Marie-Thérèse Laguerre-Ndiaye is the Partnerships and Projects Director at the Veolia Foundation, where she leads strategic collaborations that drive social and environmental impact. She brings nearly 20 years of experience as an institutional and marketing director across several Veolia Group subsidiaries.
She is currently pursuing a PhD in Management Sciences, exploring the link between corporate purpose and employee engagement.
Veolia is a global leader in optimized resource management, delivering innovative water, waste, and energy solutions that foster sustainable development for communities and
industries worldwide.

Since 2011, Durk is the Executive Director of Water Europe, a multi-stakeholder association with over 250 members, representing the entire range of actors in the innovative water ecosystem.
Durk brings a 20-year of experience in the European water sector. From 2004 to 2011, he worked as a Deputy Secretary General at EUREAU. Prior to that, he was a Senior Legal Policy Officer for the water department of the provincial government of Friesland, Netherlands.
Durk Krol holds a master’s degree in International Law and a master’s degree Languages and Cultures of Latin America from the University of Leiden (NL), and an MBA from United Business Institutes in Brussels. Additionally, he followed an Executive Development Programme at Vlerick Business School (B), an Executive Master International Association Management at Solvay Brussels School (B), and the Programme on Negotiation Global Online from Harvard Law School.
Durk Krol was born in Rio de Janeiro (Br) and raised in the province of Friesland in the Netherlands. Since 2004, he has been living with his family in Brussels. He is married and a father of three teenage daughters.

Jaqui Goldin is an anthropologist with a strong academic and extensive empirical background. She is dedicated to participatory research with a keen interest in advancing socio-ecological learning through art-based methods. She works extensively on human development and well-being and the inter-connections between humans and their environment. Her passion for citizen science is about narrowing the divide between science and society with the aim of achieving a more just society and for this she places a strong emphasis on the human right to know and on the emancipatory potential of science to transform society. Jaqui Goldin is an Associate Professor Extra-Ordinary in the Faculty of Natural Sciences at the University of the Western Cape a position that is held under the UNESCO Chair for Groundwater and Society, a Visiting Professor at Utrecht University International Development Studies and the Director of Ecolink, Environmental Education and Training Centre.
Ecolink is one of the oldest surviving NGO’s, founded in 1976 by the pioneer conservatist Dr Sue Hart. Ecolink’s mission is to respond to the needs of individuals, households and communities with integrity and efficiency and to foster respect, pride, dignity, self-esteem and responsibility for the natural and social environment

Diamonds on the Soles of our Feet (DSF) is Ecolink’s flagship project. It was founded in the Limpopo in 2019 and has now gone global with strong roots in the Narok County, Kenya. Prompted by the need to implement small-scale, context-sensitive, non-dominant, learning, we are determined to resist the universalising tendencies of mainstream science, and to open space for humility, wonder, and slow scholarship. Community participation replaces the heroic individual scientist or heroic institution (university, research body), often arising from environmental fragility and the need to address real-life threats and opportunities on the ground. Through a comprehensive water literacy programme DSF engages with science through their Learning with Heart (LWH) model. Learning happens when there is joy, curiosity, creativity. LWH is about developing a passion for science that is meaningful to communities in their very particular local contexts.

Founder/President, Pan African Vision for the Environment (PAVE), Nigeria. A human development and public policy specialist with B.Sc in Applied Chemistry (University of Uyo, Nigeria), and Post Graduate Studies Diploma in Water Management, with Specialisation in Water Services Management (UNESCO-IHE, Netherlands), with over 20 years sector experience in human ecology and sustainable development issues, spanning NGO management, government, civil society, private sector and International development agencies relations. Other areas of expertise include fund raising, policy analysis, participatory research, advocacy, capacity building, project development and implementation, monitoring and evaluation, consultancy / public sector advisory, grassroots mobilisation, coalition building and stakeholder engagement.
The Pan African Vision for the Environment (PAVE) is a United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) accredited Lagos based, non- profit, non-political, non-governmental organisation established with the aim of promoting sustainable development through research, documentation, policy dialogues, workshops, advocacy and consultancy services.
PAVE deals with development issues in their environmental and socio-economic aspects with emphasis on the attainment of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) targets regarding water and sanitation and other related human settlement issues including Agricultural Value Chain promotion, Gender, Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR), Climate change and Clean Energy promotion, Waste Management including E-Waste, Chemical Management, Blue Economy, Ocean Citizen Awareness and Literacy and Stakeholder Engagement. PAVE is registered (IT/NO: 26029) with the Corporate Affairs Commission in Nigeria.