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The Informal Preparatory Meeting on the Theme of the 2006 High Level Segment.

4-5 April 2006
 
United Nations Headquarters - New York

Opening Ceremony

  • H.E. Mr. Ali Hachani is the President of the Economic and Social Council for 2006, and also Permanent Representative of Tunisia to the United Nations. Born in 1946, Mr. Hachani, after primary and secondary studies, graduated in English Language and Literature from Tunis University (1968). He then followed a course in International Relations at Columbia University (New York) within the framework of a training program for diplomats (1969-70). He joined the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Tunisia in November 1968. After having served in the Department of International Co-operation, he was appointed (September 1972 to September 1979) Counsellor at the Tunisian Permanent Mission to the United Nations in New York. In this capacity, he took part in a great number of regular and extraordinary sessions of the United Nations General Assembly as well as Technical Committees and International Conferences.

  • Mr. José Antonio Ocampo is the United Nations Under-Secretary-General for Economic and Social Affairs. He obtained his doctorate in Economics from Yale University and has been honored with the Alejandro Angel Escobar National Science Award. Prior to assuming his present position, Mr. Ocampo served as Executive Secretary of the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean. He held a number of posts in the Government of Colombia, including those of Minister of Finance and Public Credit, Director of the National Planning Department and Minister of Agriculture. His academic pursuits have included service as Director of the Foundation for Higher Education and Development, Professor of Economics at the Universidad de Los Andes and the Universidad Nacional de Colombia and Visiting Professor at both Yale and Oxford Universities. He is the author of numerous books and articles on macroeconomics policy and theory, economic development, international trade and economic history.
     

Keynote addresses                                                                          ▲ top

          Keynote address on the role of enterprise development in promoting decent work

  • Ms. Jacqueline Coke-Lloyd is the Executive Director, Jamaica Employers Federation. She is the award winning professional and business leader, offering service to the country through the representation of employers and their employees enabling competitiveness of enterprises and prosperity of workers. She is the ambassador and purveyor of Jamaican business philosophy, and the guardian of employer/industry best practices influencing national policies and legislation. She was able to position employer as an "Employer of Choice" by capitalizing on tertiary education in human resource management, progressive training courses and experience gained in the private sector. Ms. Coke-Lloyd is knowledgeable in best practices and work place ethics for the large organizations. She Exhibits natural talents in relating to a diversity of groups and individuals, and she is recognized by clients, peers and managerial staff for the ability to assimilate dissect and understand complex issues. She Possess the tenacity in meeting and exceeding company objectives, and she is regarded by many as a high performer who possesses highly developed organizational and analytical skills.

          Keynote address on social protection for the working poor

  • Dr. Arjun Sengupta is one of India’s leading economists who has served as an advisor to the Government and Prime Minister of India. He has been India’s Ambassador to the European Union. At the moment he is Professor of International Economic Organization at the Jawaharlal Nehru University and Research Professor at the Center for Policy Research, New Delhi, and also an Independent Expert of the United Nations Council on Human Rights on the issue of human rights and extreme poverty.

             Keynote address on human rights in the workplace

  • Ms. Sharan Burrow is the President of the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions and President of Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU). She became ACTU President in 2000, only the second woman to hold this office. Barely five months after that, she became the first woman President of the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions (Asia Pacific Region Organization). In between, Ms. Burrow has been Senior Vice-President of the NSW Teachers' Federation, President of the Australian Education Union, and Vice-President of Education International, which represents 24 million education union members worldwide. Her energy, intelligence and passionate commitment to so many education issues, from student government and social justice through education to adopting world's best teaching practice, combined with her phenomenal negotiating skills and capacity to empower people, ensured her leadership roles in the Australian and international union movement. Currently she is also President of the International Centre for Trade Union Rights and a member of the governing body of the International Labour Organization, and a member of the Global Commission for International migration.

 

Roundtable 1: " Growth and employment: Creating a national environment conducive to full and productive employment and decent work "  

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  • H.E. Mr. Hjálmar W. Hannesson is the Vice-President of the Economic and Social Council, Ambassador and Permanent Representative of Iceland to the United Nations. Before his current appointment, Mr. Hannesson had served since 2001, as Ambassador to Canada and simultaneously to Colombia, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Peru and Venezuela. He was Ambassador to the Holy See from 1999 to 2002, also serving as Political Director and Deputy Permanent Secretary of State in Iceland’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs between 1998 and 2001. From 1995 to 1998, he served as Ambassador to China, Japan, the Republic of Korea, Viet Nam, Indonesia, Thailand and the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea. He was Ambassador to Germany from 1989 to 1995 as well as to Switzerland, Austria, Greece, German Democratic Republic, Hungary and Liechtenstein. Between 1976 and 1990, Mr. Hannesson held several positions in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and served on Iceland’s delegation to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and the Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe (CSCE). Mr. Hannesson was educated at the Icelandic Teachers College and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in the United States. He is married with three children. Mr. José Manuel Salazar-Xirinachs is the Executive Director of the Employment Sector at ILO. He is an Economist, with a Master of Philosophy in Development Economics and Doctorate in Economics from the University of Cambridge, England. He also holds a Bachelor of Arts in Economics from the University of Costa Rica. He has taught at the Universities of Costa Rica; Nacional Heredia, Costa Rica; Cambridge, England and Georgetown, Washington D.C . Previous positions include Director of the Trade Unit at the Organization of American States (OAS) in Washington in June, 1998; Minister of Foreign Trade of Costa Rica, Member of the Board of Directors of the Central Bank of Costa Rica and Executive Director and Chief Economist of the Federation of Private Entities of Central America and Panama (FEDEPRICAP).

