"It feels like a big responsibility, translating what people are experiencing and living, and sharing that with people who have more decision-making power," said Luciana. "It feels like my mission, that this is my place."
When the story of another oil spill off the coast of Brazil hit the papers, Luciana’s mother quickly hid their copy of the daily newspaper from her very young daughter. She hoped to spare her from heartbreak after seeing the photo of seabirds covered in oil.
“Eventually, I found [the paper], and [my mother] said I wanted to go there and clean them up,” shared Luciana. It was a moment that hinted at the course her life would take, although she did not know it yet.
Growing up in a financially secure household in São Paulo, Brazil, Luciana was exposed to many contradictions. Although all her needs were met, she also saw a lot of favelas (informal settlements) around her city, starkly contrasting with high-rise buildings and commercial centres.
“That gave me a different worldview and ignited in me a drive to study both the environment and the way people depend on and interact with it. Both my Bachelor's and Master's theses involved favelas in São Paulo,” said Luciana who studied environmental engineering in her undergraduate degree and sustainability science for her Master’s.
Environmental justice explains that those marginalised for socioeconomic, racial or ethnic reasons are more likely to endure pollution and not enjoy environmental benefits, such as access to clean water and air or parks. It’s about the inequalities and injustices related to the environment. With that lens, I get to work at the intersection of social and environmental issues that I love.
Luciana Capuano Mascarenhas, MEL Specialist
Environmental justice was the catalyst that shaped Luciana’s perspective, allowing her to view the world through an interconnected lens. “When I went into environmental consulting, I realised what I was really passionate about — working with people and understanding their livelihoods and how they interact with the environment. That's why I'm so interested in doing fieldwork at NIRAS where I go to remote areas and engage with local communities,” she shared.
Luciana’s commitment to environmental care remains rooted in her childhood experiences, where she was first moved to act after witnessing the impact of human negligence on innocent creatures. Her role at NIRAS today mirrors her views: caring for the environment is tantamount to caring about people, especially those who contribute the least to the planet’s deterioration but stand to lose the most from it.
Early in November this year, Luciana visited the Philippines for an ex-post evaluation of the EU-financed project Access to Sustainable Energy Programme (ASEP), which concluded in 2022. As a key expert for the contract, she has been engaging with the communities the programme aimed to support, with the goal of understanding ASEP’s impact on them.
“It feels like a big responsibility, translating what people are experiencing and living, and sharing that with people who have more decision-making power, more money, those who have the conditions of changing [the circumstances of the less privileged],” she said. “It feels like my mission, that this is my place.”
For Luciana, ‘evaluation’ is more than a term attached to her job title; it is a powerful avenue for marginalised voices. She sees it as an invaluable tool, enabling the assessment of development projects while driving the changes needed to create a better, more equitable world.
“Evaluation has sort of an interface with research. It's like action research,” she explained. All data-driven knowledge gathered in the process will fall in the hands of financiers who have the resources to make a difference, she added.
Luciana joined NIRAS in 2021 as a tender and project manager and was tasked with improving the success rate with EU evaluations under the SIEA 2018 Framework Contract. Although she was not hired to be a consultant, her consultancy background and the eagerness to learn more about evaluation landed her a first EU assignment as a key expert, the mid-term evaluation of PacWaste Plus, implemented in 2023.
“By getting first-hand experience of conducting evaluations, I can be more effective in managing our evaluation bids, writing proposals and even engaging with our external experts,” she said. Plus, the client seems to appreciate the involvement of in-house consultants: “When I handed my business card to the Head of Cooperation at the EU Delegation in Timor-Leste, he was happily surprised to learn that I was a NIRAS employee and not a freelancer,” she added.
Recently, Luciana was assigned to oversee the entirety of Lot 16 of the Framework Contracts for Services for External Aid (SEA 2023), which deals with evaluation at the intervention level, managing any incoming requests from the EU. “It was a step up in my career, as now I get to share my EU evaluation knowledge and network with colleagues who manage the bids,” she shared.
Finding a community of her own and creating the same for others
Moving to a new country can be isolating, and when Luciana finished her studies in Sweden, she sorely needed a community of her own.
“I moved to Finland during the pandemic, so it was harder to meet people,” Luciana shared. “What helped me first was finding other immigrants. And then I realised that I was not the only one struggling with the same things.”
Luciana sought out services from NGOs that help immigrants like herself. It has led her to volunteer to help international jobseekers, once more finding a way to create meaningful impact in the lives of the people she encounters.
“I started working at NIRAS six months after I had arrived in Finland, so I realised the knowledge I've gained of applying for jobs is something I can support other people with. Especially in Finland, where internationals have a hard time landing a job, I felt like I could make a difference in those people’s lives,” she shared.
Volunteering has helped her feel more rooted in a foreign land, and so does NIRAS. In this flat organisation, she belongs to the NIRAS Finland office, the global Framework Unit and the MEL Community of Practice. Each team has its own community feeling and makes the workplace more enjoyable and fulfilling: “Community is about belonging,” Luciana said. “No human being can live completely on their own, completely isolated from everyone. Together, we're stronger.”
Luciana Capuano Mascarenhas
MEL Specialist & Evaluation Manager
Helsinki, Finland
