Nayoka Martinez Bäckström is First Secretary (Environment & Climate) and Deputy Head of Cooperation at the Embassy of Sweden in Dhaka. She has been a development professional throughout her career, working mainly in Asia and Africa. Before moving to Bangladesh, she worked in Stockholm as the Coordinator for Sustainable Urban Development at the headquarters of the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency, Sida. She has also worked as a Human Settlements Officer at the headquarters of the United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN-Habitat) in Nairobi, focusing on urban management and governance issues. She has previous experience from the Asian Development Bank and from different government agencies in the Philippines. Nayoka has an MSc in Cities from the London School of Economics & Political Science, and a BA in Development Studies from the Ateneo de Manila University, Philippines.