We are pleased to announce the appointment of Maruxa Cardama as the new Secretary General of the Partnership on Sustainable, Low Carbon Transport (SLoCaT). Maruxa has been selected by the SLoCaT Board after an extensive, international search of strong candidates and is starting her tenure on 1st October 2018.

Maruxa offers a strong vision for the future of SLoCaT, building on the successful trajectory of its founding Secretary General, Cornie Huizenga, and Holger Dalkmann, who led the organization during the recent interim period after Cornie stepped down earlier in the year. Looking forward, Maruxa will continue to work closely with SLoCaT members and partners to leverage the Partnership’s mission to promote sustainable transport in global policies on sustainable development and climate change.

Over her 16-year career, Maruxa has worked with multilateral institutions, national, regional and local governments, NGOs and philanthropy in 33 countries across continents to develop public policies, capacity and implementation projects, and multi-stakeholder partnerships that advance sustainability and equitable prosperity. Maruxa is known to many SLoCaT members as the founder of the Communitas Coalition, the multi-stakeholder coalition which pioneered knowledge-based advocacy for the Sustainable Development Goal on Cities and Human Settlements (SDG 11). Communitas was recognized as a decisive player in achieving the inclusion of SDG 11 in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development; as well as in articulating the notion of integrated urban and territorial development in the New Urban Agenda. Maruxa also served as the Secretary General for the Network of Regional Governments for Sustainable Development (nrg4SD), and during her tenure co-facilitated the engagement of local and regional governments in the UN Rio +20 Conference. She has held posts in the Cities Alliance (hosted by the UN Office for Project Services UNOPS), as well as in local and regional government in Spain and in the UK. Prolific public speaker and analyst, Maruxa is member of the Urban Knowledge-Action Network of Future Earth. In recent years, she has served in the Expert Panel on the urban science-policy interface of the University Colleague London UCL-Nature Sustainability and as Adviser on Global Agendas to the Conference of European Peripheral Maritime Regions of Europe CPMR. Her formal training was as a lawyer, as well as in EU law and in development economics.

In her statement SLoCaT’s Board Chair Amy Kenyon welcomed Maruxa to the SLoCaT Partnership; “Maruxa stands out as a leader for SLoCaT’s future, leveraging the work of our members, strengthening our multi-stakeholder partnerships, and deepening our global engagement, particularly with Global South stakeholders. She not only brings a strong background in convening stakeholders across sectors and leading diverse coalitions, her extensive experience on strategic and organisational governance of membership-based organisations will be an asset for SLoCaT’s continued success. I would like to also take this opportunity to thank founder Cornie Huizenga for his nine years of service building the Partnership and bringing together the sustainable transport community around a common cause; and Holger Dalkmann,who stepped off his role of Co-Chair of the SLoCaT Board to assume the Interim Secretary General position and ensure stability in the transition period. As the Interim Secretary General Holger worked closely with the Secretariat staff to leverage his professional expertise and wide networks, while empowering them to take on more project and relationship management aspects of SLoCaT’s Work Plan. We are grateful for Holger’s leadership over the past few months. As SLoCaT enters a new phase with Maruxa’s dynamic leadership and strategic vision, the SLoCaT Board believes that the highly-skilled and –committed team of the SLoCaT Secretariat is well-equipped to carry the legacy of the past 9 years forward and ensure continued success for our Partnership.”

Maruxa’s professional trajectory has provided her with practical experience on engaging leadership and operating simultaneously from the local to the national and international levels to facilitate coherence of efforts and to spur collective action. Maruxa is committed to put her understanding of the drivers of local and national government capacity, the complexities of intergovernmental diplomacy and the intricacies of multi-stakeholders approaches at the service of SLoCaT. Maruxa intends to begin her tenure as SLoCaT’s Secretary General by working closely with SLoCaT members and partners and the SLoCaT Board to implement the 2018-2019 Work Plan; as well as to ensure both the short-term financial and programmatic stability and the long-term strategic sustainability of the organization. In her statement, Maruxa says “I would like to thank my predecessors Cornie Huizenga and Holger Dalkmann; as under their leadership SLoCaT has successfully raised the profile of sustainable low carbon transport in global sustainability and climate policy dialogues; as well as galvanized a common space for this community. SLoCaT is today the largest multi-stakeholder network in this field and is uniquely positioned to facilitate and curate partnerships with multi-actor, multi-disciplinary, and multi-scale approaches.I am honored to have the opportunity to join forces with the SLoCaT team and wider family so collectively – between governments at all levels, donor agencies, multi-lateral organizations, NGOs, the private sector,academia and philanthropy – we can maximise the impact of transport as an enabler and a connector of sustainable human development issues and solutions.”