Mike Muller is registered professional civil engineer and development specialist with extensive experience in public policy and management. He has worked from local to global level to promote effective service delivery and natural resource management in support of inclusive and sustainable development and strengthen responses to climate change.  A visiting Adjunct Professor at the Witwatersrand University School of Governance, he has published widely and currently advises the Strategic Water Partners’ Network (SWPN). He also lectures on water and energy security to the SA National Defence College’s “security and defence studies programme” for senior officers. Mike helped to draft South Africa’s Medium Term Development Plan (2024/29) and advised SA Minister of Water and Sanitation (2019/21) and Mozambique’s Hidroelectrica Cahora Bassa on its future strategy (2017-2020). He advises government through professional organisations and individually, supports a range of public and private sector, political and civil society organisations and comments regularly on water, energy, climate and development matters.

At an international level, Mike was a member of the Strategic Advisory Group to the UN’s WHO/UNICEF Joint Monitoring Programme which oversees global progress on the water SDGs (2015-2024), a member of the Climate Bonds Initiative Working Group on Hydropower (2016-2018) and a Hallsworth Visiting Professor at the University of Manchester University School of Environment and Development (2013-2014). He chaired the World Economic Forum’s Global Agenda Council on Water Security (2012–2014) and was a member of the Global Water Partnership’s Technical Committee (2005-2011) and the UN Millennium Project Task Force on Water and Sanitation (2002-2005).

As a Commissioner in South Africa’s National Planning Commission (2010-2015), he focused on the National Development Plan’s chapters on economic infrastructure, the environment/climate/energy nexus and regional development and integration. Previously, he was Director General of South Africa’s Department of Water Affairs and Forestry (1997-2005) where he led the development and implementation of new policies, legislation and programmes in water resources and services; at the Development Bank of Southern Africa (1988-94), he managed investment and policy programmes including work on SA’s democratic transition.

Mike has served on the Boards of national public utilities and led major projects, including the restructuring and commercialisation of water and forestry enterprises. He co-chaired water-sharing negotiations with Mozambique and Swaziland which produced the “IncoMaputo Treaty”, led the South African side in the on-going Lesotho Highlands Water Project, guided major projects implemented with limited recourse project finance by TCTA, (board member 1998-2006) and was a co-founder of the Mvula Trust, a successful WS&S NGO. For the Mozambican government (1979-1988), he managed WS&S programmes and utilities, donor-funded projects and an innovative urban sanitation programme. His early publications on health and development had significant policy impact.