Richard Wecker

Richard coordinates UNICEF Indonesia’s portfolio on emergency response, disaster risk reduction, climate change adaptation and mitigation. As part of its country programme with the Government of Indonesia for the period of 2016-2020, UNICEF aims to address major environmental health issues such as the impacts of toxic air pollution (haze) from peatland and forest fires on children’s health and wellbeing. Richard has facilitated ground-breaking research on the topic, including a time-series epidemiological study in three haze-affected cities of Sumatera and Kalimantan, an ethnographic study of community-level perspectives using the Reality Check Approach and a policy analysis study of disaster mitigation and risk reduction. On the basis of this research UNICEF is working with UN Environment, Pulse Lab Jakarta and a wide range of partners, including related government ministries, in order to develop and implement innovative solutions to reduce the risks of haze from peatland and forest fires on children’s health and wellbeing and to empower young people as ‘agents of change’.