Bassel Daher, Ph.D.

Consulting Experience

United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (UN ESCWA) | May 2024 – Present

  • Preparing and delivering training materials and technical assistance to strengthen the capacity of member nation stakeholders to formulate project concept notes and proposals that can facilitate access to biodiversity finance.

  • Preparing tutorial material and online training sessions with case studies, practical examples, interactive exercises and visual tools to support participants in elaborating specific project ideas and concept notes in thematic areas including 1) nature-based solutions for climate resilience, 2) land degradation in arid agricultural ecosystems, and 3) renewable energy and biodiversity.

Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) | Jul 2022 – Present

  • Leading the identification and reporting on global good practices for water-energy-food-environment governance.

  • Conducting interviews with cross-sectoral stakeholders in Jordan with the goal of identifying the key challenges facing the water, energy, and agricultural sectors and addressing barriers to coordinated planning and integrated governance.

  • Supporting the co-development of an innovative and integrative framework for Water-Energy-Food-Environment Nexus governance in Jordan with local experts, stakeholders, and project partners at IIASA and the University of Jordan.

Penn State University | Jul 2022 – Present

United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (UN FAO) | Nov 2023 – Apr 2024 

  • Developed a knowledgebase of affordable, transferrable, and climate-smart technologies across six thematic areas to enhance food security in Egypt, Morocco, Tunisia, Palestine, and Jordan.
  • Co-created a framework and tool for assessing and comparing the performance of identified technologies, allowing for the identification of the most viable solutions for scaling up and adoption.
  • Co-led the technology assessment tool development, analysis, and reporting, in collaboration with project partners at IFAD and IsDB.

PRIMA – Partnership for Research and Innovation in the Mediterranean Area
 | Feb 2024
  • Expert Evaluator; conducted evaluation for one of PRIMA’s Water-Energy-Foond-Environment Nexus funded programs.

United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNDRR) – Regional Office for the Americas and the Carribean  | Apr 2023 – Nov 2023

  • Conducted literature review and engaged in consultations with regional experts to inform research on the interconnections between energy, food, and human mobility in the Northern Countries of Central America.
  • Led the development of a white paper titled “A Systems Approach for Disaster Risk Reduction: Exploring the Nexus of Energy, Food, and Human Mobility in the Northern Countries of Central America” providing a comprehensive analysis of systemic dependencies and proposing actionable prospective strategies.
  • Organized a regional multi-stakeholder meeting to disseminate research findings and collaboratively identify sustainability metrics of interest for evaluating interventions in the energy-food-migration nexus in the Northern Countries of Central America.


International Water Management Institute (IWMI)
| May – Sep 2023

Oliver Wyman | Oct 2022 – March 2023

  • Providing expert guidance and advice to the consulting team on the development of a water-energy-food-environment nexus decision support tool in the United Arab Emirates.

Waterlution, Lebanon and Canada | Jan 2019 – Dec 2021

  • Designed and delivered four Water Innovation Labs, training over 300 young professionals, through immersive leadership workshops designed to accelerate collaborative innovation and devise new innovations for improved water security under climate change. (VIDEO)

Union for the Mediterranean | Sep 2020 – Oct 2021

United Nations Food and Agricultural Organization (UN FAO) and the American University of Beirut, Lebanon | Sep 2019 – Sep 2020

International Water Resources Association, Paris, France | Jun – Aug 2016

  • Authored a policy brief that included recommendations for bridging the gap between science and policy on issues of interconnected resource challenges and climate change.

International Renewable Energy Agency, UAE | Jun 2013 – Dec 2014

  • Co-authored the report: “Renewable Energy and Water-Energy-Food Nexus”.

  • Conducted an extensive literature review for the status of renewable energy globally and developed a framework for assessing national renewable energy deployment scenarios.