DIRECTOR
Dr. Mariyam Anaa Hassan
Dr Mariyam Anaa Hassan is a director at Small Island Futures. She works at the intersection of climate finance, resilience, adaptation policy and governance and island food systems, with a career spanning national government, multilateral negotiation, and academic research.
She holds a PhD jointly awarded by the University of Melbourne and the University of Manchester, completed under the Cookson Scholars dual award programme. Her doctoral research examined how islanders in the Maldives build and sustain resilience in their food systems, drawing on ethnographic fieldwork across two case study islands. It was published in Geoforum in 2026 as 'Islandness and resilience: a study of food systems in the Maldives'. The work argues that small island states are not passive recipients of external shocks, and that resilience is built through everyday practice, social networks, and decentralised governance long before any crisis arrives.
Anaa's policy career began at the Maldives Ministry of Environment, where she served as Assistant Director in the Climate Change Department and coordinated the technical preparation of the country's First Biennial Update Report and Third National Communication to the UNFCCC. She was a member of the Maldives climate negotiating team.
She currently consults for the International Institute for Environment and Development in London, where she is part of the Climate Change Group. Her work there focuses on locally led adaptation and on improving access to adaptation finance for small island developing states and least developed countries, including support to the secretariat of the Climate and Development Ministerial.
Anaa holds an MA in Environment, Development and Policy from the University of Sussex, awarded with Distinction and supported by the Chancellor's Masters Scholarship, and a First Class BSc in Environment and Sustainability from Keele University, where she received the School Dissertation Prize. In 2020 she received the President's Award for Special Achievement for her Masters degree, conferred by the President of the Maldives.
Dr Mariyam Anaa Hassan is a director at Small Island Futures. She works at the intersection of climate finance, resilience, adaptation policy and governance and island food systems, with a career spanning national government, multilateral negotiation, and academic research.
She holds a PhD jointly awarded by the University of Melbourne and the University of Manchester, completed under the Cookson Scholars dual award programme. Her doctoral research examined how islanders in the Maldives build and sustain resilience in their food systems, drawing on ethnographic fieldwork across two case study islands. It was published in Geoforum in 2026 as 'Islandness and resilience: a study of food systems in the Maldives'. The work argues that small island states are not passive recipients of external shocks, and that resilience is built through everyday practice, social networks, and decentralised governance long before any crisis arrives.
Anaa's policy career began at the Maldives Ministry of Environment, where she served as Assistant Director in the Climate Change Department and coordinated the technical preparation of the country's First Biennial Update Report and Third National Communication to the UNFCCC. She was a member of the Maldives climate negotiating team.
She currently consults for the International Institute for Environment and Development in London, where she is part of the Climate Change Group. Her work there focuses on locally led adaptation and on improving access to adaptation finance for small island developing states and least developed countries, including support to the secretariat of the Climate and Development Ministerial.
Anaa holds an MA in Environment, Development and Policy from the University of Sussex, awarded with Distinction and supported by the Chancellor's Masters Scholarship, and a First Class BSc in Environment and Sustainability from Keele University, where she received the School Dissertation Prize. In 2020 she received the President's Award for Special Achievement for her Masters degree, conferred by the President of the Maldives.