  • Mr. Helmut Schwarzer is the Executive Secretary of the National Social Security Council of Brazil. He was born on 23 September 1967 in Tettnang/Germany, and became Brazilian citizen since 2002. Mr. Schwartzer is an Economist with a Master in Economic Development (at Universidad Federal do Parana/Curitiba, 1993) and Doctor in Economics (at Freie Universitat Berlin, 1997). He was staff researcher at the Instituto de Pesquisa Economica Aplicada (IPEA), Brasilia headquarters, from 1998 to 2002 at the Social Policy Dept. He is the Social Security Secretary at the Social Security Ministry since January 2003. He is Responsible for the negotiation and design of the Public Servant Pension Reform (2003), Workmanship Compensation Reform (2004-2006), Rural Pensions Reform (2006).

  • Mr. Milivoje Panic from the United Kingdom is a fellow of Selwyn College, University of Cambridge, and Visiting Professor of International Economics, University of Milan. He is also a fellow of the Royal Society for Arts, Manufactures and Commerce. His Previous positions include: Under-Secretary in the United Kingdom Government Economic Service and Head of the External Policy Division at the Bank of England. He Served on two recent working parties of the British Parliament: on Britain and the single currency; and on social policy in the European Union. He has also sat on a number of international committees of experts, including OECD, the Bank for International Settlements and the Economic Commission for Europe. Mr. Panic has published books and articles on international economics, economic policy under different conditions and stages of development and industrial economics. He Received a doctorate degree from Cambridge University.

  • Mr. Robert Holzmann is the Sector Director of the Social Protection & Labor Department in the Human Development Network of the World Bank. He was appointed to this position on May 1, 1997. The Social Protection Sector is the Bank's focal point for labor market interventions, including child labor and youth employment; social insurance, in particular pensions; targeted  interventions, such as social safety nets and social funds; and the disability and development program of the Bank. From 1992 to 1997, Mr. Holzmann was Managing Director of the European Institute and Full Professor for International Economics and European Economy, both at the University of Saarbrucken (Germany). Prior to that he was Professor of Economics at the University of Vienna (Austria), Senior Economist at the International Monetary Fund (Washington, DC) and OECD (Paris) where he worked on international public finance and social protection issues; and was a visiting professor at various universities in Japan, Chile and Austria.

  • Mr. Peter Fallon is currently Deputy Division Chief in the International Monetary Fund ’s (IMF) Policy Development and Review Department where he works on macroeconomic policy areas mainly in the context of low- income countries. Prior to joining the IMF in 2001, he was a Lead Economist in the World Bank’s Poverty Reduction and Management Network. The earlier part of his career was spent as a university teacher in the U.K. He has worked extensively on labor market issues and has written a book and a number of published articles on the subject. He has also considerable operational experience in developing countries, including in sub-Saharan Africa, India and China.

  • Mr. Peter Bakvis is the director of the Washington Office of the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU) and the associated Global Union Federations. Among his duties are to prepare ICFTU/Global Unions policy statements presented to the IMF and World Bank, to lobby the financial institutions on behalf of member organizations in developing countries and to prepare reports on IMF and World Bank policies for trade unions. Prior to assuming his current position in January 2000, he worked for over 20 years in the Quebec-based Confédération des Syndicats Nationaux, where he was director of research and later head of international affairs. His work has included training on economic policy for developing country unions, research on trade and development matters from a labour perspective and participation in ILO conferences. He is currently a member of the UNDP’s civil society advisory committee. He holds degrees in economics from two Canadian universities.

  • Dr. Irfan ul Haque, a Pakistani national, holds a Ph.D. in economics from the University of Cambridge. He started his career in UNCTAD, and later worked in various capacities at the World Bank. After leaving the Bank in 1995, Dr. Haque worked at the South Centre in Geneva. He has taught economics at the University of Islamabad and Lahore School of Economics. In 2003, Dr. Haque was invited by UNCTAD to join a Group of Eminent Persons, established to examine the issue of commodities and financing, whose report was later submitted to the UN General Assembly. He is author of a number of publications, covering issues of international finance and trade, and macroeconomics as well as science and technology. Currently, he is a consultant to the South Centre and a member of the New Rules for Global Finance Coalition.

  • H.E. Dr. Hernán Sandoval is the Ambassador of Chile to France. He is also the representative of President Ricardo Lagos Escobar to the WHO Commission on the Social Determinants of Health, as well as the Chilean representative to the OECD and UNESCO. Ambassador Sandoval attended the Millennium Summit in 2000 as part of the Chilean delegation headed by President Escobar. Ambassador Sandoval’s career includes acting as the Executive Secretary of the Commission of Health Reform in the Chilean Government between 2000 and 2004. Until 2000, he was the Medical Counsellor of National Cooperation of Chile after having worked in the Worker’s Health Insurance Company in Chile between 1983 and 1994. Ambassador Sandoval has also served as Adviser to WHO on Occupational Medicine between 1974 and 1983 and conducted work in Guinea, Congo and Mexico. He has been part of the WHO advisory group on Occupational Medicine from 1984-1999.

 

Roundtable 2: " An integrated global agenda to achieve full and productive employment and decent work "                            

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  • H.E. Mr. Ali Hachani is the President of the Economic and Social Council for 2006, and also Permanent Representative of Tunisia to the United Nations. Born in 1946, Mr. Hachani, after primary and secondary studies, graduated in English Language and Literature from Tunis University (1968). He then followed a course in International Relations at Columbia University (New York) within the framework of a training program for diplomats (1969-70). He joined the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Tunisia in November 1968. After having served in the Department of International Co-operation, he was appointed (September 1972 to September 1979) Counsellor at the Tunisian Permanent Mission to the United Nations in New York. In this capacity, he took part in a great number of regular and extraordinary sessions of the United Nations General Assembly as well as Technical Committees and International Conferences.

