Mr Rory Hunter has recently been appointed new part-time Myanmar Coordinator for the Australian Water Partnership (AWP).
Reporting to AWP and the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) Greater Mekong Program, Mr Hunter will continue to foster relationships with key water sector partners in Myanmar and represent AWP in country.
Mr Hunter, currently based in Yangon, is an environment and water resources specialist, with expertise in integrated assessments, governance, climate change and environmental projects. He holds a Master of Integrated Water Management from The University of Queensland, Australia, and has over ten years of experience implementing projects in Australia and the Asia and Pacific Regions with the Mekong River Commission (MRC), DFAT, the International Centre for Environmental Management (ICEM), World Bank and other international and local organisations.
Mr Hunter has played a key role in many AWP-supported activities in Myanmar, including the Ayeyarwady State of the Basin Assessment (SOBA), the Basin Exploratory Scoping Study (BESS), Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) of the hydropower sector and the Myanmar Healthy Rivers Initiative.
From now until early September, Mr Hunter will support the finalisation of AWP’s Phase 1 activities in Myanmar including the BESS and Source modelling scoping program and oversee the implementation of the Myanmar Young Water Professionals (YWP) Program, currently in its fourth round.
Mr Hunter will also support new activities, including the dissemination of the SOBA Report, and will oversee and support the finalisation of a plan for AWP’s Phase II activities in Myanmar.
AWP’s outgoing Myanmar Coordinator, Mr Tarek Ketelsen, was instrumental in planning and implementing AWP’s Phase I activities in Myanmar. Mr Ketelsen has moved to a new role as AWP’s coordinator for the new Mekong Australian Water Facility, an emerging joint initiative with DFAT’s Greater Mekong Water Resources Program.
AWP CEO Prof Nick Schofield congratulated Mr Ketelsen “on a fantastic job in coordinating the AWP Phase 1 Myanmar program, which generated the highly impressive Ayeyarwady SOBA – of which the final technical reports are now available.”
The SOBA Technical Reports can be downloaded from the AIRBM website.
