Conference Participants

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Fazle Hasan Abed is the founder and Chairperson of BRAC in Bangladesh. He was educated at the Universities of Dhaka and Glasgow. Following the war of independence from Pakistan, he founded BRAC initially to provide relief and rehabilitation to returning war refugees in the north-east of Bangladesh. The organisation then turned towards long-term poverty alleviation and the empowerment of poor people, especially women. BRAC currently works in over 68,000 villages in Bangladesh in health, education, social development and income generation. Fazle Hasan Abed was a visiting scholar at Harvard University (1981-82) and has held numerous board appointments with a range of international organisations.

Bina Agarwal is Professor of Economics at the Institute of Economic Growth, Delhi University. Educated at the Universities of Cambridge and Delhi, she has held distinguished positions at Harvard, Princeton, Columbia, Michigan, Minnesota, and Sussex, and has lectured worldwide. She has been Vice-President of the International Economic Association, was President of the International Association for Feminist Economics, has served on the board of the Global Development Network, and is a founder member of the Indian Society for Ecological Economics.

Masood Ahmed is the Director General for Policy and International Development at the UK Government's Department for International Development (DFID). He was educated at the London School of Economics. He then joined the World Bank, where he worked in various roles for 20 years. During his final assignment in the Bank, as Vice President for Poverty Reduction and Economic Management, he was the senior manager responsible for the Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper approach as well as the HIPC Debt Initiative. In 2000, he joined the IMF as Deputy Director for Policy Development and Review. He has held his current post since 2003.

Quazi Mesbahuddin Ahmed is Member, General Economics Division of the Bangladesh Planning Commission. He was educated at the University of Dhaka in Bangladesh, the James Cook University in Queensland, Australia and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in the US. He first worked for the Bangladesh Planning Commission in 1979, serving as Division Chief between 1999 and 2001. He has also worked in the Economic Relations Division of the Ministry of Finance. In his current post, which he has held since 2003, he acted as coordinator for preparation of the Bangladesh PRSP and was the leader of the PRSP core drafting team. He is also the Chief of the National Poverty Focal Point.

Samira Ahmed is a presenter on Channel 4 News in the UK. She was educated at Oxford University and City University. She joined the BBC as a News Trainee in 1990. Between 1994 and 1997 she was a News Correspondent, and also worked as a presenter on BBC World and News 24. She joined Channel 4 News in April 2000 as a reporter specialising in social affairs. Since 2002 her role on the programme has been mainly as a presenter, while still reporting on special topics.

Ifzal Ali is Chief Economist within the Economics and Research Department of the Asian Development Bank. He graduated from St. Stephen's College, Delhi, obtained a Master's degree in Economics from Delhi School of Economics, and a PhD in Economics from John Hopkins University. Since his career began with the bank in 1984 he has worked in various key positions, the latest being Deputy Treasurer. He has also served as Economist/Senior Economist, Senior Strategic Planning Officer, and Assistant Treasurer, Financial Policy Division.

Hirota Arakawa is Executive Director of the Development Assistance Strategy Department of the Japan Bank for International Cooperation (JBIC). He obtained a first degree in Economics from Hitotsubashi University, Japan. While at the Japanese Overseas Economic Cooperation Fund, he spent periods in the New Delhi and Washington Offices. He has worked for JBIC since 1999.

Daniyal Aziz is Chairman of the National Reconstruction Bureau, Pakistan, and ex-officio chairman of the board of directors for the Devolution Trust for Community Empowerment. He holds a BA and an MA from Boston University, USA. He has been a consultant to the Government of Pakistan and to various international programmes focusing on local government and development. He has twice been elected to the National Assembly of Pakistan.

Shaukat Aziz is Prime Minister of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan. He graduated from Gordon College, Rawalpindi and subsequently obtained an MBA from the Institute of Business Administration, University of Karachi. He first worked for Citibank in Karachi and then moved overseas to work in banking for several countries including the Philippines, Jordan, Greece, USA, UK, Malaysia, Singapore and Saudi Arabia. He was appointed Vice President of Citibank in 1992 and has had 30 years' experience in global finance and international banking. In 1999 he was appointed Minister of Finance with responsibility for finance, economic affairs, statistics, planning and development, and revenue.

Hilary Benn is the Secretary of State for International Development in the UK. He was educated at the University of Sussex. He was elected to Ealing Borough Council in 1979, where he served as Deputy Leader of the Labour Group between 1985 and 1994 and as Deputy Leader of the Council between 1986 and 1990. He was elected as Member of Parliament for Leeds Central in June 1999. He joined DFID in 2001 as Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for International Development and became the Minister of State in May 2003. He has been the Secretary of State since October of 2003.

