Jens Aerts, Founder Office for Sustainable Land & Urban Management (OSLUM)

Jens Aerts is a senior urban specialist, with 25 years of experience in urban innovation, city and regional planning practice, policy and research, working with international development agencies, city governments, developers and non-for-profit organizations.

Currently he supports the European Union, World Bank, the Global Infrastructure Basel Foundation and Cities Alliance, focusing on climate-resilience, local governance and placemaking. He also has been working for UN-Habitat, UNESCAP and UNICEF, supporting global programs and providing city-level technical assistance in China, Paraguay, South-Africa, Philippines, Dominican Republic and the United Arab Emirates. He authored UNICEF's handbook on child-responsive city planning 'Shaping urbanization for children' and contributed to various technical reports, guides and popular articles linking urban health and sustainable urban development. 

Recently he led the Climate Resilience Planning team at Sweco, conducting climate risk assessments, designing climate adaptation strategies and supporting new climate policy development. He was project director for several international assignments in Sub-Saharan African and Saudi-Arabia. Jens has also been teaching at the Cosmopolis Centre for Urban Research of the University of Brussels (VUB) from 2011 until 2016 and was affiliated with the Urban Community and Health Equity Lab at Columbia University's Graduate School of Architecture, Planning, and Preservation (GSAPP). 

He holds a MSc in Civil Engineering and Architecture from the University of Leuven (Belgium) and obtained his MA Urban Planning at Universitat Politecnica de Catalunya in Barcelona (Spain). Recently he became Expert in Climate Adaptation Finance at the Frankfurt School of Finance and Management.

Donzília Batista, Urban Planner, UNDP/Regional Riyadh Municipality 

Donzília Batista is an urban planner with 20 years of experience advancing sustainable urban development with governmental and development agencies. She holds a master's degree in Land Use Management and Environmental Planning from Nova University in Lisbon and recently became an Expert in Sustainability at MIT.

Donzília leads master planning initiatives at neighbourhood and municipal scales, bringing together human-centred approaches, international best practices, and integrated spatial strategies focused on urban resilience.

In municipal projects, she has assisted municipalities in Portugal and Angola with developing detailed urban plans, regeneration initiatives, and climate adaptation strategies based on innovative partnership frameworks.

In policy and governance strengthening, she has served as a consultant to the Ministry of Housing and Urbanism in Angola, strengthening the National Planning System through policy recommendations and capacity building for provincial and municipal governments, with a focus on multi-scalar governance, sectoral integration, environmental stewardship, and urban resilience. She has also conducted monitoring and evaluation reports for international organisations, including the World Bank and USAID.

In Saudi Arabia, working for the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), Donzília supported the Ministry of Municipal, Rural Planning and Housing in developing the strategy for the Public Realm Activation programme. She currently serves as Lead for International Cooperation on a capacity development and strategic advisory programme with Riyadh Regional Municipality