  • Mr. Sergio M. Miranda-da-Cruz is the Director of the Strategic Research and Economics Branch, UNIDO. As of 1976, his area of professional activities has been the establishment of the linkages between science and tech-knowledge (S&T) and sustainable –economic, social and environmental– development. His particular interest and main focus of work has been on theoretical and experimental modelling of the linkages between S&T and economic development. His formal background has been on food/chemical engineering with further studies in business administration, economics and development planning. (Brazil – Campinas University and Getulio Vargas Foundation; USA – Massachusetts Institute of Technology – MIT). From 1976 to 1986, Mr. Miranda-da-Cruz worked in the area of development and investment banking at the Sao Paulo State Development Bank. From 1982 to 1986, he was Assistant Professor, School of Food Engineering – Campinas University. Mr. Miranda-da-Cruz also did some consultancy works with national and international institutions (UNCTAD-GATT and ITC – Geneva, and UNIDO – Vienna, among others – 1982-1986); He started to work at UNIDO in 1986, and he has focused on different topics, among them, the transfer of technology in the fields of food agro-industry (1986-1998); the implementation of international environmental conventions (1998-2000); the representation of UNIDO for Northeast Asia – China, Mongolia, DPRK & ROK (2000-2006); and research and Statistics (2006-).

  • Ms. Nilufer Cagatay is an Associate Professor of Economics at the University of Utah. Her research has focused on gender and development; international trade theories; and on engendering macroeconomics and international trade theories and policies. In 1994, with Diane Elson and Caren Grown, she founded the International Working Group on Gender, Macroeconomics and International Economics (GEM-IWG). She is the co-editor of the November 1995 special issue of World Development on Gender, Adjustment and Macroeconomics and the July 2000 special issue of World Development on Growth, Trade, Finance and Gender Inequalities. Between 1997-2000 she worked as Economic Advisor at UNDP's Social Development and Poverty Elimination Division in New York. She received her B.A. in Economics and Political Science from Yale University and her M.A. and Ph.D. in Economics from Stanford University.

  • Dr. Heiner Flassbeck graduated in April 1976 in economics from Saarland University, Germany, concentrating on money and credit, business cycle theory and general philosophy of science. He obtained a Ph.D. in Economics from the Free University, Berlin, Germany in July 1987. His career started at the German Council of Economic Experts, Wiesbaden between 1976 and 1980, followed by the Federal Ministry of Economics, Bonn until January 1986. He was chief macroeconomist in the German Institute for Economic Research (DIW) between 1988 and 1998, and State Secretary (Vice Minister) from October 1998 to April 1999 at the Federal Ministry of Finance, Bonn, responsible for international affairs, the EU and IMF. Dr. Flassbeck worked at UNCTAD since 2000 as Chief, Macroeconomic and repairing he Trade and Development Report, with specialization in macroeconomics, exchange rate policies, and international finance.

  • Mr. Kamal Malhotra has been with UNDP since August 1999 and is currently UNDPs Senior Adviser on Inclusive Globalization. In this capacity, he heads the Bureau of Development Policy’s trade policy work and team. His portfolio also has overall responsibility for UNDPs policy work on the global dimensions of debt, capital flows and development finance. As part of his work, he is currently leading a UNDP Trade and Sustainable Human Development project and was the lead author and coordinator of the UNDP co-sponsored book “Making Global Trade Work for People”, which was published and launched in January 2003. He has degrees from the University of Delhi in development economics, from the Indian Institute of Management in business management with specializations in economics and finance and from Columbia University, New York in international and public affairs with a specialization in economic and political development. Mr. Malhotra has published over 70 papers and articles on development policy issues and the multilateral system. In addition to being the lead author of the recent UNDP co-sponsored publication “Making Global Trade Work for People” (Earthscan, London and USA, 2003) he is also the co-author, co-editor or a major contributor to a number of recent books, including “Democratizing Global Governance” (Palgrave-Macmillan, UK and USA, 2002), “Global Finance: New Thinking on Regulating Speculative Capital Markets”( Zed Press, London, 2000) and “Reimagining the Future: Towards Democratic Governance” (La Trobe University, Australia, 2000).

  • Ms. Jo Marie Griesgraber, who earned a PhD in Political Science from Georgetown, is the director of the New Rules for Global Finance Coalition. Previously, she served as the policy director for Oxfam American, the director of Rethinking Bretton Woods project at the Center for Concern and the Deputy Director of the Washington Office on Latin America. She has a wealth of experience as both a researcher and as an activist in economic development and inter national financial architecture.

  • Ms. Ronnie Goldberg is the Executive Vice President and Senior Policy Officer at the United States Council for International Business (USCIB). Ms. Goldberg is responsible for managing USCIB work on trade, investment, economic, and regulatory policy. In this capacity, she supervises a staff of professionals whose expertise covers a wide range of international issues affecting American companies engaged in international business, and oversees USCIB relations with its international affiliates -- the International Chamber of Commerce, the Business and Industry Advisory Committee to the OECD, and the International Organization of Employers. Before joining the USCIB in 1987, Ms. Goldberg served as the Vice President in charge of the International Department at the New York Chamber of Commerce and Industry, and as a Vice President in the Trade and Export Finance Division of The Chase Manhattan Bank. From 1978 to 1982, she was a Project Director at the Congressional Office of Technology Assessment where she was the manager and principal author of major studies on East-West trade and technology transfer, and Soviet energy development. Ms. Goldberg graduated magna cum laude with Honors in political science from Bryn Mawr College. The recipient of both Woodrow Wilson and Ford Fellowships, she holds a M.Sc. in History of Political Thought from the London School of Economics, and a Ph.D. in political science from the University of Chicago. She is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, and has been an adjunct Assistant Professor at New York University and Pace University. In June 2005, she was elected to the Governing Body of the International Labor Organization.