Fang Cai is Professor and Director of the Institute of Population and Labour Economics at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS), Dean of the Department of Population Studies, Graduate School of CASS, and Director of the Center for Human Resources Research, CASS. He was educated at the People's University of China and the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. His research interests include agricultural policy, labour economics and economic reform in China. He has worked at CASS since 1985, including as Associate Professor and Division Chief of the Rural Development Institute. He has also worked as a consultant for the UNDP and is a Standing Member of Chinese Association of Agricultural Economics.

Suma Chakrabarti is the Permanent Secretary of the UK Government's Department for International Development (DFID). He was educated at Universities of Oxford and Sussex. After two years in Botswana on an Overseas Development Institute Fellowship, he joined the Overseas Development Administration (ODA) in 1984. In the late 1980s he was the UK Executive Director's Assistant at the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank. He returned to the ODA in 1990, moved to the Treasury in 1996 and joined the Cabinet Office in 1998. In 2001, he was appointed Director General for Regional Programmes at DFID. He has held his current post since 2002.

Rasheda K Choudhury is Director of the Campaign for Popular Education in Bangladesh. She is a Board Member of the Global Campaign for Education, and Vice-Chair of the Federation of NGOs in Bangladesh. She is Member Secretary and Coordinator of Education Watch, a civil society initiative that reviews and advises on basic and primary education in Bangladesh. In addition, she is a member of the Steering Committee, National Committee on Beijing Plus Ten, and a member of the governing body of the Social Development Fund in Bangladesh.

Gordon Conway is Chief Scientific Adviser at the UK Government's Department for International Development (DFID). He was educated at the Universities of Wales ( Bangor ), Cambridge, Trinidad and California (Davis). Between 1970 and 1986 he was Professor of Environmental Technology at the Imperial College of Science and Technology in London, working in many countries in Asia and the Middle East. He then directed the sustainable agriculture programme at the International Institute for Environment and Development in London before becoming Representative of the Ford Foundation in New Delhi. Prior to joining DFID he was President of The Rockefeller Foundation (1998-2004). He has been in his current post since January 2005.

Harbrinderjit Singh Dillon is Executive Director of Partnership of Governance Reform in Indonesia. He was educated at Cornell University. Earlier in his career he worked for the Ministry of Agriculture in Indonesia, including as Assistant to the Minister of Agriculture for Commodity Trade and Development. Between 1997 and 2003 he was Executive Director of Centre for Agricultural Policy Studies. He has also been Commissioner, National Commission on Human Rights (1999-2000) and a Member of the Joint Investigation Team (Anti Corruption), reporting to the Attorney General (2000-2001). In 2001, he was Chairman of the National Coordinating Agency for Poverty Reduction, reporting to the Vice-President.

Rajat Kumar Gupta is Senior Partner Worldwide of McKinsey & Company. He was educated at the Indian Institute of Technology and the Harvard Business School. He joined McKinsey's New York Office in 1973, became leader of its Scandinavian offices in 1981 and Office Manager of the Chicago Office in 1989. He was Managing Director Worldwide of McKinsey between 1994 and 2003. He is Chairman of the Board of the Indian School of Business, Co-Chair of the United Nations Association of America, and Chairman of the India AIDS Initiative of the Gates Foundation. He also serves as the United Nations Secretary-General's Special Advisor on UN reform.

Jeff Gutman is the Acting Vice President for the East Asia and Pacific Region at the World Bank. He was educated at Cornell and Rutgers Universities. He joined the Bank in 1979 as a Transport Economist in the Latin America and Caribbean Region and was promoted to Deputy Division Chief in 1984. Since then, he has held various managerial positions in Latin America, East Asia and the Anchor, including Division Chief for Infrastructure and for Agriculture and Environment in Southeast Asia. In September 2001, he was appointed Director, Strategy and Operations in the East Asia and Pacific Region. He assumed his current post in December 2005.

Ravi Kanbur is TH Lee Professor of World Affairs, International Professor of Applied Economics and Management, and Professor of Economics at Cornell University. He was educated at the Universities of Cambridge and Oxford. He has taught at the Universities of Oxford, Cambridge, Essex, Warwick, Princeton and Columbia. He has also worked at the World Bank, as Economic Adviser, Senior Economic Adviser, Resident Representative in Ghana, Chief Economist of the African Region, and Principal Adviser to the Chief Economist of the World Bank. His main areas of interest are public economics and development economics, with a particular focus on bridging the worlds of rigorous analysis and practical policy making.

