Deputy Director, Land and Water Division, UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO)
Member of the WLE Steering Committee
sasha.koo [at] fao.org.
Sasha Koo-Oshima is currently the Deputy Director of Land and Water Division at the UN Food & Agriculture Organization (FAO), leading programs on agricultural water development, information and data, governance and nexus issues. She was formerly the Senior International Water Advisor for the U.S. Environment Protection Agency, OECD Programme Secretariat, and the Director of the U.S.-China Clean Water Action Plan under the bilateral Strategic & Economic Dialogue for Environment and Trade Cooperation. Her career spans over 25 years focusing on the issues of water, agri-environment and sustainable economic development, and includes experience in multi-level governance and water financing.
She implemented numerous nutrient and environmental management programs on the prevention of land-based pollution, non-conventional water use, food safety and security. She was instrumental in the ratification of the Cartagena Convention and negotiated various water quality outcomes in the Caribbean region. She has supervised a substantial set of multi-donor country and agriculture development trust funds and published extensively on international water issues, such as the OECD "Water Governance in the Netherlands: Fit for the Future?" and "Stakeholder Engagement," UN World Water Development Reports, WHO Guidelines, and UN FAO circular economy, "Wealth of Waste: The Economics of Wastewater Reuse." In addition, she served on various international steering and advisory panels for the UNEP, Global Environment Facility, and Ramsar Convention related to resource recovery, water-energy-food nexus, multi-functional water infrastructure and climate resilience. She co-authored the FAO Report on Agriculture Water Quality Guidelines of China within the Chinese Ministries. She has designed and implemented blended finance in water for the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) Compact in Cabo Verde and served as the U.S. delegate and Bureau Member to the OECD on water, biodiversity and agri-environment programs.
