Bekele A. Shiferaw is Senior Environmental Economist and Program Manager for the Global Program on Sustainability (GPS) in the Environment, Natural Resources and Blue Economy GP. He leads country and global initiatives on natural capital accounting and the economics of natural capital and ecosystem services that aim to produce rigorous evidence on the diverse values of nature to improve sustainability and human wellbeing. Such evidence is critical to GPS efforts for correctly identifying and building the values of nature and biodiversity into economic systems. GPS was recently recognized for its ongoing transformational work for embedding nature into public policies and private sector investments. With a PhD in development and environmental economics, Bekele has worked in research, impact evaluation and development for over 25 years. He has published over 100 studies in professional journals, books and other outlets.