Homi Kharas is the Chief Economist of the East Asia and Pacific Region (EAP) of the World Bank and Director of the region's Poverty Reduction and Economic Management Department. He was educated at the Universities of Cambridge and Harvard. He joined the World Bank in 1980 and has had various posts including in the Research Department, the Latin America and Caribbean Region, and the Economic Policy Department. He worked in the EAP between 1986 and 1990, between 1992 and 1993, and from 1999 to the present. He was made Director, Poverty Reduction and Economic Management Unit, EAP in 1999 and appointed Chief Economist, EAP in 2001.

Cho-Oon Khong is Chief Political Analyst in the Global Business Environment team, Shell International. He was educated at the University of Singapore and the London School of Economics. He has worked with a range of international organisations, governments, universities, research institutions and companies in Asia, Europe, the US and Africa. He was Senior Economist at the Commonwealth Secretariat and taught Politics and International Relations at the University of Bath and the National University of Singapore. He serves on the Advisory Board of the Warwick University Centre for the Study of Globalisation and Regionalisation. For the Shell Group, he advises on political trends and is responsible for the Group's political and country risk analysis.

Rajiv Kumar is the Director and Chief Executive of the Indian Council for Research on International Economic Relations (ICRIER). He was educated at Oxford University. Earlier in his career he was a Senior Fellow at ICRIER and a Professor at the Indian Institute of Foreign Trade. He has worked as Economic Adviser in the Ministry of Finance, Government of India and in the Bureau of Industrial Costs and Projects, Ministry of Industry. From 2004 to January 2006 he was Chief Economist with the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII). Prior to joining the CII, he had worked at the Asian Development Bank for nearly ten years as a Principal Economist. He has been in his current post since February 2006.

Amitabh Kundu is Professor of Economics and Dean of the School of Social Sciences at Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi. He undertook post doctoral work as a Senior Fulbright Fellow at the University of Pennsylvania. He has worked as Director at various institutes such as National Institute of Urban Affairs, Indian Council of Social Science Research and Gujarat Institute of Development Research. He has acted as a consultant including for the UNDP, UNESCO, the ILO and the Government of the Netherlands. He has also been a Visiting Professor at the University of Amsterdam and the South Asia Institute of the University of Heidelberg.

Haruhiko Kuroda is the President of the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and Chairperson of the ADB's Board of Directors. He was educated at the Universities of Tokyo and Oxford. In a career spanning nearly four decades, he has represented Japan 's Ministry of Finance at a number of international monetary conferences as Vice Minister of Finance for International Affairs. Before joining the ADB, he 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. He was elected President by the ADB's Board of Governors in November 2004 and officially assumed office on 1 February 2005.

Ho Quang Minh is the Director General of the Foreign Economic Relations Department of the Ministry of Planning and Investment of Vietnam. He was educated at Hanoi National University and the Polish Academy of Sciences. He began his career in the Ministry of Energy (1973 -1980) and worked as an Official in the Development Studies Institute (1985-1991) and Foreign Economic Relations Department (1992-1995) of the State Planning Committee (SPC). He was made Deputy Director General of the Foreign Economic Relations Department of the Ministry of Planning and Investment in 1995, before becoming Director General of the Trade and Service Department in 2003. He has held his current post since July 2005.

Nachiket Mor is Executive Director, ICICI Bank Limited in India. He was educated at Mumbai University, the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad, and the University of Pennsylvania (Wharton School). He has worked with ICICI since 1987, including in Corporate Planning, Project Finance and Treasury. Since 2001 he has been a member of the ICICI Bank's Board of Directors as the Executive Director responsible for Corporate and Government Banking; Agriculture, Rural and Micro Banking; Financial Markets; Project and Infrastructure Finance and Social Initiatives. He is a member of the Board of the Institute for Financial Management and Research (IFMR), Pratham India Education Initiative and CARE USA . He is also a Yale World Fellow (2004).

James Moran was educated at Keele, Harvard and London Universities. Since joining the European Commission in 1983, he has served in various posts in Brussels and in EU Delegations in Ethiopia, Jamaica and Jordan, heading the latter two missions. He is currently Acting Director for Asia (except Japan and Korea ) in the Commission's External Relations DG in Brussels, and has headed the China and South-East Asian Units there. His recent work on Asia includes the initiation of the July 2003 EU strategy for its ties with South East Asia and the production of the September 2003 policy paper on EU-China relations. He was also the lead author of the publication ‘Taking Europe to the world' (2004), which commemorates the 50 th anniversary of the Commission's external service. He is a frequent contributor to a number of official and other fora in Europe, the US and Asia.

