somali Region of Ethiopia and Nigeria), or countries highly affected by climate impacts, (Indonesia, Bangladesh, Rwanda).