Hellen Wanjohi-Opil

Hellen Wanjohi-Opil is the Resilience Africa Cities Lead at the World Resources Institute (WRI). She supports WRI Africa’s work focused on delivering positive change for the resilience and livelihoods of urban communities, especially those living in informal settlements.

She is an urban planning and climate change expert with extensive experience in participatory planning in over 20 informal settlements, and with marginalized rural communities. She has also worked extensively with city, regional, and national authorities in the preparation of over 15 development plans in Africa. Hellen’s experience includes working for UN Agencies (including UNDP & UN-Habitat), as well as consulting work on multiple donor-funded projects in the areas of climate resilience, urban governance, urban investment planning, policy, gender, and social inclusion. Hellen is also seconded part-time by WRI, to the UN High Level Champions for Climate Action, leading the African work focused on urban resilience and water. She has previously served as the Honorary Secretary of the Kenya Institute of Planners, and was also the recipient of the Women in Real Estate (WIRE) Leader in Leadership Award 2020.