At the IACC plenary sessions will involve the audience in a critical and proactive discussion about today’s Global Challenges. World leaders and experts will join the plenary panel to discuss and propose solutions to ensure a sustainable future for all.

Some inspirational speakers include:

Patrick Alley

Patrick Alley is a Co-founder and Director of Global Witness, which focuses on preventing conflict and corruption arising from the use of natural resources. Mr. Alley focuses on tackling the trade in Conflict Resources (natural resource trade that can cause, perpetuate and fund conflict).

In particular Mr. Alley works on the Democratic Republic of Congo, Liberia and Cote d’Ivoire, and also leads Global Witness’ campaign against industrial logging. He has taken part in over fifty field investigations in South East Asia, Africa and Europe.

Paul Collier

Paul Collier is a world famous expert on economics and development whose 2007 best selling book The Bottom Billion is regarded as one of the most engaging, provocative and persuasive books on political and economical issues in developing countries. Professor Collier asks in this book why poor countries are still failing to develop despite the international support and financial aid that they receive.

He is a professor of Economics and the Director for the Centre for the Study of African Economics at the University of Oxford and is a Fellow at St. Antony’s College. As mentioned on Professor Collier’s website, his work focuses on “causes and consequences of civil war; the effects of aid; and the problems of democracy in low-income and natural-resource-rich societies.” His most recent book, Wars, Guns & Votes: Democracy in Dangerous Places, highlights poverty and violence in the world’s poorest and smallest economies. His work has been lauded by the New York Times, the Guardian, the Economist, and countless other individuals and publications. His new book, The Plundered Planet: Why We Must and How We Can Manage Nature for Global Prosperity is due to be released in April or May of this year.

Claribel B. David

Claribel B. David is currently Vice President of the International Fair Trade Association (IFAT), a global network of 400 fair trade organizations in 70 countries whose mission is to improve the livelihood and well-being of disadvantaged producers in the South.

As a fair trade advocate, she has pioneered various initiatives in the Philippines and the Asia region that has rippled through the entire global fair trade movement. In 2002, she was at the forefront in the formation of the Asia Fair Trade Forum (AFTF), now a strong network of 90 fair trade companies from 11 countries in Asia representing thousands of grassroots producers in the craft and food sectors. Her work involves a wide range of issues from socio-economic development to governance within the context of fair trade. She is specialises particularly in finding solutions to the problems besetting grassroots producers especially in the areas of market access and capacity building amidst the realities of globalization. She has also sat in numerous consultations that resulted in the reshaping of the strategic directions of the global fair trade movement and in bringing small producers closer not only to the market but also to a more equitable system of trading.

Peter Eigen

Prof. Dr. Peter Eigen is a lawyer by training. He has worked in economic development for 25 years, mainly as a World Bank manager of programs in Africa and Latin America; from 1988 to 1991 he was the Director of the Regional Mission for Eastern Africa of the World Bank. Under Ford Foundation sponsorship, he provided legal and technical assistance to the governments of Botswana and Namibia.

In 1993 Eigen founded Transparency International (TI), a non-governmental organization promoting transparency and accountability in international development. From 1993 to 2005 he was Chair of TI and is now Chair of the Advisory Council. In 2005, Eigen chaired the International Advisory Group of the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI) and became Chair of EITI in 2006. In 2007 he founded the Berlin Civil Society Center and chairs its Board.

Eigen has taught law and political science at the universities of Frankfurt Main, the John F. Kennedy School of Government/ Harvard, SAIS/ Johns Hopkins, University of Washington and Bruges College of Europe. Since 2002, he is teaching as an Honorary Professor of Political Science at the Freie Universität, Berlin. In 2000, he
was awarded the ‘Honorary Doctor’ degree at the Open University, UK, in 2004, the Readers Digest Award “European of the Year 2004″ and in 2007 the Gustav Heinemann Award.

Eigen is member of the board of the NGOs Kabissa, building the capacity of African non-profits, and the Center for International Environmental Law (CIEL), providing environmental legal services. Since 2007 Eigen is a member of Kofi Annan’s Africa Progress Panel (APP). In 2009 he joined the Management Board of the African Legal Support Facility of the African Development Bank.