 

Roundtable 3: " Increasing employment opportunities and productivity of labor for low income groups in rural and urban areas "

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  • H.E. Mr. Léo Mérorés is the Vice-President of ECOSOC, Ambassador and Permanent Representative of Haiti to the United Nations. From April 2001 to March 2004, he served as a Consultant on management and economic cooperation issues for several United Nations entities, including its Department of Economic and Social Affairs, United Nations Office for Project Services (UNOPS) and United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). Mr. Mérorès was associated with the UNDP for many years, beginning in 1974. From September 1992 to March 2001, he was a principal counsellor for the Programme working with the countries of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS). From 1984 to 1992, he was the UNDP’s Deputy Resident Representative for Liberia, Mali and Cameroon, and from 1989 to 1992, he was responsible for the UNDP offices in Gabon and Burundi. From 1978 to 1984, he was the UNDP’s Deputy Resident Representative in Togo and Madagascar, and worked in the UNDP’s office in Rwanda from 1974 to 1978. Mr. Mérorès started his career in 1961 as a salesman for Enterprises Gerard Theard in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, and in 1969-1973, he worked part-time as an accountant, assistant of the Head of the Credit Department at Shapiro & Sons Textile Corporation in New York. In 1964, Mr. Mérorès received a Bachelor of Laws degree from the Law School of the State University of Haiti and an accountant’s diploma from Ecole de Commerce Maurice Laroche in Port-au-Prince. In 1969, he received a master’s degree in economic science and in 1973, a PhD in economics, both from New York University.

  • Ms. Azita Berar Awad is the Director of the Employment Policy Department of the ILO. Since 1983, she has held various positions at the ILO managing programmes in the fields of employment policies, poverty reduction strategies, targeted labour market policies for gender and youth, and rural and informal economies. She has published on a range of topics in related fields. Prior to her current function, she was the Director of the National Policy Group of the Policy Integration Department responsible for the development of integrated social and economic approaches to promoting productive and decent work in the framework of national development strategies. From 1999 to 2002, she was the Director of the technical multi-disciplinary team and the Deputy Director of the ILO Regional Office for Arab States based in Beirut. She holds post graduate degrees from the University of Geneva in Political Science and International Relations and from the Graduate Institute of International Studies (Geneva) in Development Economics.

  • Mr. David Kaimowitz is the Director-General of the Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR), based in Bogor, Indonesia. Prior to becoming Director General, he was CIFOR's Principal Economist and worked on research related to the causes of deforestation, decentralization of natural resource management, and the links between natural resource issues, and violent conflict. He holds a Ph.D. in agricultural economics from the University of Wisconsin. Before joining CIFOR, he held research or managerial positions at the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation in Agriculture in Costa Rica; the International Service for National Agricultural Research in The Hague, which is also a CGIAR center; and Nicaragua's Ministry of Agricultural Development and Agrarian Reform. He has also written or co-written seven books and published more than 100 other scientific publications.

  • Ms. Leiria Vay García is the President of the Association of Farmers Development Committees/Asociación de Comités de Desarrollo Campesino (CODECA), a Guatemalan membershipbased organization that includes more than 7,000 rural families. Ms. Vay García and her organization work closely with farm workers to improve labor conditions and to legalize workers committees; and with independent smallholder farmers to document legal rights to lands which they are working. In addition to her work with CODECA, Ms. Vay Garcia is a board member of the Conference of Evangelical Churches of Guatemala, and national sub-coordinator of the MIRIAM project for the promotion of women in academic and professional fields.

  • Professor Martha Chen is a Lecturer in Public Policy at the Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University and Coordinator of the global research-policy network Women in Informal Employment: Globalizing and Organizing (WIEGO). An experienced development practitioner and scholar with a doctorate in South Asia Regional Studies from the University of Pennsylvania, her areas of specialization are gender, poverty, and the informal economy. Before joining Harvard University in 1987, Dr. Chen had resident experience in Bangladesh working with one of the world's largest non-governmental organizations (BRAC), and in India where she served as field representative of Oxfam America for India and Bangladesh. Since joining Harvard University in 1987, Dr. Chen has undertaken four major field studies in India; introduced three new courses at the Kennedy School of Government; spent three years as a Visiting Professor at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study; and co-founded the global research-policy network WIEGO (see www.wiego.org). She is the author of numerous books including, most recently, Progress of the World’s Women 2005: Women, Work, and Poverty (which she coauthored with five colleagues from the WIEGO network), Mainstreaming Informal Employment and Gender in Poverty Reduction (which she co-authored with Joann Vanek and Marilyn Carr), Women and Men in the Informal Economy: A Statistical Picture (which she co-authored with Joann Vanek) and Perpetual Mourning: Widowhood in Rural India.

