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Margarettha Siregar
Humanitarian & Emergency Affairs Senior Advisor, World Vision East Asia
Margarettha Siregar is the Regional Humanitarian and Emergency Affairs Senior Advisor in World Vision East Asia, bringing more than 24 years of experience in humanitarian response, disaster risk management, and resilient infrastructure development.
Her work focuses on disaster management, anticipatory action, and community-led resilience, with technical expertise in water and sanitation systems, public infrastructure engineering, water resource management, and rainwater harvesting. She is widely recognized for advancing community-led disaster risk management and anticipatory action systems that help vulnerable communities prepare for increasingly frequent climate hazards.
Margarettha has supported major humanitarian responses across multiple crisis contexts, including the Syrian Refugee Crisis, the 2015 Nepal Earthquake, the 2010 Pakistan Floods, the 2018 Sulawesi Earthquake and Tsunami, and the 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami in Aceh. She has also contributed to system-level change in humanitarian coordination and policy, including co-establishing Indonesia’s Cash Working Group and co-initiating the Anticipatory Action Working Groupalongside government and humanitarian partners to strengthen national disaster response frameworks. She currently co-leads the Anticipatory Action Design and Financing Sub-Working Group within Asia Pacific AA Technical Working Group alongside UNOCHA and Plan International.
Beyond operational leadership, Margarettha actively contributes to policy discussions and publications on water access, disaster resilience, and social equity. Her selected publications include: “Flood Preparedness and Resilience” on Suara Pembaruan, 8 February 2013 and “How Much Water Does It Take for a Child to Live?”on Suara Pembaruan, 21 March 2012. She also contributed to the editorial development of the Shelter Facility for Community-Based COVID-19 Quarantine and Isolation Guideline led by Indonesia’s Ministry of Social Affairs in 2020.
Margarettha is also a strong advocate for child participation in disaster risk reduction. She has supported the development of children and youth calls to action for the Asian Ministerial Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction, helping elevate child-led research and advocacy that has influenced government policies in countries such as Mongolia and Cambodia to better integrate children’s voices into disaster risk governance.
Margarettha holds a Master of Science in Integrated Urban Engineering from IHE Delft Institute for Water Education in the Netherlands. She is particularly passionate about localisation, climate action, and empowering rural communities with digital technologies to strengthen anticipatory action and climate resilience.
AREAS OF EXPERTISE
Disaster Risk Management & Humanitarian Response
Anticipatory Action and Climate Resilience Systems
Community-Led Resilience and Localised Humanitarian Systems
