Dominic Sett is a Project Associate for the Adaptive Social Protection project, which is jointly coordinated by VARMAP and MCII at UNU-EHS. After completing his Bachelor’s in Geography at the University of Bonn, Dominic started the joint Master’s programme ‘Geography of Environmental Risks and Human Security’ offered by UNU-EHS and the University of Bonn. He recently graduated and wrote his thesis on the role of social-psychological factors in the adoption of rainwater harvesting as a measure of adapting to water scarcity in Cape Town, for which he was awarded the Young Professionals “Preparedness 2030” Award by the German Committee for Disaster Risk Reduction (DKKV).

Prior to graduating, Dominic accrued significant work experiences through an internship in international climate policy at the NGO Germanwatch, as a junior expert in remote sensing in the private sector, and as an intern and consultant for UN-Habitat ROAP in Thailand and Laos, where he worked on mainstreaming climate concerns into urban policies and supported Laos’ Adaptation Fund project on strengthening resilience of the most vulnerable in the country’s southern emerging urban settlements. Besides that, he worked as a student assistant and Junior Researcher in UNU-EHS’s VARMAP section, where he was involved in different local and international projects. These included: a global analysis of social protection trends to assess future risks, a vulnerability assessment to heat stress in Bonn, end-user resilience to critical infrastructure failure in Germany, a global assessment of risk and readiness for climate insurance solutions, and transformative urban coalitions to foster enhanced climate action in Latin America. In his current position as Project Associate, he supports the integration of climate change adaptation, disaster risk management and social protection to increase the effectiveness of social protection schemes in Indonesia and thereby increase people’s resilience in a country prone to various natural hazards.