Gareth Evans

Professor the Hon Gareth Evans AO QC is Chancellor of the Australian National University (since January 2010), an Honorary Professorial Fellow at The University of Melbourne (since July 2009), and Co-Chair of the International Commission on Nuclear Non-Proliferation and Disarmament (since June 2008). He is President Emeritus of the Brussels-based International Crisis Group (Crisis Group), the independent global independent global conflict prevention and resolution organisation of which he was President and Chief Executive Officer from January 2000 to June 2009.

Gareth Evans was one of Australia’s longest serving Foreign Ministers, best known internationally for his roles in developing the UN peace plan for Cambodia, bringing to a conclusion the international Chemical Weapons Convention, founding the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum and ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF), and initiating the Canberra Commission on the Elimination of Nuclear Weapons.

It was announced in January 2010 that Gareth Evans was the recipient of the 2010 Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt Institute/Roosevelt Stichting Four Freedoms Award for Freedom from Fear, citing his pioneering work on the Responsibility to Protect concept and his contributions to conlfict prevention and resolution, arms control and disarmament. He was Australian Humanist of the Year in 1990, won the ANZAC Peace Prize in 1994 for his work on Cambodia, was made an Officer of the Order of Australia (AO) in 2001, and was awarded Honorary Doctorates of Laws by Melbourne University in 2002, Carleton University in 2005 and Sydney University in 2008. In the United States he received in 1995 the $150 000 Grawemeyer Prize for Ideas Improving World Order for his Foreign Policy article “Cooperative Security and Intrastate Conflict”. His other international awards include the Chilean Order of Merit (Grand Cross), given in 1999 primarily for his work in initiating APEC. For more information, please see the bio section of Gareth Evan’s website, available here.

Geraldine Fraser-Moleketi

Ms. Geraldine Fraser-Moleketi joined UNDP in January 2009 as the Democratic Governance Practice Director in the Bureau for Development Policy (BDP).

She served in the South African Government for over 14 years in various positions, most recently as Minister for Public Service and Administration and Member of the South African Parliament. Prior to this, she was Minister of Welfare and Population Development. She has also served in a number of leadership roles within Parliament, including as Chairperson of the Sub-Committee on Rules of the National Assembly of the Parliament of South Africa.

She began her career in politics in 1980 when she left South Africa for Zimbabwe to join the African National Congress in exile where she worked in its political and military structures. During her period in exile, she worked in the areas of administration, communications and development. She returned to South Africa in 1990 to contribute to South Africa’s transition to democracy. She is a Member of the United Nations Committee of Experts on Public Administration, has published various works on public administration, and has delivered numerous papers at both national and international conferences. She served on the Cabinet Committees for Economic Affairs, Social Administrative Affairs, Security and Intelligence and the Committee on the Service Conditions of Political Office Bearers. She helped to coordinate the transformation of the Child and Youth Care System and contributed to the work of an Inter-Ministerial Committee on Poverty and Inequality. For more information, visit UNDP’s site,available here.

Arvind Ganesan

Arvind Ganesan, director of Human Rights Watch’s business and human rights program, is involved in research, advocacy, and policy development for Human Rights Watch on issues involving business and human rights, with a primary focus on the energy industry. Currently, his program focuses on human rights issues related to the extractive industries, labor rights, trade, and the economic interests of militaries. Ganesan has worked on a number of other issues related to corporate responsibility – including the internet and human rights – covering countries such as Azerbaijan, Burma, China, Colombia, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Equatorial Guinea, India, Indonesia, and Nigeria. Before joining Human Rights Watch, Ganesan worked as a medical researcher. For more information, please visit HRW’s website, available here.

John Githongo

John Githongo is a key figure in the global fight against corruption, known best for his leadership and courage in uncovering corruption in Kenya and more specifically his role in exposing the corruption and collusion of three high level ministers and the Kenyan Vice President in the Anglo Leasing Scandal.

