About moja

Moja global is a collaborative project under the Linux Foundation that supports ambitious climate action by bringing together a community of experts to develop open-source software – including the groundbreaking FLINT software – which allows users to accurately and affordably estimate greenhouse gas emissions and removals from forestry, agriculture and other land uses (AFOLU).

The project’s members aim to support the widest possible use of credible emissions estimation software by countries, institutions and project managers. All members collaborate to achieve this goal, which not only reduces duplication and costs, but also provides more reliable software that responds better to user needs and delivers comparable, transparent and credible estimates.

“moja” is a Swahili word meaning “one”. A Swahili name acknowledges the collaboration between Kenya and experts from Australia and Canada that resulted in the first FLINT-based MRV system. We added “global” to represent the worldwide collaboration that continues to improve the FLINT platform. The power of this community is its diversity. It consists of a range from world-class experts, ranging from those with several decades of experience with MRV systems, to government officials who use the platform, to coders who contribute to its continuous improvement.

Governance

Moja global has an open-governance structure that seeks to foster collaboration and participation. The organizational rules are captured within a charter

Anyone can make a contribution to the software, the science, the documentation, and the promotion of moja global’s tools.

Users, donors and regulatory organisations can request to have representation in moja global’s strategy board provided they sign one of these agreements:

The Non-Paying Participation Agreement
The Paying Participation Agreement

Additionally, parties can also request observer status i.e. non-voting participation in board meetings.

Meet our Team

Moja global is an open-source community, which benefits from the expertise and leadership of those who volunteer their time with our strategy board, technical steering committee and management board. 

STRATEGY BOARD

The Strategy Board agrees on the strategic direction of moja global, sets priorities and controls the budget.

Peter Graham

Chair of the Strategy Board

graham@climateadvisers.com

Managing Director of Policy and Research at Climate Advisers

Peter served as a co-chair of United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change negotiations and lead negotiator and policy advisor on REDD+ for the Canadian government.

TECHNICAL STEERING COMMITTEE

The Technical Steering Committee (TSC) coordinates all the contributions to science, code and technology and makes sure moja global tools meet established quality standards and guidelines.

Dr. Werner Kurz

Chair of Technical Steering Committee

werner.kurz@canada.ca

Senior Research Scientist, Canadian Forest Service, Natural Resources Canada

Leads the development of Canada’s National Forest Carbon Monitoring, Accounting and Reporting System. Expert in MRV system development and implementation.

‪Dr. Andrew O’Reilly-Nugent‬

Director of Technical Steering Committee

andrew@moja.global

Environmental Specialist at Climate Friendly, Research Associate at University of New South Wales

Data scientist, environmental analyst and plant community ecologist, working in the Australian carbon farming sector helping develop land-based sequestration projects. 

Gopinath Balakrishnan

Director of Technical Steering Committee

iambgcloud@gmail.com

Customer Engineer at Google.

Passionate about technology and help solve business challenges for series B-D  nextgen startups in early stages. Work with cloud native organizations to help them build/modernize their applications in Google cloud and help them deliver globally with better economies of scale. 

‪Dr. Deval Pandya

Director of Technical Steering Committee

devalpandya@hotmail.com

Director of AI Engineering at Vector Institute. Future Energy Leader at World Energy Council 

Applied Machine learning professional and Responsible AI advocate. Working on building AI systems and products to tackle Climate Change and expedite Energy Transition.

MANAGEMENT BOARD

The Management Board oversees the running the organisation on a day to day basis in line with the directives of the Strategy Board. 

Dr. Rob Waterworth

Co-Director

rob@moja.global

Director Mullion Group

Expert in research, designing and implementing technical systems to achieve sustainable land management. Leadership role in policy development, program management and international climate negotiations.

Juan Camilo Barreneche

Co-Director

juan@moja.global

Land use/REDD+ Economics and Finance Consultant for Latin America at UNEP

Environmental Engineer/MSc Environmental Management, with more than 15 years working in sectors like mining, banking/finance, academy and international affairs.

Asger Strange Olesen

Co-Director

asger@moja.global

Chief Climate and Ecosystem Officer at Forest Stewardship Council


MSc in Soil Geography and Post Graduate in Business Administration. Profound experience in Climate Finance and Policy Development and Support in the Land Use Governance domain. UNFCCC Lead Reviewer.

Mellina Hurryman

Assistant Director

mellina@moja.global

Design-thinking enthusiast with a BSc. in Earth and Environmental Sciences. 

GIS Expert. Wide experience in multidisciplinary research.

History

In 2013, The Clinton Foundation and the Government of Kenya, with the support of the Government of Australia and technical support from the Canadian Forest Service, began designing and developing a national system to allow it to track emissions in the nation’s land sector through the a program known as SLEEK (System for Land-based Emissions Estimation in Kenya).

The platform underpinning the SLEEK system was the Full Lands Integration Tool (FLINT), which has also been used as the platform for the Generic Carbon Budget Model (GCBM), which was tested successfully by the Canadian Government against the existing Canadian system.

In order to deliver and sustain an effective platform for governments globally, the Clinton Climate Initiative, in collaboration with the governments of Australia and Canada, created moja global.
This group partnered with the Linux Foundation, which was seen as an appropriate home for the project, given the foundation’s focus on open source innovation.

Building on the experience of the Linux Foundation, moja global ensures that FLINT is reliable, thoroughly tested, well documented and easily understood. This professional management gives governments and other users confidence that FLINT can be trusted to inform important policy functions and will be sustained in the long-term.

Our Donors

Resources

Annual plans

Strategic plans

Development strategy

What was decided by the Strategy Board and TSC