Manager Biodiversity and Nature@ICLEI - Local Governments for Sustainability
Verified
Ursula Wellmann is an impact-driven sustainability specialist with over 15 years of experience leading inclusive, multi-stakeholder development initiatives across Africa. With a strong foundation in socio-economic development, biodiversity, and the green economy, she has successfully managed high-impact projects funded by international donors, securing and directing multi-million Rand budgets. Her expertise spans strategic leadership, cross-disciplinary team management, grant acquisition, stakeholder engagement and equitable development.
Currently managing ICLEI Africa’s nature and biodiversity portfolio, Ursula drives regional strategies aligned with global climate and biodiversity frameworks (CBD and UNFCCC). Her background includes key roles at GreenCape and the Atlantis Special Economic Zone for Green Technologies Manufacturing, where she advanced enterprise and skills development to foster sustainable, localised economic growth.
Ursula combines policy insight with hands-on implementation, evidenced in her work on the South African solar PV quality assurance, community engagement strategies for various African cities, coupled with concept development for urban green infrastructure projects. With a BA in Social Science (PPP) and professional development from UCT’s Graduate School of Business and IUCN, she brings analytical depth, resilience, and a collaborative ethos to her work. Ursula is fluent in English, German, and Afrikaans and speaks French at Advanced level and Xhosa at Beginner level.More...
Paul Currie
Director: Urban Systems@ICLEI Africa
Verified
Paul Currie is Director of the Urban Systems Centre at ICLEI Africa. He is a researcher of African urban resource and service systems, with interest in connecting quantitative analysis with storytelling and visual elicitation. In this role, he contributes to themes of urban food systems, water, waste and circularity, infrastructure, planning and equity. He chairs the RISE Africa platform which brings joy, creativity and practice into the science-policy interface, to inspire Action for future African cities. His work supports African local government officers and stakeholders to take on systems approaches, both in strategy and in implementation, with the aim to bring planning and governance systems into better alignment with urban realities.More...