Charmae Pyl Wissink-Nercua

Charmae Pyl Wissink-Nercua is part of the Urban Socio-Spatial Development Department at IHS. Her expertise is in urban land and housing development, focusing on governance, sustainability, and resilience. Charmae has more than 15 years of professional experience in the field. She is currently working on the themes of nature-based solutions, sustainable urban development, land and housing rights, climate adaptation planning, climate resilience, urban living labs, stakeholders’ engagement and co-design and co-creation processes.

At IHS, Charmae is involved in education, research, advisory and capacity-building activities. She coordinates the Sustainable Urban Development (SUD) course and is actively engaged in IHS’ project acquisitions, and is leading various projects such as international tailormade trainings and refresher courses in Africa, Asia, Latin America and Europe.

Before joining IHS in 2013, she worked for local government organizations, non-government organizations and national governments in the Philippines and East Timor, focusing on housing & land issues, participatory governance, participatory community development and urban poverty reduction programs. She has extensive experience in project development and management, strategic planning and network-building.

In the Philippines, she was very passionate about advocating for the land and housing rights of the urban poor and the vulnerable sectors in society. In her stint as the urban poor and social housing consultant of Cebu City, Philippines, she was involved in the development and implementation of community-based land and housing programs such as the Community Mortgage Program (CMP) and in implementing participatory and multi-sectoral processes on issues of land tenure security, evictions and resettlement, and the urban poor’s access to basic services like water, health and sanitation services. At Dili, Timor Leste (East Timor), she provided full guidance and advice to the Directorate on Housing and Building under the Ministry of Public Works and Infrastructure regarding the formulation, policy lobbying and implementation of the National Housing Policy and the National Housing Program.

Charmae obtained her MSc in Urban Management and Development, specializing in Housing and Land Development strategies, Cum laude at IHS in 2009. Her current research interest is in the interaction between science and society and the role of nature-based living labs in addressing climate change challenges in the context of coastal cities in Europe. 

Involved and leading the following projects:

• Project Team Leader, TMT Colombia
  Raising the impact of circular economy and nature-based strategies to achieve climate resilience and equitable provision of public utilities in Colombia with the client Superintendence of Public Utilities (SSPD) (2023-2024)
• Project Team Leader, TMT Bangladesh
  Building Climate Resilience for cities and towns in Bangladesh, Nature-based Solutions for Climate Mitigation and Adaptation with the client Dhaka Capital Development Authority (RAJUK) and FRIENDSHIP NGO (2023-2024)
• Capacity-building expert, SCORE
  SCORE: Smart Control of the Climate Resilience in European Coastal Cities (European Commission - Horizon 2020 Programme, 2021-2025
• Project Team Leader, TMT Uganda
  Tailormade Training on Building climate resilience through sustainable land management and climate-smart agriculture with the client Ministry of Land, Housing and Urban Development (MLHUD) in Uganda (2022)
• Project Team Leader, TMT Nepal
  Tailormade Training on Nature-Based Solutions for Climate Change Adaptation and Mitigation: Building Resilience for Municipalities in Nepal with the client Municipal Association of Nepal (MUAN) in Nepal (2022)
• Project Team Leader, RC Egypt
  Refresher Course on Building Climate Resilience through Ecosystem-based Approaches (EbA), Integrated Water Resource Management (IWRM) and Climate Smart Agriculture (CSA) in the MENA Region in partnership with the Centre for Applied Research for Environment and Sustainability (CARES), The American University of Cairo & IHS Alumni International Network Egypt (IHS LAAE)- Egypt (2022)