Juha I. Uitto

Juha I. Uitto has worked in the nexus of international development and environment for more than three decades. Prior to joining ELI as Visiting Scholar in April 2024, he served for a decade a Director of the Independent Evaluation Office of the Global Environment Facility (GEF), the premier financial mechanism for several multilateral environmental agreements, including the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, the Convention on Biodiversity, the UN Convention on Desertification, and two MEAs on harmful chemicals. He is considered a thought and practice leader in evaluating environment in international development. Since 1999, he has worked in senior positions with the GEF and UNDP, including as Evaluation Advisor and Deputy Director of the Independent Evaluation Office of the latter. In these capacities he has managed and conducted numerous evaluations focusing on environmental management, poverty reduction and development. Throughout the 1990s, Juha was environment and sustainable development research and training program manager at the United Nations University based in Tokyo. He has held short-term visiting positions at Rutgers University and Kyoto University. He has published widely on topics related to sustainable development, environmental hazards, and evaluation. His latest books include Migrant Health and Resilience: Transnational Competence in Conflict and Climate Displacement Situations (co-authored with Peter Koehn, Phyllis Ngai and Diana Diaków; 2024) Transformational Change for People and the Planet: Evaluating Environment and Development (co-edited with Geeta Batra; 2022); and Environmental Evaluation and Global Development Institutions (co-authored with Geeta Batra and Osvaldo Feinstein; 2022). A native of Finland, Juha was educated at the universities of Helsinki and Lund. He holds a PhD in Social and Economic Geography.