After years of leadership and distinction in the fields of journalism and civil society, Githongo took on the role of Permanent Secretary for Ethics and Governance, in the Office of the President, leading the fight against corruption in Kenya for roughly 18 months. His success was much to the dismay of many in the national government, from bottom to top. As it was hinted that he should not do his job too well, his success in exposing corruption in Kenya led to his need to flee the country in 2005 to the UK. It was from there that he completed his revealing and compelling dossier on the Anglo Leasing scandal.

Mr. Githongo has since taken on a number of roles – he is a Senior Common Room Member at St Antony’s College Oxford, a Senior Advisor Global Advocacy for World Vision International, and a Board Member of the Kenya Human Rights Commission, among countless other distinctions. Those interested in reading more on the extraordinary and inspiring career and life of John Githongo are encouraged to read Michela Wrong’s renowned book, Its Our Time to Eat: The Story of Kenyan Whistleblower.

Nigel Inkster

Nigel Inkster is the Director of Transnational Threats and Political Risk at the International Institute for Strategic Studies. He is responsible for the analysis of international political risk and development of programmes on counter terrorism, international crime, proliferation of CBRN, cross-border conflict and other transnational/global issues.

He served in the British Secret Intelligence Service (SIS) from 1975 to 2006. He was posted in Asia, Latin America and Europe and worked extensively on transnational issues. He spent seven years on the Board of SIS, the last two as Assistant Chief and Director for Operations and Intelligence. He is a Chinese speaker and graduated in Oriental Studies from St John’s College Oxford. For more information and a list of Nigel Inkster’s latest articles, please visit the IISS’s website.

Georg Kell

Georg Kell is the Executive Director of the United Nations Global Compact, the world’s largest voluntary corporate responsibility initiative with more than 6,000 participants in over 130 countries. Spanning more than two decades, his career with the United Nations began in 1987 at the UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) in Geneva.

In 1997, Mr. Kell joined the Office of the UN Secretary-General in New York, where he spearheaded the development of new strategies to enhance private sector engagement with the work of the United Nations. As one of the Global Compact’s key architects, he has led the initiative since its launch in 2000, building the most widely recognized global business platform on human rights, labor, environment, and anti-corruption. Prior to joining the UN System, Mr. Kell worked as a researcher at the Fraunhofer Institute in Germany and as a financial analyst evaluating multinational companies’ investment portfolios in Asia and Africa. A native of Germany, he holds advanced degrees in economics and engineering from the Technical University of Berlin. For more information, please visit the UN Global Compact website, available here.

Ashok Khosla

Ashok Khosla is President of the Club of Rome and has been a Member of the Governing Bodies of the World Economic Forum in Davos, IUCN, WWF, IISD, the Stockholm Environment Institute, WETV and several other Indian and international organizations. He was Special Advisor to the Brundtland Commission and Chairman of the NGO Forum at the ‘92 Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro. He is Chairman of the Development Alternatives Group, a consortium of social enterprises based in India whose mission is to create technologies, businesses and markets for large scale generation of sustainable livelihoods.

Earlier, he was Director of the Office of Environment, Government of India, and Director, Infoterra in the United Nations Environment Programme. He has been board member of many government, industry and NGO bodies in India, including the National Security Advisory Board, the Science Advisory Committee to the Cabinet and the National Environment Council. He was awarded the Stockholm Challenge Award in 2002, the UN Sasakawa Environment Prize in 2002 and the Schwab Foundation’s Award for Outstanding Social Entrepreneur in 2004. To learn more, visit www.khosla.in.

Mr. Haruhiko Kuroda

Mr. Haruhiko Kuroda is the President of the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and the Chairperson of ADB’s Board of Directors. Before joining ADB, Mr. Kuroda was Special Advisor to the Cabinet of Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi and a professor at the Graduate School of Economics at Hitotsubashi University in Tokyo.

In a career spanning nearly four decades, Mr. Kuroda has represented Japan’s Ministry of Finance at a number of international monetary conferences as Vice Minister of Finance for International Affairs.