  • Ms. Gemma Adaba is the Representative of the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU) to the United Nations. Since 1980, she has been a staff member of the Brussels-based ICFTU which is a Confederation of national trade union centres in 154 countries and territories on all five continents, with a total membership of 155 million workers, 40% of whom are women. A native of Trinidad & Tobago, Ms Adaba’s trade union work began in the teaching sector, where she was an active member of the Trinidad and Tobago Teachers Association in the late 1960s. As ICFTU Representative to the UN, she follows the major intergovernmental processes of the UN in the social, economic and development fields, coordinating trade union policy responses, and attempting to ensure that labor policies and trade union priority concerns are integrated into economic and social policy at global level. An important focus of her recent policy work has been the integration of the decent work agenda into the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).

 

Roundtable 4: " Working out of Crises "

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  • H.E. Mr. Dalius Cekuolis is the Vice-President of ECOSOC and Permanent Representative of the Republic of Lithuania to the United Nations. Mr. Cekuolis began his diplomatic career for the Republic of Lithuania in 1990, as Head of the Press and Information Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. In 1991, he was appointed Chargé d’Affaires of Lithuania in Denmark, Norway and Iceland, and served as Ambassador to those countries from 1992 to 1994. Mr. Cekuolis also served, from 1994 to 1998, as Ambassador to Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg and, concurrently, as the Lithuanian representative to the Western European Union and to the North Atlantic Cooperation Council of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). From 1998 to 1999, Mr. Cekuolis was Head of the Committee of Senior Officials of the Council of the Baltic Sea States, in charge of the Lithuanian presidency of that body. He served as his country’s Ambassador to Portugal from 1999 to 2004, after which he was appointed Secretary of Lithuania’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Mr. Cekuolis graduated from the Institute of International Relations in Moscow, in 1982. Apart from his mother tongue, he speaks English, Spanish, French, Russian and Portuguese.

  • H.E. Mr. Augustine Mahiga is the Ambassador and Permanent Representative of the United Republic of Tanzania to the United Nations. Prior to his appointment, Mr. Mahiga served from July 2002 to July 2003 as the representative of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in Italy, Malta, San Marino and the Holy See. For two years before that, he was the agency’s Chief of Mission in New Delhi, India. From 1994 to 1998, he served in Geneva as Coordinator and Deputy Director of the Refugee Emergency Operation for the Great Lakes Region of Africa. He was the first UNHCR Chief of Mission in Monrovia, Liberia (1992-1994), and while there was appointed to the rank of Ambassador. As Minister Plenipotentiary, he served in his country’s Permanent Mission to the United Nations in Geneva (1989-1992) and the High Commission in Ottawa, Canada (1983-1989). Between 1977 and 1980, Mr. Mahiga held positions in the Office of the President and taught international affairs and regional cooperation at the University of Dar-es-Salaam from 1975 to 1977. Mr. Mahiga was educated at the University of East Africa, Dar-es-Salaam, and the University of Toronto.

  • Mr. Ahmedou Ould-Abdallah was appointed the Special representative of the Secretary-General for West Africa in September 2002. Until the appointment in February 2003 of a Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Cote d’Ivoire, Mr. Ould-Abdallah focused heavily on the Ivorian crisis, with its desperately negative affects for the  economies and stability of the entire sub-region. He represented the Secretary-General throughout the Marcoussis negotiations; and accompanied the new Prime Minister, Mr. Seydou Diarra, when the latter flew from Dakar to take up his functions in Abidjan. He also represented the Secretary-General at the ECOWAS led peace negotiations on Liberia in Accra in July 2003. M. Ould-Abdallah is also the Chairman of the Cameroon-Nigeria Mixed Commission, which was established in November 2002 by the Secretary-General at the request of President Biya and President Obasanjo, to facilitate the implementation of the ruling of 10 October 2002 of the International Court of Justice on the Land and Maritime Boundary between Cameroon and Nigeria. Since December 2002, the Mixed Commission has held bi-monthly meetings alternatively in Yaoundé and Abuja.

  • Mr. Eric Schwartz joined the United Nations as the Secretary-General's Deputy Special Envoy for Tsunami Recovery in August 2005, and is currently working with the Special Envoy, former President Bill Clinton, to promote effective recovery in the tsunami-affected region. Just prior to his appointment, Mr. Schwartz served as a lead expert to the Mitchell-Gingrich Task Force on the United Nations and a Visiting Lecturer of Public and International Affairs at Princeton University. In 2003 and 2004, Mr. Schwartz was at the United Nations in Geneva, where he served as the second-ranking official at the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights. From 1993 to 2001, Mr. Schwartz was at the United States National Security Council, where he worked as Senior Director and Special Assistant to the President for Multilateral and Humanitarian Affairs. Mr. Schwartz has also held fellowships at the Woodrow Wilson Center, the U.S. Institute of Peace, and the Council on Foreign Relations, completing articles and book chapters on peace operations, humanitarian issues, and refugee policy. At the Council on Foreign Relations, he directed the Independent Task Force on Post-Conflict Iraq. From 1989 to 1993, Mr. Schwartz served as Staff Consultant to the U.S. House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Asian and Pacific Affairs. He holds degrees from New York University School of Law, the Woodrow Wilson School at Princeton University, and the State University of New York at Binghamton.

  • Mr. Miguel Bermeo is the Humanitarian Coordinator & Resident Coordinator of the UN System’s Operational Activities for Development, in the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka. He is also the Resident Representative for UNDP. He was assigned to this post in April 2002 from Bonn, Germany where he worked for the UN Volunteers as Director, Programme and Policy. His career with the UN started in 1974 and during the interim period he has worked in various capacities in several duty stations including New York, Islamabad, Panama, Germany Switzerland, Sudan and the Dominican Republic. Mr. Miguel Bermeo is a national of Ecuador.

