Celina Kin Yii Yong
Senior Regional Technical Advisor & Stakeholder Engagement Specialist
Summary
A development and private sector practitioner from the Global South with over 25 years of working with governments, development partners, civil society, indigenous peoples, private companies to derisk nature-based solutions that are built on strong evidence as well as respect for human rights, gender equity, social inclusion and environmental integrity, contributing to the SDGs.
Overview
26
26
years of professional experience
5
5
years of post-secondary education
Work History
Senior Regional Technical Advisor and Stakeholder Engagement Specialist – Forest and Climate Team
UNDP
4 2020 - Current
- Leads the Climate and Forests team in Asia-Pacific to integrate and implement nature-based solutions as part of global climate action and SDGs.
- Derisks nature-based investments by conducting thorough technical assessments and providing expert recommendations in climate finance.
- Co-leads the uptake and implementation of a high-integrity carbon markets in the Asia-Pacific that reflects environmental, social and governance integrity principles.
Stakeholder Engagement Specialist - UN-REDD Programme
UNDP
09.2012 - Current
- Proffers technical advice and guidance to countries in Asia-Pacific region to design, implement and monitor gender responsive and socially inclusive approaches in REDD+ processes.
- Convenes and collaborates with national government counterparts, indigenous peoples and CSOs to identify, create and mainstream substantive and procedural enabling conditions in national policies and frameworks for the full and effective participation of all stakeholders in regional, national and subnational REDD+ processes: advance legitimate and authentic representation that is gender sensitive; access to and transparency of information; capacity to participate, including provisions for free, prior and informed consent; and access to justice. The latter includes designing gender responsive and socially inclusive grievance redress mechanisms for REDD+ that are complementary to proactive stakeholder engagement.
- Generates knowledge and promotes international and regional multi-stakeholder exchanges with regional partners on lessons learnt or emerging good practices related to UNFCCC’s Cancun safeguards: social safeguards such as full and effective participation particularly with indigenous and non-indigenous forest dependent men and women; free, prior and informed consent; and improved forest governance.
Regional Technical Advisor and Stakeholder Engagement Specialist – Forest and Climate Team
UNDP
01.2018 - 04.2020
- Collaborates closely with cross-functional teams, agencies and multi-stakeholders to incorporate nature-based solutions in the forest and land use sector (REDD+) to achieve global climate action.
- Oversees the successful completion of a US$ 30 million UN-REDD Viet Nam Phase II Programme.
ASEAN Social Forestry Network Project Officer
RECOFTC – The Center for People and Forests
08.2011 - 09.2012
- Initiates a Learning Network to communicate, enhance, share, and strengthen knowledge and experience about social forestry, climate change and REDD+ within the ASEAN region.
- Leads the strategic co-ordination and implementation of regional capacity building activities that are built on adult learning principles with broad-based clients such as academics, CSOs, NGOs, policymakers, and private industry representatives.
- Co-designs and co-leads capacity building modules on climate change, community forestry and forest governance for broad-based participants: government, private sector and civil society.
REDD Learning Network Officer - Responsible Asia Forestry and Trade Program
RECOFTC – The Center for People and Forests
04.2010 - 07.2011
- Leads a Learning Network consisting of policy makers and CSOs to critically analyse the risks and benefits REDD+ present to indigenous peoples and forest dependent communities.
- Fosters engagement with the media through training workshops to ensure lessons learned from the relationships between REDD+, and indigenous peoples and forest dependent communities’ livelihoods are widely communicated throughout the Asia-Pacific region.
- Co-develop a toolkit to evaluate and verify Free, Prior and Informed Consent for the UN-REDD Programme with indigenous peoples’ organisations.
Assistant Course Coordinator – Third Executive Forest Policy Short Course
RECOFTC – The Center for People and Forests
12.2009 - 04.2010
- Coordinates, organizes and executes a well-received course with multiple course partners: Asia Pacific Forestry Network, the EU-EFI FLEGT Asia Program, FAO, the National Forest Programme Facility, and the USDA Forest Service.
Member Services Officer
Sarawak Timber Association (STA), Malaysia
04.1999 - 08.2007
- Establishes effective working relationships as an economic chamber representative with policymakers, environmental and social NGOs, and private sector that led to the successful formulation and development of a critical national timber certification scheme, the Malaysian Timber Certification Scheme (MTCS).
- Develops social development strategies for the Sarawak timber industry as part of its corporate social responsibilities.