During his terms as Director-General of the International Bureau and as Vice Minister of Finance between 1997 and 2003, Mr. Kuroda helped design and implement the US$30 billion Miyazawa Initiative – Japan’s response to Asian economies hit by the 1997-1998 financial crisis.

Under his leadership, Japan helped Asian nations establish the Chiang Mai Initiative, a network of currency swap agreements designed to avert another crisis.

He has authored several books on monetary policy, exchange rate, international finance policy coordination, international taxation, and international negotiations. For more information, please see the ADB website’s page on President Kuroda, available here.

Karin Lissakers

Karin Lissakers is Director of the Revenue Watch Institute. She has held senior posts in the U.S. government, academia and several think tanks. Lissakers was United States Executive Director on the Board of the International Monetary Fund from 1993 to 2001, representing the Fund’s largest shareholder during a period of turmoil in international markets and a U.S.-led campaign to redesign the international financial architecture and reform the IMF, including opening its policies and practices to public scrutiny.

Lissakers served as deputy director of the Policy Planning Staff of the U.S. Department of State and was staff director of the foreign economic policy subcommittee of the U.S. Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, the first woman to hold such a post.

She taught at Columbia University for many years, lecturing on international financial markets, regulation and public policy and heading the international business and banking studies program at the graduate School of International and Public Affairs. Her research and writing have focused on the interplay of international business and U.S. foreign policy. She has been a Senior Associate at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and a researcher for Nobel economist Gunnar Myrdal.

Lissakers is a frequent public speaker and participant in public policy, business and academic conferences. She is the author of Banks, Borrowers and the Establishment (Basic Books 1991) about the 1980’s international debt crisis. Her articles have appeared in Foreign Policy, the Journal of International Affairs, The New York Times, the Washington Post and other publications. She is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and is married with two children.

Kunio MIKURIYA

Before taking up his position as Secretary General of the World Customs Organization (WCO) on 1 January 2009, Kunio Mikuriya spent seven years as the Organization’s Deputy Secretary General. In this position he led efforts to coordinate the work of the WCO Secretariat with other international organizations such as the WTO to support the Doha Development Agenda trade negotiations, and the World Bank and other development banks to coordinate Customs reform projects, and with the private sector to develop Customs-Business Partnerships in support of transparency in trade. His current priority is securing and facilitating global trade through setting standards, sharing best practices, and providing assistance for capacity building in Customs. He has actively been championing the fight against corruption in Customs to showcase good governance in the public sector.

Prior to joining the WCO, he worked for Japan’s Ministry of Finance for 25 years. During his career with the Ministry, Kunio Mikuriya occupied a variety of senior posts, which have given him broad experience and knowledge in customs, trade, development, budget, and financial policies. He served as Director of Enforcement where he led efforts to fight illicit trade, then as Director of Research and International Affairs, paving the way for the conclusion of the first regional trade agreement for Japan, and then as a Counsellor in the Tariff and Customs Bureau. He also served as Director of Salaries and Allowances to coordinate remuneration levels for the entire government workforce, and as the Budget Controller for Foreign Affairs, Official Aid, International Trade and Industry, in the Budget Bureau. In addition, he spent time as a Counsellor at the Japanese Mission to the WTO in Geneva and participated in the GATT Uruguay Round trade negotiations.

Homer Moyer

Homer Moyer, chair of the International Bar Association’s Anti-Corruption Committee, is regarded as one of the US’s leading Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) lawyers and has been recognized as a premier lawyer in other international legal fields as well. A political appointee of both political parties, he has also developed and guided pro bono projects that have been hailed for their global impact.

Over the last decade, Mr. Moyer has come to be recognized as an authority on the FCPA and international anti-corruption law, which is now the principal focus of his work. He has written and spoken on the subject extensively, chaired more than 30 national and international conferences, and served as an SEC-appointed Independent Compliance Consultant.

