2025 ADVISORY BOARD

Paul Yillia

Research Scholar
IIASA

Paul T. Yillia (Dr. techn.) is a development consultant with expertise on cross-cutting issues and technical implementation of development programmes at the water and energy nexus with climate, development and social infrastructure (healthcare, livelihoods, education, agri-value, WASH, etc.).

Currently, he is manager and Chief of Operations at The Energy Nexus Network (TENN) and Senior Technical Advisor to the Chairman, Presidential Initiative on Climate Change, Renewable Energy and Food Security (PI-CREF), Sierra Leone. Previously, he was Programme Manager and Lead Policy Specialist on cross-cutting issues at Sustainable Energy for All (SEforALL).

At SEforALL, he supported the overall SEforALL operational process to help countries align their energy policy/plans with SDG7 and SDG 13 targets and facilitated the action needed to ensure that SEforALL’s country action work supported national energy priorities and actions towards global energy and climate change targets.

He led several actions to incorporate the water-energy-food nexus perspective within the overall SEforALL global action agenda and partner activities, in particular the linkages between energy and other key SDGs that are dependent on (and/or linked to) the energy goal. Dr. Yillia is a scholar at the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA) and visiting scholar and external examiner at the University of Malawi and Vienna University of Technology, where he previously held a full-time position as Research & Teaching Scholar and led joint research and transnational exchange of knowledge and skills on water science and technology, especially in developing countries and countries in transition.

Prior to that, he undertook various assignments in the Netherlands with UNESCO-IHE Institute for Water Education and UNDP Cap-Net, University of Sierra Leone and Egerton University, Kenya holding various capacity building responsibilities within the framework of international development co-operation. He has led several consultancy assignments with various governments and international organizations, including UNOPS, UNF, UN-Water, UN-Environment, UNESCO, UNIDO, FAO and UNDESA.