AKINO TAHIR
PhD
Founder and Co-director
Youth Leadership | Community Development | Urban Placemaking | Creative Research
Biography
Akino Tahir is a cofounder of Just Transition Indonesia. Her focus is on the intersection of youth, gender, environment, migration and urban issues. She is a Royal Academy of Engineering’s Frontiers Champions fellow in 2020 and 2021 and the International Co-Investigator for the UK AHRC-funded “Refugee Transition Network” research networking project in 2023. She chaired the 20th Conference of the International Association of the Study of Forced Migration in 2025. She is also a writer and an experienced podcast producer.
Work inventory
2025 - current
with Just Transition Indonesia
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Project lead for JTI Slow Conversations: “All we need is growth… or not?” (Upcoming)
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Project advisor for Climate Adaptation Market and Workforce Assessment for MSMEs and Vocational Institutions in Indonesia (Ongoing)
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JTI representative for Youth Lead Youth Change mentorship program and Transition Living Lab program, projects are in collaboration with Institut Teknologi Bandung, Emplace Youth Initiative, and University of the Arts London.
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Overseeing JTI internal projects, such the SPASI podcast and "Lingkar Ide" discussion club.
Previous affiliations
with RDI (Resilience Development Initiative)
In RDI, Akino was affiliated with the Children, Social Welfare and Health Cluster, where she was involved in a number of consultancies on children and youth, women empowerment, and humanitarian-related topics. In CSWH Cluster, she co-founded the Urban Refugee Research Group (RDI UREF) which focused on urban refugees and aims to increase awareness, knowledge-base, and public discourse on the topic and how it can contribute to urban development. Within RDI UREF, she developed and led a number of projects and research, including the “Refugee Transition Network” and the 20th Conference of the International Association of the Study of Forced Migration. She continues to explore displacement topics in her role in JTI. Her projects and research are available to read on her personal website.
with FCL ETHZ (Future Cities Laboratories, Singapore-ETH Centre)
In FCL, Akino coordinated a work on gender-sensitive urban planning, overseeing data acquisition process from the government offices and exploring the possibility of using and acquiring potential data sets from big data companies, supporting ur-scape (planning support tool) training, data convert and management in a pilot city in Indonesia, coordinating the local engagement, and developing planning scenarios workshops with the pilot municipality.
with Save the Children, Asia Regional Office
In Save the Children, Akino was an operations coordinator, providing general operations and humanitarian support for 15 countries in Southeast and East Asia and South and Central Asia regions and specific country support for medium and large size emergency in the regions. She also coordinated STC urban works, supported the development of urban knowledge and learning management framework for the Asia region, and represented Save the Children engagement in 100 Resilient Cities.
Creative life
Akino is a writer and a podcast producer. As a writer, Akino has written 3 short stories and poem as parts of anthologies published by independent publishing companies and a book chapter on refugee governance in Indonesia. She is an active member of Semut Merah Kaizen writers community in Indonesia and regularly write scripts for the community's podcast channel. As a podcaster, Akino has established 4 different podcast channels that explore topics such as urban everyday life, forced displacement, and writing showcases; producing and/or overseeing production of a total of over 400 podcast episodes to date. Akino is also a passionate avid reader, loves playing puzzle, and is currently training to be a mat pilates instructor.