  • Mr. John Ohiorhenuan is the Deputy Assistant Administrator and Senior Deputy Director, Bureau for Crisis Prevention and Recovery, UNDP. Before joining BCPR, Mr. Ohiorhenuan was UN Resident Coordinator in South Africa where he led the United Nation’s support to the Authorities and produced the acclaimed South Africa Human Development Report for 2003. His previous appointments in UNDP included Director of South-South Cooperation and Chief Economist for the Africa region. At the time of joining UNDP in 1989, Mr. Ohiorhenuan was Professor of Economics at the University of Ibadan in Nigeria where he had been since 1977. He took leave to serve as Lagos State Director of Planning in 1985 -1986. He was a Visiting Fellow at the Institute of Development Studies, University of Sussex in 1983-1984 and in the summer of 1988. He is the author of several articles and books. Mr. Ohiorhenuan is a graduate of the University of Ibadan, and he holds a PhD in Economics from McMaster University in Canada.

  • Mr. Christopher Lamb is the Special Adviser on International Relations for the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC). Mr. Lamb looks after the diplomatic positioning of the International Federation and National Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies in the international community, including the United Nations and other intergovernmental bodies. He is also responsible for developing Federation positions on the issues of concern in the international community, and for work with National Societies so they can share this positioning and bring relevant experiences forward at international levels. Before joining the Federation in 2000, he was an Australian diplomat, serving as Legal Adviser in the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade as well as Ambassador to several countries including Myanmar and later Yugoslavia, Romania and Macedonia. He has considerable multilateral experience, having served in the Australian Mission to the UN in New York, as Permanent Representative to ESCAP in Bangkok, and in many different conference settings in Geneva, Vienna and elsewhere.


 

Roundtable 5: " Promoting full and productive employment and decent work for women and young people "

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  • H.E. Mr. Johan C. Verbeke is Ambassador, Permanent Representative of Belgium to the United Nations in New York since 2004. He studied law and philosophy at Ghent University (Belgium) and obtained a Master of Laws degree at Yale (USA). He was assistant professor of European Law before entering the diplomatic service. He served in Beirut (1982), Amman (1984), Bujumbura (1985), and Santiago de Chile (1988), was spokesman of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (1990), and was assigned to the mission to the European Union during the Belgian EU-Presidency in 1993. After having been posted in Washington as Deputy Chief of Mission (1994), he joined again the Ministry in Belgium to become, first, Deputy Director General for Political Affairs (1998) and then Chef de Cabinet of the Minister of Foreign Affairs (2000). He was born in 1951, is married and has three children.

  • Ms. Mari Simonen is the Deputy-Executive Director, External Relations, United Nations Affairs and Management of United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA). Prior to this appointment, Ms. Simonen, of Finland, was most the Director of UNFPA’s Technical Support Division, a post she had held since November 1999. In that capacity, she oversaw staff comprised of international technical experts in public health; reproductive health; HIV/AIDS; population studies; gender and human rights; and other specialized areas of work in support of population and development issues worldwide. Prior to that position, Ms. Simonen was the Chief of the Office of the Executive Director at UNFPA, a strategic position from which she helped the Executive Director carry out her functions as the secretary-general of the historic 1994 Cairo International Conference on Population and Development. Before joining the United Nations in 1980, Ms. Simonen worked at the University of California, Berkeley. She holds a doctorate degree from that university in Education. She has a master’s degree from Stanford University in Sociology of Education as well as a bachelor’s degree in Sociology from the same institution.

  • Professor Martha Chen is a Lecturer in Public Policy at the Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University and Coordinator of the global research-policy network Women in Informal Employment: Globalizing and Organizing (WIEGO). An experienced development practitioner and scholar with a doctorate in South Asia Regional Studies from the University of Pennsylvania, her areas of specialization are gender, poverty, and the informal economy. Before joining Harvard University in 1987, Dr. Chen had resident experience in Bangladesh working with one of the world's largest non-governmental organizations (BRAC), and in India where she served as field representative of Oxfam America for India and Bangladesh. Since joining Harvard University in 1987, Dr. Chen has undertaken four major field studies in India; introduced three new courses at the Kennedy School of Government; spent three years as a Visiting Professor at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study; and co-founded the global research-policy network WIEGO (see www.wiego.org). She is the author of numerous books including, most recently, Progress of the World’s Women 2005: Women, Work, and Poverty (which she coauthored with five colleagues from the WIEGO network), Mainstreaming Informal Employment and Gender in Poverty Reduction (which she co-authored with Joann Vanek and Marilyn Carr), Women and Men in the Informal Economy: A Statistical Picture (which she co-authored with Joann Vanek) and Perpetual Mourning: Widowhood in Rural India.

  • Dr. Kanchana N. Ruwanpura is an Assistant Professor of Economics at Hobart and William Smith Colleges, U.S.A, where she typically teaches courses in labor market issues, political economy, and gender and development. Prior to her current appointment, she was a Humboldt Research Fellow attached to the Department of Economics and Post-Colonial Studies Program at University of Munich and before that a Research Officer at the International Labor Office, Geneva, Switzerland. A native of Sri Lanka, she completed her Ph.D. (2001) at Newnham College, University of Cambridge, where she explored her research interests in gender, ethnicity, development and feminist methodology through her dissertation. She has articles published or forthcoming in Feminist Economics, Review of Radical Political Economics, Cambridge Journal of Economics, Gender, Place, and Culture and Asian Population Studies.

