Mia Sakura Smith
Program ManagerGlobal Water Initiative
Mia is a registered Civil Engineer with over a decade of experience in water engineering and nature-based solutions (NbS) in watersheds across Latin America and California. She recently served as lead author and project manager for the most comprehensive global report tracking investments in NbS for water, and led monitoring and evaluation for a $52 million USAID-funded project scaling natural infrastructure investments in Peru. She holds a Master’s in Environmental Engineering from MIT and is fluent in English, Spanish, and Japanese. She was raised in Honolulu, Hawaii and is currently based in Mexico City.
Doubling Down on Nature
The State of Investment in Nature-based Solutions for Water Security, 2025
By Mia Sakura Smith, Gena Gammie, Jinsui Song, Brooke Atwell, Daniel Shemie, Michael Bennett, Jose Cuadros Adriazola, Inca Juliet Joubert, and Paola Tanguy View PublicationWater is everywhere in our lives: not just in what we drink or use to grow food, but in data centers, cooling systems, energy grids, sanitation, and manufacturing. It powers our economies and our everyday routines. And in much of the world, water is also the face of climate change. We see it in intensifying[…]
Resultados del taller: Liderazgo e innovación financiera para la resiliencia hídrica de La Paz
By Gena Gammie, Alejandra Campos y Mia Sakura Smith View PublicationLa región de La Paz enfrenta uno de los mayores desafíos hídricos en México. El clima árido y su crecimiento poblacional han provocado la sobreexplotación de los acuíferos, lo que propicia la intrusión de agua salada. Asimismo, cuando ocurren tormentas tropicales y huracanes, la región sufre intensas inundaciones, especialmente en las zonas urbanas. Frente a […]
Recuperando la fluidez: Estado de la inversión en acciones en infraestructura natural para la seguridad hídrica, 2022
By Eliana Cerdán Estrada, Mia Sakura Smith, Mirtha Camacho Hernández, Claudia V. Grados Bueno View PublicationEste documento busca caracterizar la inversión, tanto pública como privada, que se ha realizado en nuestro país entre el 2008 y el 2021, en la temática de infraestructura natural y seguridad hídrica. Para ello, se han revisado diferentes bases de datos del Estado peruano, como el Invierte.pe, y la de la Agencia Peruana de Cooperación[…]
Opening the Tap: State of Finance for Natural Infrastructure for Water Security in Peru, 2021
By Gena Gammie, Lucas Benites Elorreaga, Mia Sakura Smith View PublicationIn Peru, policymakers and water managers are increasingly recognizing the indispensable role natural infrastructure and ancestral technology play in managing water risks. As this report shows, investments in the maintenance and restoration of natural infrastructure that play key roles for water security, from forests and grasslands to amunas (pre-Incan canals that support aquifer recharge), are[…]