Martin Rokitzki

Martin is the founder and the current Managing Director of PlanAdapt, based in Kigali, Rwanda. He heads and manages the PlanAdapt Coordination Hub.

Martin also leads the continuous co-design and curation process behind the Climate Co-Adaptation Lab – PlanAdapt’s Collaboration and Innovation Platform.

He is a passionate social entrepreneur as well as knowledge and innovation broker with 22 years of professional experience working for inter-governmental and non-governmental development, environment and climate organisations (amongst others UNEP, GIZ, FAO, UNCCD, IFAD, ACF, Oxfam GB, UNDP) in over 40 countries, mostly Least Developed Countries (LDCs) and low-middle income countries (LMICs) in Africa and Asia. He has provided scientific and technical advisory, knowledge and innovation broker services, as well as mentoring and capacity development support in the areas of climate change adaptation, natural resource management, disaster risk management and sustainable land management to a wide range of actors, in particular, government representatives and NGO staff.

As Oxfam GB’s Project Lead and Co-Principal Investigator for the ‘Adaptation at Scale in Semi-Arid Regions’ (ASSAR) Programme (FCDO and IDRC-funded), he led the research-into-use component of the project. More recently, he has led PlanAdapt’s work with the Albanian, Bangladeshi, Cambodian, Lebanese, Moroccan and Thai government supporting their efforts to design effective and impactful National Adaptation Plans and related processes. His expertise is particularly focused on how to mainstream adaptation into development and sectoral strategies and how to measure and monitor the effective implementation of adaptation action. His special interest is in brokering between producers and users of climate-related information by tailoring, filtering and translating them to user needs. Along those lines, Martin also led a research initiative that focused on identification, prioritisation and appraisal methods as part of adaptation planning in the Caribbean region.

Martin holds an MSc degree in Geography, Development Economics, Soil Sciences and Climatology from the University of Bonn and the Monash University Melbourne. Furthermore, he is a part-time guest lecturer at the University of Maastricht and the Humboldt University Berlin.

From 2021 to 2023, Martin has been associated with the Technical Evaluation Reference Group of the Adaptation Fund (hosted by the World Bank Group), leading two thematic evaluations: (a) the AF-TERG thematic evaluation work on scalability, which followed the AF -TERG thematic evaluation on innovation processes.

Find more info about Martin’s publications and key reports.

Martin led PlanAdapt’s work in the following projects and initiatives:

• Supporting the Development of Lebanon’s National Adaptation Plan Process
• Supporting Early Career Researchers from the Global South to Enhance Research Impact and Collaborate with Climate Knowledge Brokers
• Scaling Impact: Evaluating Scalability in the Adaptation Fund Portfolio
• Making The Case for Integrated Flood Resilience – Just Anticipating or Insuring Against Damage Is Not Enough
• Integrating Climate Risks in the Way Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies Work with Communities
• Evaluating and Enhancing Innovation in the Adaptation Fund’s Portfolio
• Unleashing the Potential of Capacity Development for Climate Action – Fixing a Broken Link on the Pathway to Transformational Change
• Integrating Climate Justice in Advocacy for Gender and Youth
• Managing Transboundary Climate Risk Along the Niger River – Improving Water Resource Management While Ensuring Food Security and Access to Energy
• Enhancing Capacity Development Services to Countries at Risk of Disasters
• Learning From Climate Action and Valuing Practitioners’ Views in Cambodia
• A Critical Learning Journey from Theory to Real-World Solutions in Climate Adaptation

Martin contributed to PlanAdapt’s work in the following projects and initiatives:

• Making the Case for Action-Oriented Research on Climate Adaptation – Evidence Review
• Integrating Climate Risks in Water-Related Infrastructure Investment Planning in the Nile Basin Initiative
• The Role of Private Finance in Climate-Smart Agriculture (CSA) Technology Innovation in Africa and Asia
• Making Sense of the Vast Global Landscape of Climate Finance
• Climate Risks Travel Across Geographic Boundaries and Across Sectors – Can Europe’s Economy Be Shook Up By Climate Impacts, Both Within Europe and Outside?

For more info, see Martin’s Linkedin page