New Approaches to Global Problem Solving - Members

Convenor:

Mr. Nitin Desai, economist and former UN Under-Secretary-General for Economic and Social Affairs (1992-2003). He served as Deputy Secretary General of the 1992 United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED) and as Secretary-General of the 2002 World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg last year. Dr. Desai has been appointed as Secretary-General Kofi Annan's Special Adviser for the World Summit on Information Society (WSIS) in December. Before joining the United Nations he was Secretary and Chief Economic Adviser in India's Ministry of Finance. He earned his undergraduate degree from the University of Bombay in 1962, and in 1965 earned a master's degree in Economics from the London School of Economics. He has been a member of the Commonwealth Secretariat Expert Group on Climate Change and Board member of Stockholm Environment Institute.

Members:

Ms. Thelma Awori, the former Assistant Secretary General of the United Nations where she was responsible for the Africa Bureau of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) from 1998 to 2000. Before then, she was Deputy Director of UNDP's Policy Bureau, 1996-1998, after a three year period representing the United Nations Development Programme and the UN System in Zimbabwe, 1992-1996. Ms. Awori has been a life long member of the women's movement. She has a particular interest in rural women and women who live in poverty and marginalized conditions of society. As Deputy Director of the United Nations Fund for Women (UNIFEM), where she worked for four years 1988-1992, she ensured support for the programmes of women working at the community level while at the same time strengthening women's capacity to negotiate a place for themselves at the policy level. At present she is a member of the Board of the African Women's Development Fund and works on issues of the environment and women's political participation both at the policy and community levels. Ms. Awori is a graduate of Harvard University, 1965 (Social Relations) and University of California, Berkeley, 1972 (Adult Education). She now works as an Independent Consultant while doing her doctorate at Teachers College, Columbia University, in Adult Education.

Mrs. Heidi Hautala, entered the Finnish Parliament as a member of the Green Party in 1991, was a Member of the European Parliament (1995-2003) and since 2003 she has returned to the Parliament. Between 1988-1991 she served as a chairperson of the Green Party. In 1998 she was elected as chair of the Committee on Women's Rights and Equal Opportunities and in 1999 as chair of the Greens/EFA Group in the European parliament. Today she continues to work closely with EU affairs as a member of the Grand Committee and with equality issues in the Employment and Equality Committee. Since 2002 she also serves as a chairperson of the Board of Finnish Service Centre for Development Cooperation. She has received a master's degree in Agriculture and Forestry from the University of Helsinki.

Dr. Kuniko Inoguchi, Professor of Political Science in the Faculty of Law, Sophia University, Tokyo, and Ambassador and Permanent Representative of Japan to the Conference on Disarmament in Geneva since 2002. Dr. Inoguchi holds a Ph.D from Yale University (1982) and has been Visiting Fellow at the Center for International Affairs, Harvard University (1983-1984) and a lecturer at the Australian National University (1986). She has been a member of Japan Association of International Relations, Executive Member of Japan Association of Peace Studies, Executive member of Japan Association of Simulation and Gaming, member of Prime Minister's Defence Policy Review Council (1994-1995). Currently she is a Board Member of International IDEA.

Mr. Alejandro Kirk, Regional Director of Inter Press Service Latin America, Montevideo, Uruguay. Mr. Kirk has a long career at the IPS's service. Before being appointed to his current position he has since held various positions at IPS as a correspondent, Deputy Chief Editor, Regional Director for Africa and Special Projects Director in Uruguay. He has also worked as a lecturer at the Universidad de Santiago de Chile (1994-1995) and as Communications Consultant for UN Science and Technology for Development-UNDP, New York (1986-1987). He is a graduate of Communications from the Universidad Central de Venezuela.

Ms. Linah K Mohohlo, Governor of the Bank of Botswana since 1999. Ms Mohohlo has worked for the Bank since its inception in the mid 70s serving in a number of capacities including Deputy Governor, Deputy Director of Research and Director of Financial Markets Department. She has also worked for the IMF in the African Department and the Monetary and Financial Systems Department. She serves on boards of major corporations in Botswana and abroad, and was recently appointed Eminent Person by the Secretary General of the United Nations, Mr Kofi Annan, charged with the responsibility of overseeing the Evaluation of the United Nations New Agenda for the Development of Africa. She has also received Central Bank Governor of the Year awards for Africa and the Middle East, and for Sub-Saharan Africa, by the Financial Times magazine, The Banker, and Euromoney, in 2002 and 2003, respectively. Ms Mohohlo earned her bachelor's degree in Economics from The George Washington University (USA) and master's degree in Finance and Investment from the University of Exeter (UK).

Mr. Kumi Naidoo, Secretary General and CEO of Civicus World Alliance for Citizen Participation since 1998. Mr. Naidoo has been strongly involved in the non-governmental sector and was previously Executive Director of the South African NGO Coalition (SANGOCO), Executive Director of the National Literacy Cooperation of South Africa, as well as a director of the Independent Electoral Commission and the South African Committee for Higher Education Trust. He was active in the anti-apartheid struggle in his native South Africa and has also worked variously as a researcher, journalist, university lecturer and youth counselor. Mr. Kumi is a Rhodes Scholar with a D.Phil in Politics from Magdalen College, Oxford and a graduate in Politics and Law from the University of Durban-Westville, South Africa. He has published and spoken widely on issues relating to civil society, education and resistance to apartheid.

Dr. Richard Samans, Associate Member of the Managing Board and a Director of the World Economic Forum. His former positions include International Affairs Fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations (1993-96), Associate Director of the Competitiveness Policy Council (1996-99), Economic Policy Advisor to Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle (1999-2001), Special Assistant to the President for International Economic Policy and a Senior Director of the National Security Council at the White House. His areas of expertise are international trade and financial policy, economic development, taxation, capital formation, international labour and environmental issues. He has received B.A. in Economics and French from Tufts University and Master's in International Affairs from the School of International and Public Affairs, Columbia University.

Ms. Victoria Tauli-Corpuz, the founder and Executive Director of Tebtebba Foundation (Indigenous Peoples' International Center for Policy Research and Education) and Commissioner of the ILO's World Commission on the Social Dimension of Globalisation. An indigenous activist and gender expert, Ms. Tauli-Corpuz has founded and managed various NGOs involved in social awareness raising, the promotion of indigenous peoples' and women's community organization and research and development work. She is an expert for the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights and the chairperson-rapporteur of the Voluntary Fund for Indigenous Populations. She is also the indigenous and gender adviser of the Third World Network. She holds a degree in Nursing from the University of the Philippines and master's degree in Humanities.

Ms. Ngaire Woods, Fellow in Politics and International Relations at University College, Oxford and a Senior Research Associate of Oxford's International Development Centre, Queen Elizabeth House. Ms. Woods has long been talking with the voice and capacity of developing countries in international institutions. Currently she chairs a working group of developing country officials and scholars concerned with developing country representation and voice within the IMF and the World Bank (Working Group III of the Global Financial Governance Initiative, financed by the IDRC). She was leading consultant on the UNDP's Human Development Report 2002 and is now on the HDR Advisory Panel. She is a member of the Commonwealth Expert Group on Democracy and Poverty. A sample of her publications include: Inequality, Globalization and World Politics (Oxford, 1999); The political Economy of Globalization (Macmillan, 2000) .