  • Mr. Antonius Budi Tjahjono is the Rapporteur of YEN Youth Consultative Group (YCG 2004-2006. As Rapporteur Mr. Tjahjono is the official liaison between the YCG youth groups working in support of the YEN and the YEN Secretariat as well as the YEN’s High-Level Panel. In this role Mr. Tjahjono has represented the YEN in diverse for a ranging from the UN General Assembly discussions on youth to the UNESCAP Committee on Emerging Issues. He has authored a number of papers on the role and activities of the YCG as well as coordinating youth groups to produce a global analysis of youth participation in over 40 National Action Plans on youth employment (NAPs) submitted to the UN in 2005. This analysis was featured as part of a 2005 Secretary-General’s report on youth employment. As the Programme Coordinator and United Nations representative of Pax Romana ICMICA-IMCS, an international NGO for Catholic Students and Intellectuals based in Paris and Geneva, Mr. Tjahjono has been a leading civil society voice in recent debates on the reform of the UN Commission on Human Rights. He is an Indonesian citizen, and has academic background in Education from Sanata Dharma University in Yogyakarta, and Library Science from the University of Indonesia in Jakarta.

  • Mr. Robert Holzmann is the Sector Director of the Social Protection & Labor Department in the Human Development Network of the World Bank. He was appointed to this position on May 1, 1997. The Social Protection Sector is the Bank's focal point for labor market interventions, including child labor and youth employment; social insurance, in particular pensions; targeted interventions, such as social safety nets and social funds; and the disability and development program of the Bank. From 1992 to 1997, Mr. Holzmann was Managing Director of the European Institute and Full Professor for International Economics and European Economy, both at the University of Saarbrucken (Germany). Prior to that he was Professor of Economics at the University of Vienna (Austria), Senior Economist at the International Monetary Fund (Washington, DC) and OECD (Paris) where he worked on international public finance and social protection issues; and was a visiting professor at various universities in Japan, Chile and Austria.

  • Ms. Barbara Byers is serving a 2nd three-year term as the elected Executive Vice-President of the Canadian Labour Congress after more than a decade as President of the Saskatchewan Federation of Labour. The populism of Sister Byers’ Prairie upbringing is reflected in her approachability, openness and determination to fight for the underdog. Her 17 years with the Saskatchewan Social Services brought Sister Byers face-to-face with issues that remain at the centre of labour’s agenda – workers’ rights; poverty; Aboriginal concerns; youth unemployment; and justice for equality-seeking groups. Her conviction naturally led her into political activism. Having risen through the ranks of the Saskatchewan Government Employees Union, Sister Byers was at the helm of the SGEU through the turbulent years of the scandal-ridden Conservative government of Grant Devine. Sister Byers makes her presence felt nationally as the Canadian Labour Congress officer responsible for education; women, disability rights, gay/lesbian/bisexual/transgendered, medicare/health care; training and technology; literacy; employment insurance and apprenticeship. As a labour representative at the executive level, Barbara Byers also ensures that the voices of workers are heard within the International Labour Organization, a Geneva-based tripartite body of the United Nations where she is a member of the Governing Body.

 

Roundtable 6: " The challenge of globalization - Labour migration "

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  • H.E. Mr. Prasad Kariyawasam is the Vice-President of ECOSOC, Ambassador and Permanent Representative of Sri Lanka to the United Nations. Mr. Kariyawasam joined Sri Lanka’s Foreign Service in 1981. He held several diplomatic assignments at Sri Lanka Missions in Geneva, Switzerland, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, Washington, D.C., and New Delhi, India. He was the Deputy High Commissioner for Sri Lanka in India, with the rank of Ambassador from 1998 to 2001. He also served as the Permanent Representative of Sri Lanka to the United Nations in Geneva and Consul General to Switzerland from 2001 to 2003. At the Foreign Affairs Ministry, Mr. Kariyawasam had assignments in the Divisions of United Nations and Non-Aligned, Political Affairs (West), Administration, and as the Special Assistant to the Foreign Secretary (1987 – 1989). He also represented his county at several international, United Nations and Non-Aligned Movement conferences around the world. In 2003, Mr. Kariyawasam was elected to the United Nations Committee on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families for an initial two-year term, and at the Committee’s inaugural session, he was selected as its Chairperson. Mr. Kariyawasam was also elected as the Chair of the 2004 sessions of the Chairpersons of the Human Rights Treaty Bodies and Inter-Committee Meetings. From 2001 to 2003, he led the Sri Lankan delegation at the Conference on Disarmament, in Geneva. He was also appointed as Special Coordinator for the Conference’s improved functioning (2001 and 2002). From 2001 to 2003, he represented his country in the Sixth Committee (Legal) and the First Committee (Disarmament and International Security). Mr. Kariyawasam also chaired the Global System of Trade Preferences Committee of Participants in the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), and chaired the UNCTAD Expert Group on Market Access Issues in Mode 4 (Movement of Natural Persons to Supply Services) (2002 to 2003). Mr. Kariyawasam received a Bachelor of Science degree with
    honours from the University of Peradeniya, Sri Lanka, in 1978, earning a special degree in mathematics.

  • Mr. Ibrahim Awad is the Director of the International Migration Programme, ILO Headquarters in Geneva. He is a Graduate of the Faculty of Economics and Political Science, University of Cairo. He is Doctor in Political Science from the University of Geneva, Switzerland. He researched and published in international political economy, international relations, international organization, development, employment, labour migration, human and labour rights and regional integration. Dr. Awad held positions with regional and United Nations organizations in Argentina, Spain, Switzerland, Lebanon and Egypt, including Secretary of the Commission, United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (ESCWA). His previous positions held included Adjunct Associate Professor, Political Science Department, American University in Cairo (AUC). Until July 2005, he was the Director, Sub-regional Office of the International Labour Organization (ILO) for North Africa, in Cairo.

