Iván Darío Valencia is a Senior Officer and Policy Coordinator for GGGI’s Colombia Country Program since August 2021. He is responsible for leading and developing the policy workstream and serves as focal point for implementing advisory services with the national counterparts, particularly under the Norway-funded Green Growth Program Phase II and the Sustainable Landscapes focus area. 

Mr. Valencia has more than 18 years of experience in government, international organizations and NGOs in the fields of climate policy, forests, land use and biodiversity conservation. Before joining GGGI, he worked as Coordinator of Colombia’s Low Carbon Development Strategy at the Ministry of Environment and Sustainable Development with the support of UNDP. At the Ministry, he also served as advisor and negotiator at the Office of International Affairs. While in government, Iván led the mitigation component of Colombia’s updated NDC, as well as the negotiation of the Visión Amazonía REDD+ program and of zero deforestation agreements with agricultural supply chains. Prior to that, he worked at WWF, the GEF Evaluation Office, Manomet Center for Conservation Sciences, the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands and the Alexander von Humboldt Biodiversity Research Institute.  

Iván Darío holds a BSc in Geography from the National University of Colombia and two master’s degrees in Public Policy and Sustainable Development & Conservation Biology from the University of Maryland. He speaks Spanish, English, French and Norwegian.