Alan Atkisson

Background

About Alan Atkisson

Alan AtKisson leads the Global Water Partnership, an intergovernmental organization supporting a dynamic global action network with 13 regional offices and 77 country programs. Alan serves as Executive Secretary and CEO at GWP's global secretariat, based in Stockholm. Please see GWP.org to learn more about GWP's decades of work and current programs to advance policy, practice, and capacity for a water-secure world. Alan previously held a wide variety of leadership and advisory roles in sustainable development and has been an active leader and innovator in the field since 1988. He most recently served as Assistant Director-General and Director of the Department for Partnership and Innovation at the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agenda, Sida. From 2018 to 2024, he led a complex operation with a global mandate, comprised of 120 professionals organized in 8 units, managing grant funding programs (averaging about 3 billion SEK per year), Sida’s financial guarantee portfolio (at an authorization of 20 billion SEK), and development and partnership programs covering Sida’s global work on civil society, research, capacity development, the financial sector, innovation, private sector collaboration, and strategic partnerships, among other topics. Prior to joining Sida, Alan held a number of leadership roles in sustainable development (see experience). He also worked as an independent advisor to the UN and other inter-governmental initiatives, and as president of the AtKisson Group, a global network of sustainability consultants and training professionals with affiliates in a dozen countries. He worked with leaders in business, national governments, international agencies, and officials in the United Nations system. At the UN, he worked internally on strategy related to the implementation of the 2030 Agenda and other agreements. Alan also provided guidance and material support on sustainability-related strategy to global companies (such as Levi Strauss) and global NGOs (such as WWF).Alan's books have been translated into several languages, and the tools he developed for sustainability teaching and organizational planning have been used around the world. He is also known for his long career as as an inspiring keynote speaker and as a singer-songwriter. For more information please see his personal website, AlanAtKisson.com.