  • Ms. Irena Omelaniuk has worked in the migration field for more than 20 years: 12 years in refugee and immigration policy development in the Australian Immigration department (today called DIMIA); several diplomatic postings abroad, including in Central America; 11 years with the International Organization for Migration (IOM) in Geneva and in Germany, and currently on secondment from IOM to the World Bank as Migration Adviser in the Development Prospects Group. During her time with IOM, Ms. Omelaniuk provided capacity building support to governments in Central and Eastern Europe, the Caucasus, Central Asia, South Africa and the Americas on migration policy. As Director of Migration Management Services (2000-2004), she coordinated IOM’s global program planning on counter trafficking, labour migration, voluntary return and technical cooperation. In 2004, she was Editor in Chief of IOM’s flagship publication World Migration 2005. Ms. Omelaniuk has published or presented a number of contributions to
    the international debate on migration, most recently: a paper on “Gender, Poverty Reduction and Migration” at the International Conference for Women Leaders, in Haifa, September, 2005; a paper on “Trafficking in Human Beings” at the Migration Experts Meeting, UN Population Division, in July 2005; a chapter on “Elements of a more Global Approach to Migration Management,” in World Migration Report 2003, and an “Overview of Irregular Migration and Migrant Smuggling as a Global Phenomenon” at the MIDSA workshop on “Extra- Regional Irregular Migration and Migrant Smuggling to, through and from the SADC Region”, in Johannesburg, June 2003.

  • Mr. Dirk Bruisma is the Deputy Secretary-General of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD). Prior to his appointment, Mr. Bruinsma served as Director-General of Foreign Economic Relations in the Ministry of Economic Affairs of the Netherlands. Following a long career in the Ministry of Finance and the private sector, including managing his own consulting firm, he joined the Ministry of Economic Affairs in 1995 as Deputy Secretary-General. In that capacity he was economic advisor to the government, serving as general manager of the ministry and its agencies. Mr. Bruinsma has a special interest in development cooperation and headed the Dutch delegation to the economic policy committees of the European Union and OECD. He became a full member of the EU Trade Policy Committee in 2000. In his various posts at the Ministry of Finance, where he worked from 1976 to 1991, Mr. Bruinsma specialized in transport and public works; industrial policy and energy policy; development cooperation; and defence, agriculture and fisheries. From 1991 to 1994 he was Deputy Chairman of the Executive Board of the Netherlands Credit Insurance Company (NCM) and Chairman of the Board of NCM-Netherlands. He worked as an independent consultant from 1994 to 1995. In addition to his government service, Mr. Bruinsma has also served on several supervisory boards in banking, industry and the public sector, and is a member of the board of several cultural and charitable organizations. Mr. Bruinsma holds Master's Degrees in Mathematics and Dutch and International Law, both from Leyden University. He was born in The Hague in 1950.

  • Dr. Atif Kubursi teaches Economics at McMaster University in Ontario, Canada. He joined McMaster in 1969 as assistant professor. Since 1981, Dr. Kubursi has held the rank of full professor. Dr. Kubursi also taught economics at Purdue University in Indiana, USA. He was a senior visiting scholar at Cambridge University, UK., and lectured and consulted at Harvard University. In 1972, Atif Kubursi formed the Econometric Research Limited which he has continuously served as its president. In 1982, he joined the United Nations Industrial Organization as Senior Development Officer. Since then he worked as a team leader of several UNIDO missions to Indonesia, Thailand, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Sudan, and Egypt. In his consulting activities he has specialized in the areas of economic development strategies, impact analysis and regional planning with special emphasis on the environment, tourism and industrial development. He has frequently lectured on globalization issues, economic development, oil and industrialization, impact of tourism on provincial and local economies, political economy of development, Arab affairs and on environment-economy linkages.

  • Professor Marcello Balbo is a professor of Urban Planning, University of Venice. He is an expert in urban management issues in developing countries. He is also a consultant for the United Nations, the European Union and the Italian government. Professor Balbo is the author of several books on problems of urbanization and local development in the South. Coordinator of the Network-Association of European Researchers on Urbanization in the South (N-Aerus). He is a laurea in Architecture, Instituto Universitario di Architettura Venice (1969).

  • Ms. Sharan Burrow is the President of the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions and President of Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU). She became ACTU President in 2000, only the second woman to hold this office. Barely five months after that, she became the first woman President of the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions (Asia Pacific Region Organization). In between, Ms. Burrow has been Senior Vice-President of the NSW Teachers' Federation, President of the Australian Education Union, and Vice-President of Education International, which represents 24 million education union members worldwide. Her energy, intelligence and passionate commitment to so many education issues, from student government and social justice through education to adopting world's best teaching practice, combined with her phenomenal negotiating skills and capacity to empower people, ensured her leadership roles in the Australian and international union movement. Currently she is also President of the International Centre for Trade Union Rights and a member of the governing body of the International Labour Organization, and a member of the Global Commission for International migration.)

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  • H.E. Mr. Ali Hachani is the President of the Economic and Social Council for 2006, and also Permanent Representative of Tunisia to the United Nations. Born in 1946, Mr. Hachani, after primary and secondary studies, graduated in English Language and Literature from Tunis University (1968). He then followed a course in International Relations at Columbia University (New York) within the framework of a training program for diplomats (1969-70). He joined the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Tunisia in November 1968. After having served in the Department of International Co-operation, he was appointed (September 1972 to September 1979) Counsellor at the Tunisian Permanent Mission to the United Nations in New York. In this capacity, he took part in a great number of regular and extraordinary sessions of the United Nations General Assembly as well as Technical Committees and International Conferences.

 

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