Thuy Pham

Pham Thu Thuy is a Professor in Public policy. She is a political and social scientist. Her research focuses on the political economy of climate change policies, including low-emission development strategies, payment for environmental services, reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation, carbon market, biodiversity conservation, just transition and social inclusion. She has supported many developing countries, global financial institutions, multinational companies, and indigenous communities in designing and implementing effective, efficient and equitable climate changes policies and projects. Her work also targets the poor, ethnic minorities, woman including youth in capacity development and ensure they are able to raise their voices and draw benefits from climate change policies and projects.

Research Impact

Prof. Thuy has been a scientific steering committee member of many important global climate change initiatives, including:

• Global Landscape Forum - the world’s largest knowledge-led platform on sustainable and inclusive landscapes,
• International Land Coalition Asia program – a global alliance of more than 300 civil society and intergovernmental organisations working together to put people at the centre of land governance.
• Global Forest, People, Climate Initiative on Carbon Market Strategy
• Global Land Programme- an interdisciplinary community of science and practice fostering the study of land systems and the co-design of solutions for global sustainability.
• Global Comparative Study on Reduced emissions from deforestation and degradation (REDD+) – the only to date and largest global research on assessing the impacts of result-based payment for forest carbon policies and projects in more than 20 countries in Asia, Latin America, and Africa since 2009.
• Advisor for UK Government on future Reduced Emission from Deforestation and Degradation funding policies

Thuy’s innovative research has made a significant contribution to global, regional, and national climate change policies. She has contributed scientific inputs to:

• United Nations Sustainability Report in 2016
• The Green Climate Fund Sectoral Guides and Green Climate Fund Gender Policies
• The global social inclusion strategy for forest carbon policies and projects for the World Bank’s multi-donor trust fund, Enhancing Access to Benefits while Lowering Emissions
• Global assessment on progress on the New York Declaration on Forests Assessment
• Global Forest, People, Climate Initiative on Carbon Market Strategy
• Vietnam’s Forestry Development Strategy 2020-2030 with a vision to 2050 and Vietnam’s national scheme on Payment for Forest Environmental Services, Vietnam forest carbon market policies, and the National scheme of Payment for Forest Environmental Services.

Professor Thuy has been working in the field of poverty reduction, climate change policies and finance, ecological and social resilience, lower emission strategy development, green growth development, just transition, carbon and biodiversity market, nature-based solutions, and food security for the last 2 decades. Her work aims to provide information, tools, and analysis for global, regional, and national policy makers, civil society and community-based organisations, private sector actors, media, indigenous organisations, local communities, research organisations, and donors to design and implement effective, efficient, and equitable climate change policies and projects. She has supported governments, the private sector, and universities in more than 20 countries to develop their climate change, poverty reduction policies, and access to innovative climate finance.  Her work also targets the poor, ethnic minorities, woman, including youth in capacity development and ensures they can raise their voices and draw benefits from climate change policies and projects.

Professor Thuy has  supervised PhD, master, and honors students in the USA, Switzerland, Nepal, Vietnam, Germany, and Canada to research forest certification, payment for environmental services, result-based payment for reduced emissions from deforestation and degradation, and climate change governance. She was invited by Ohio State University (USA), Lafayette College (US), University of Helsinki, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH), the University of Galway, Pontifical Catholic University of Peru, Yale University, and top 5 universities in Vietnam to deliver guest lectures on global and political economy of climate change policies and climate finance.  Thuy has also worked with universities across the world, such as Ohio State University (US), Nong Lam University (Vietnam), and Lafayette College (USA) to develop postgraduate programs on sustainable development, low-emission food systems, and high-quality forest carbon market development. Most of Thuy’s students are working as successful academic leaders or hold senior positions at different government agencies across the world.