John-Rob is the Manager of Knowledge and Partnerships for UrbanShift at the WRI Ross Center for Sustainable Cities. In this role, John-Rob overseew the day-to-day management of the project, leads on M&E, reporting and partner engagement, helps to develop content for technical capacity-building courses, and organizes peer exchanges and other learning events for cities.
Prior to UrbanShift, John-Rob was the Implementation Manager for Cities4Forests, a WRI initiative that aims to cultivate awareness and catalyze action on the part of urban residents and city governments to conserve, manage and restore trees, forests and other nature-based solutions (NbS) inside and outside city boundaries. He helped to start the initiative in 2018 and then managed project delivery with WRI’s international teams in Brazil, Central Africa, Colombia, Ethiopia, Kenya, India, Indonesia, Madagascar and Mexico.
John-Rob holds a Master of Science in Environmental Policy from the University of Oxford. He also holds a Bachelor of Science (Honors) in Biodiversity and Conservation and a Bachelor of Science in Zoology and Environmental Science, both from Rhodes University in Grahamstown, South Africa. John-Rob is originally from Botswana and is a dual national of South Africa and the United Kingdom. He speaks fluent Setswana and Sotho and conversational Afrikaans and French.
Latest content
How Africa’s First Chief Heat Officer is Helping to Create a More Resilient Freetown
As extreme heat rises across the globe, Eugenia Kargbo is showing how cities can prioritize strategies to mitigate risks and support residents' wellbeing.
New Data Dashboard Helps Cities Build Urban Resilience in a Changing Climate
Developed by UrbanShift and Cities4Forests, this new tool enables local actors to assess real-time climate risks and effectively plan future mitigation strategies.
What does a green city look like?: Equitable, connected, and nature-positive
During the ClientEarth Summit, UrbanShift's John-Rob Pool joined Aditya Bahadur of the International Institute for Environment and Development and Caroline Watson of C40 Cities for a discussion on creating more sustainable, livable cities.
Restoring Kigali’s Wetlands to Accelerate Climate Resilience
Through its effort to restore urban wetlands, Kigali is mitigating its flood risk and emerging as and exemplar for resilient development.