Ton-nu-thi Ninh is a member of Vietnam 's National Assembly (representing the southern coastal province of Ba Ria-Vung Tau) and Vice-Chair of the National Assembly Foreign Affairs Committee. She was educated at Sorbonne University and Cambridge University. She started her career as an academic, teaching at the Universities of Paris and Saigon. Prior to holding her current position, she served for over two decades as a diplomat in Vietnam 's Ministry of Foreign Affairs, specialising in multilateral institutions and global issues. Between 2000 and 2003 she was Vietnam 's Ambassador to Belgium, Luxembourg and Head of the Mission to the European Union in Brussels. She has also served a term on the Central Executive on the Vietnam Women's Union.

Jiahua Pan is Executive Director of the Research Centre for Sustainable Development at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS), and Professor of Economics at CASS graduate school. He obtained his PhD from Cambridge University, UK, in 1992. He worked for the UNDP Beijing Office as a Senior Programme Officer and advisor on environment and development. He also worked as a senior economist for the IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) Working Group III on Mitigation and as co-editor of their Third Assessment Report on Climate Change 2001: Mitigation. He was lead author on sustainable development and mitigation for the Fourth Assessment and was an expert reviewer for UNFCCC on national communications.

Supachai Panitchpakdi is Secretary-General of UNCTAD (United Nations Conference on Trade and Development). He obtained his Master's degree in Econometrics, Development Planning and his PhD in Economic Planning and Development from the Netherlands School of Economics (now known as Erasmus University ) in Rotterdam. He began his professional career at the Bank of Thailand in 1974, before being appointed Deputy Minister of Finance in 1986. He has also served as President of the Thai Military Bank and as Thailand 's Deputy Prime Minister, in which capacity he was entrusted with economic and trade policymaking. In addition, he was appointed Visiting Professor of the International Institute for Management Development in Lausanne in 2001, and Director General of the World Trade Organization in 1999.

Kirit S Parikh is a Member, the Planning Commission, India and Professor Emeritus (Economics) of the Indira Gandhi Institute of Development Research. He holds a first degree in Civil Engineering and a Master's degree in Economics from MIT, USA. He is a Fellow of the National Academy of Sciences, India and Chairman of the Integrated Research and Action for Development (RADe), New Delhi, as well as Chairman of the Integrated Energy Policy Committee. Having served on a number of energy and environmental committees, he is currently a member of the Energy Coordination Committee, of the Committee on Rural Infrastructure, and the Committee for Infrastructure.

Hafiz Pasha is a UN Assistant Secretary-General and UNDP Assistant Administrator, and Director of the Regional Bureau for Asia and the Pacific. He is also Chair of the UNDP Tsunami Task Force which coordinates UNDP's response to the Asian tsunami disaster. He holds an MA from Cambridge University, UK, and a PhD from Stanford University, USA. In Pakistan, he has served as the Federal Minister for Finance and Economic Affairs, Deputy Chairman of the Planning Commission, Education Minister, and Commerce Minister. He has also served as Vice Chancellor/President of the University of Karachi, and Dean and Director of the Institute of Business Administration, Karachi.

Vo Hong Phuc is the Minister of Planning and Investment and Member of the Central Committee of the Vietnamese Communist Party. He was educated at the Hanoi Technical University. He began working for the Department of Industry, State Planning Committee in 1969 and held various posts including Director General and Vice Chairman. In 1995 he was made Vice Minister, Ministry of Planning and Investment and in 1996 he was made Member of Central Committee of Vietnamese Communist Party. He has held his current post since 2002.

M Saifur Rahman is the Minister for Finance and Planning in the Government of Bangladesh. He was educated at the Universities of Dhaka and London. Before entering politics, he was a chartered accountant. He was a member of the National Pay Commission (1969-71 and 1972-73) and the Industrial Workers Wages Commission and the Pay and Employment Commission (1973). He became an Adviser in the Ministry of Finance in 1976 and has previously held the post of Minister for periods during the 1980s and 1990s. He was Chairman of the Board of Governors of the IMF between 1993 and 1994. He was appointed to his current position in 2001.

Klaus Roland is Country Director, Vietnam for the World Bank. He holds a degree in law and public administration, obtained at the Marburg University, Germany. Since joining the World Bank in 1981 he has held a number of key positions within the bank and with the government of Germany. He has been involved in development work in South America, Eastern Europe, Asia and the Pacific, and has advised the German government on its development cooperation policy in various positions in the Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development and the Office of the Federal Chancellor.