In the area of export controls and economic sanctions, Mr. Moyer’s experience dates from when he served as General Counsel of the U.S. Department of Commerce during a time of historic foreign policy and national security controls. While in government, he co-authored the Anti-Boycott regulations of the Export Administration Act. In matters of international trade, Mr. Moyer has advised clients on World Trade Organization (WTO) panel and Appellate Body disputes, represented governments in free trade agreement negotiations, and successfully litigated before bi-national panels and “Extraordinary Challenge” tribunals under the NAFTA and CFTA. Mr. Moyer has been counsel in landmark antidumping and countervailing duty cases, in trade and investment disputes before international arbitral bodies, and in federal court proceedings involving issues of international law. In other cases, he has represented clients before all levels of federal courts, including the United States Supreme Court. For more information, please see his full bio on Miller and Chevalier’s website, available here.

Nuhu Ribadu

Nuhu Ribadu is a visiting fellow at the Center for Global Development. His work at the Center, which began in April 2009, is to draw lessons from his experience for combating corruption worldwide and to provide fresh thinking on the role of international institutions in this fight. Before joining CGD, Nuhu was head of Nigeria’s Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) from 2003 to 2007. He served on several economic and anti-corruption commissions and was a key member of Nigeria’s economic management team that drove wide-ranging public sector reforms. Nuhu was awarded with the World Bank’s Jit Gill Memorial Award for Outstanding Public Service in recognition of his efforts. Prior to leading the EFCC, Nuhu spent 18 years in the Nigerian police force. A lawyer by training, he received his Bachelors and Masters in Law from Ahmadu Bello University in Nigeria. Nuhu is also a Senior Fellow at St. Anthony’s College at Oxford University in the UK.

Magdalena Sepúlveda Carmona

Magdalena Sepúlveda Carmona is the independent expert on the question of human rights and extreme poverty for the Office of the UN High Commissioner of Human Rights since May 2008. Sepulveda is a Chilean lawyer and is currently working as Research Director at the International Council on Human Rights Policy. She holds a Ph.D in International Human Rights Law from Utrecht University in the Netherlands and an LL.M in human rights law from the University of Essex in the United Kingdom. She lectures at several universities in Latin America and has provided technical assistance and training on human rights to NGOs, IGOs and governments. Ms. Sepulveda has worked as a researcher at the Netherlands Institute for Human Rights, as a staff attorney at the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, and as the Co-Director of the Department of International Law and Human Rights of the United Nations affiliated University for Peace in San Jose, Costa Rica. She also served as a consultant to the Department of International Protection of UNHCR and more recently to the Norwegian Refugee Council in Colombia. She was appointed Independent Expert on the question of human rights and extreme poverty by the Human Rights Council in March 2008 and assumed her functions on 1 May 2008. For more information, visit the website of the UN OHCHR, available here.

Daphne Wysham

Daphne Wysham is a Fellow and board member of the Institute for Policy Studies, founder and co-director of the Sustainable Energy & Economy Network, a project of IPS , and founder and co-host of Earthbeat Radio, which airs on WPFW 89.3 FM in Washington and is being syndicated to other stations nationwide. SEEN conducted the initial research which drew attention to the disproportionate ratio of fossil fuel investments by international financial institutions, including the World Bank. Translated into numerous languages, these studies resulted in: demands for reform from members of the US House and Senate; hearings held in Italian Senate, Dutch Parliament; Italian Prime Minister and former Vice President Al Gore calling for reforms. SEEN launched an international campaign in 1998 that, in 2001, resulted in World Bank President James Wolfensohn calling for an independent study of extractive industries (EIR). The EIR called for the World Bank to phase out of fossil fuels immediately, and rapidly phase in renewable energy. She is a Fellow of the Transnational Institute, Amsterdam; former editor-in-chief of Greenpeace Magazine; and associate of the Center for Investigative Reporting. She is an energy writer for UPI, a board advisor to the Nuclear Information and Resource Service, a Senior Fellow with the Sierra Club, and a member of the Durban Group for Climate Justice.

Ms. Wysham’s analysis and critiques have been featured in the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, the Washington Post, Grist, The Guardian, the Financial Times, and on BBC, NPR, and Marketplace, among others. For more information, please visit http://www.ips-dc.org/staff/daphne

 Print This Page