Education
MA International Development: Public Policy & Management -
University of Manchester
England 09.2007 - 09.2008
Bachelor of Management Studies - Human Resource ManagementMarketing & International Management
University of Waikato
New Zealand 01.1995 - 12.1998
Skills
Applied skills in Sustainability, Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG)
Co-creation with multi-stakeholders with diverse interests and positions: government, private sector, CSO, Indigenous Peoples, development partners
Fluent in English, Malay and Indonesian languages (written and spoken) Intermediate in Mandarin and fluent various Chinese dialects (spoken only)
Proficient in MS Office: Access, Excel, Outlook, Power Point, Publisher, and Word
Accomplishments
- Successfully leads a process to secure a US$ 103.78 million Green Climate Fund REDD+ Results-based Payments (GCF REDD+ RBP) funding proposal for Indonesia with UNDP as the Accredited Entity. This is the first successful proposal from the Asia-Pacific region and the largest funding approved for GCF REDD+ RBP to date (2020).
- Executes a $30 million UN-REDD Viet Nam Phase II Programme (2013-2018) that is instrumental in assisting the country to meet the key requirements under the Warsaw Framework of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).
- Mobilises over $20 million through different climate finance in 2019 to advance the piloting of policies and measures that will address deforestation, forest degradation as well as promote forest restoration and better forest governance.
- Persuades the private actors in the Sarawak timber industry to advance towards sustainable forest management and better timber trade under the Forest Stewardship Council and the Malaysian Timber Certification Scheme.
- Collaborates with key government counterparts and civil society partners to produce a widely-accepted National Guidelines on Free, Prior and Informed Consent for REDD+ implementation in Papua New Guinea (PNG) that provide practical and flexible steps to promote gender equity in traditional customary settings.
- Strategizes, enhances and mainstreams CSO and indigenous peoples’ national and subnational REDD+ engagement in Bangladesh, Cambodia, Mongolia, Myanmar, Papua New Guinea, Sri Lanka, and Viet Nam. This includes research development to analyse and influence national policies in these countries.
- Heightens national governments’ knowledge, skills and abilities to address and respect social safeguards as provided in UNFCCC’s Cancun Safeguards.
- Publicises innovative lessons learnt by promoting socially inclusive and gender responsive approaches that are adapted into country-specific contexts through digital media.
Publications
- What does it take to make local consultation a success?, https://www.bmz.de/de/zentrales_downloadarchiv/Service/Konferenzen/Indigene/Input_Paper_III_Lisa_Ogle_and_Celina_Yong.pdf, Input Paper III: Asia Pacific Region for Expert Workshop on the Full and Effective Participation of Indigenous Peoples in REDD+, October 2013.
- Breaking Walls, Building Bridges: Managing Conflict in the Tropical Timber Industry, https://www.recoftc.org/recoftc/download/4553/791, Conflict brief – July 2011
- Decoding REDD: Effective REDD+ Safeguards, Lessons from Forest Certification, https://www.recoftc.org/project/redd-learning-network/policy-briefs/decoding-redd-effective-redd-safeguards-lessons-forest-certification, Workshop brief – May 2010
References
References available upon request.
Training
Successfully completed “Mediation: Strategic Conflict Management for Professionals” course offered by the Singapore Mediation Centre.
Personal Information
Nationality: Malaysian
Timeline
Regional Technical Advisor and Stakeholder Engagement Specialist – Forest and Climate Team
UNDP
01.2018 - 04.2020
Stakeholder Engagement Specialist - UN-REDD Programme
UNDP
09.2012 - Current
ASEAN Social Forestry Network Project Officer
RECOFTC – The Center for People and Forests
08.2011 - 09.2012
REDD Learning Network Officer - Responsible Asia Forestry and Trade Program
RECOFTC – The Center for People and Forests
04.2010 - 07.2011
Assistant Course Coordinator – Third Executive Forest Policy Short Course
RECOFTC – The Center for People and Forests
12.2009 - 04.2010
MA International Development: Public Policy & Management -
University of Manchester
09.2007 - 09.2008
Member Services Officer
Sarawak Timber Association (STA), Malaysia
04.1999 - 08.2007
Bachelor of Management Studies - Human Resource ManagementMarketing & International Management
University of Waikato
01.1995 - 12.1998
Senior Regional Technical Advisor and Stakeholder Engagement Specialist – Forest and Climate Team
UNDP
4 2020 - Current
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