Bea Varnai has a background in social sciences and development studies, and is passionate about community-driven processes shaping contemporary city-making: community-led housing, cooperative funding models, innovative partnerships in area development, civic participation and peer-to-peer cooperation. As a program coordinator at the Swiss and France-based non-profit urbaMonde, she liaises with CBOs, NGOs, social movements and activists in Europe, Latin America and Africa, and coordinates the Social production of Habitat Platform. She is also responsible for implementing international cooperation projects in Central America (housing cooperatives) and Senegal (participatory urban upgrading). Previously, Bea has done research on local development and local economy (Agenda21 Geneva) and transition towns (IOER), organized training sessions on innovative municipal finance for local governments (the Global Fund for Cities Development FMDV) and international peer exchanges for urban planners and developers (Caisse des Depôts et Consignations).