Founder & Director
Joni Pegram
Joni is an independent expert on the interface between child rights, climate change, and environmental issues more broadly. She is an Adviser to the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child’s Working Group on the Environment, and provides technical expertise to a wide range of UN actors, governments, CSOs and private sector actors.
In addition to providing in-depth research and analysis, Joni has particular experience in the conceptualisation and direction of successful evidence-driven policy and advocacy strategies towards key multilateral processes of relevance to child rights and the environment. These include playing a key role in the successful recognition of children’s rights in the Paris Agreement under the UNFCCC and efforts to operationalize this language; supporting the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child’s General Comment 26 on ‘child rights and the environment with a special focus on climate change’; and advancing the work of the Human Rights Council, other UN human rights mechanisms, and the UN General Assembly in this area.
Project Dryad co-leads the Secretariat of the Children’s Environmental Rights Initiative (CERI) coalition, under the auspices of the UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights and the Environment. The coalition brings together activists, technical experts, researchers, policy makers and young people from around the world to make sure that children’s fundamental right to a safe and healthy environment is recognised and fulfilled.
Joni is the author of numerous reports. She has previously worked for UNICEF, the UN Environment Programme, the European Union's External Action Service in West Africa, and the UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office.
CLIMATE POLICY SPECIALIST
Seán McCabe
Seán worked as a Policy Officer with the Mary Robinson Foundation – Climate Justice for five years. During this time he worked on the Foundation's strategy for engagement in the negotiation of the Paris Agreement and the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. He also led the Foundation’s work on intergenerational equity; incorporating climate justice into ESG criteria; and the provision of renewable energy services through social protection mechanisms. Seán is also engaged in just transition planning for rural communities in Ireland.
Seán previously spent five years working in the private sector, as a catastrophe risk analyst with Renaissance Reinsurance. He has also worked in community development in Kolkata, India, as well as with the Environmental Protection Agency in Sierra Leone where he supported capacity development in Geographic Information Systems.
Seán holds a B.Sc in Applied Physics from Dublin City University and a M.Sc. in Development Practice awarded by Trinity College Dublin and University College Dublin.