Our Issue Experts
Leslie Paas
Associate
Leslie Paas is a knowledge management expert with extensive experience researching, implementing and evaluating learning and knowledge sharing initiatives – from face-to-face capacity building workshops to fully online courses, webinar series and ‘Communities of Practice’. These initiatives have engaged diverse audiences and encompassed several themes, such as gender equality, climate change, biodiversity conservation, environmental assessment, social/environmental entrepreneurship, sustainability leadership, and digital literacy.
Leslie has been involved with IISD since 2002, when she served as digital editor for IISD's Earth Negotiations Bulletin, providing daily web-based summaries of UN meetings. Subsequently, she conducted several evaluations, stepped in to support IISD’s internship programme, and helped the Institute to develop blended and online learning programs.
Independently, as “eLearning Specialist”, Leslie helped UN Women to implement its Virtual Campus, served as lead author for a joint publication by UNESCO/UNFCCC on climate change education, and is currently supporting UNICEF to implement a knowledge sharing platform on Sanitation and Water for All.
Leslie’s post-graduate work in Brazil focussed on knowledge technologies and instructional design. Her master’s dissertation explored collaborative technologies for leveraging organizational learning, and her doctoral thesis centred on Education for Sustainable Development.
She is based near Florianopolis, Brazil, but retains strong roots in her home province of Manitoba.
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The Adaptive Watershed: Training program for inclusive, ecosystem-based watershed managementThe Adaptive Watershed (TAW) is watershed-based ecosystem management that explicitly addresses the need to understand and manage for a rapidly changing climate, while also incorporating the needs of vulnerable communities and women. -
Small-Scale Social-Environmental Enterprises in the Green Economy: Supporting grassroots innovationTo achieve a top-to-bottom growth of the “green economy,” incentives and enablers need to be identified for those micro enterprises working at the... -
Mainstreaming Sustainable Development into National and Subnational Development Planning in Latin America and CaribbeanSDplanNet is a sustainable development planning network created to help government professionals at the national and subnational levels share best... -
Summary of Capacity-building Needs to Advance Sustainable Development Planning and Implementation This paper highlights common capacity-building needs identified across the three regional workshops undertaken in Latin America and the Caribbean ... -
A Three-Year Investigation Into the Triple Bottom Line Performance of Small and Micro Social and Environmental Enterprises in Developing CountriesThe SEED Initiative seeks to increase knowledge and understanding about small-scale social and environmental enterprises.In 2009, SEED and its... -
An Investigation Into the Triple Bottom Line Performance of Micro and Small Social and Environmental Enterprises in Developing Countries: Year 2In 2009, SEED and IISD started a three-year study of the performance of social and environmental micro enterprises, with two key questions in mind:... -
Social and Environmental Enterprises in the Green Economy: Supporting sustainable development and poverty eradication on the ground—Analysis of a 3-year study for policy-makers SEED has worked closely with the International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD) since 2007 on a program of research to increase... -
Recognition and Reward Programmes That Support Entrepreneurship for Sustainable DevelopmentRecognition and reward programs are common mechanisms used to support and encourage outstanding behaviour and actions that contribute significantly... -
Performance Improvement and Assessment of Collaboration: Starting points for networks and communities of practiceIISD's Global Connectivity program has worked for over a decade on research and capacity building for performance assessment and improvement of... -
Seeds of KnowledgeSeeds of Knowledge presents 24 case studies from 17 countries on grassroots solutions to the impacts of climate change.These solutions come at a... -
An investigation into the triple bottom line performance of micro and small social and environmental enterprises in developing countries: Establishing a baseline for a longitudinal studyThe SEED baseline study provides insights into how social and environmental enterprises can achieve their social, environmental and business... -
Critical Success Factors and Performance Measures for Start-up Social and Environmental Enterprises (Report for the SEED Initiative Research Program) Eight critical success factors and fourteen performance indicators identified through this investigation form the basis for a robust rapid... -
Typologies for Partnerships for Sustainable Development and for Social and Environmental Enterprises: Exploring SEED winners through two lenses (Report for the SEED Initiative Research Program) Creating a comprehensive typology of partnerships is problematic, because of the extreme variety of forms and shapes that these partnerships take....
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How Information and Communications Technologies Can Support Education for Sustainable Development: Current uses and trendsAs part of IISD's involvement with Manitoba Education, Citizenship and Youth and the UNESCO Decade of Education for Sustainable Development, this...
Education
Doctor of Engineering – Production and Systems/Knowledge Management (2004): Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina, Brazil
Master of Engineering – Production and Systems/Knowledge Management (1999): Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina, Brazil
Bachelor of Arts – Joint major in Communications and Latin American Studies (1997): Simon Fraser University, Canada