Tessa Terpstra is the first Dutch Envoy for Water and Energy Security for the MENA region. She is based in Jordan and deals with climate change and the water-energy-food nexus in the Middle East and North Africa.
Prior to coming to Jordan, Tessa worked on international energy policy and renewable energy as part of the Sustainability Department of the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs in The Hague for five years. Tessa served as a diplomat in Cairo for five years, worked in Afghanistan for an American refugee organization and in Ethiopia and India as a researcher.
Trained as a social scientist, Tessa has worked on human security and resilience throughout her career. Over the coming years she will focus on regional cooperation towards sustainable governance over natural resources, in light of ever growing scarcity due to climate change. More specifically, she is focusing on unlocking climate finance for the Arab region.
