Shauzab Ali, Principal Project Officer, Asian Development Bank

Shauzab Ali works at the Asian Development Bank’s Pakistan office, where the institution’s climate agenda and the country’s development needs converge most sharply. The ADB has committed over $43 billion to Pakistan since it began operations there, and climate action runs through a growing share of that portfolio from post-flood reconstruction and renewable energy to water infrastructure and food system resilience. As a Principal Project Officer, Shauzab Ali sits at the operational heart of this work, where the challenge is not just designing the right projects but getting them funded, approved, and delivering on the ground in a country that is simultaneously managing a fiscal crisis and a climate emergency. Pakistan’s vulnerability is something he works with as a daily reality: a country ranked among the most climate-exposed in the world, whose need for adaptation finance far exceeds what has been made available.