Bryan Sanderson is the Chairman of Standard Chartered PLC. He was educated at the London School of Economics and the IMEDE Business School in Lausanne. He spent most of his career with British Petroleum including as Chief Representative for South-East Asia and China, Managing Director and Chief Executive of BP Nutrition Ltd, and Chief Executive Officer of BP Chemicals. In 1992 he was appointed a Managing Director of British Petroleum Co PLC, with Group responsibility for Asia Pacific. He continued as Chief Executive of BP Chemicals until 2000. He joined the Board of Standard Chartered in 2002 as a Non-Executive Director and became Chairman in 2003.

Virnda Sarup is Joint Secretary in the Department of Elementary Education, Ministry of Human Resource Development and Director General of the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) in the Government of India. During her civil service career she has also worked in the Department of Medical and Health of the Government of Uttar Pradesh and her experience in the field includes assignments as District Magistrate, Chief Development Officer and Sub Divisional Magistrate. She worked on elementary education as a Director in the Government of India between 1992 and 1998 and as State Project Director for the District Primary Education Programme (DPEP) and the SSA in Uttar Pradesh for over four years. She has held her current post since 2004.

Surakiart Sathirathai is the Deputy Prime Minister of Thailand. He was educated at Chulalongkorn University, the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, and Harvard University. He has over 20 years experience in academia, government, and business. He has been Chairman of a Thai commercial bank and served terms as Finance Minister and Foreign Minister. He played a pivotal role in establishing the pan-Asia forum, Asia Cooperation Dialogue. He is the Thai and ASEAN candidate for UN Secretary-General when Kofi Annan completes his term at the end of 2006. As Deputy Prime Minister he oversees foreign affairs, education and culture, and is also Acting Minister of Culture.

Shankar Sharma is the Vice Chairman of the National Planning Commission in the Government of Nepal. He was educated at the University of Hawaii. He previously worked as a Fellow at the East-West Centre in Hawaii, Senior Economist in the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies in Singapore, Senior Economic Advisor in the Ministry of Finance, Nepal and as a Member of the National Planning Commission. He has coordinated a number of studies including Nepal 's Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper and Programme of Action. He has also served as a member of the World Energy Council and as an expert for many national and international agencies including the ADB, UNDP, and the World Bank.

Hu Shuli is the founding editor of Caijinge magazine in China. She was educated at the People's University of China and holds an EMBA through a joint programme hosted by Fordham University and the China Center for Economic Research (CCER) in Beijing. She completed a Knight Fellowship at Stanford University in 1995 and a World Press Fellowship in 1987. She started her journalism career as International Editor and Reporter with the Workers Daily and has since worked as International Editor and Chief Reporter with China Business Times (1992-98) and Head of Financial News at Hong Kong based Phoenix TV (2001). She started Caijing Magazine (Business and Finance Review) in April 1998.

Nemat Shafik is the Director General Regional Programmes at the UK Government's Department for International Development (DFID). She was educated at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst, the London School of Economics and Oxford University. Before joining DFID, she was Vice President for Infrastructure at the World Bank. Previous posts held at the World Bank include as Vice President for Private Sector Development, Infrastructure and Guarantees and as Director for Private Sector and Finance in the Middle East and North Africa Region. Whilst working for the World Bank, she served as a non-executive director on DFID's Management Board. She took up her current post in 2004.

Kamal Siddiqui is Principal Secretary to the Prime Minister's Office in the Government of Bangladesh. He was educated at the Universities of Dhaka, Leeds and London (School of Oriental and African Studies). As a career civil servant in Bangladesh for over 30 years, he has worked in various roles beginning at the field level and including serving as Secretary in the Prime Minister's Office between 1991 and 1994. He has also acted as a consultant for numerous organisations including the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and the World Bank. He also served as a Board Member (Alternate Executive Director) at the ADB between 1994 and 1996. He has been in his current post since 2001.

Harsha Vardhana Singh is Secretary cum Principal Advisor of the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI). He completed his Master's degree in Economics at Delhi and then went to the University of Oxford, UK as a Rhodes Scholar, where he obtained his MPhil and PhD in Economics. He worked for 12 years for the GATT/WTO Secretariat, covering diverse areas and responsibilities such as servicing committees in the area of GATT Rules and acting as secretary to dispute settlement panels. In addition to his work with TRAI, he has served as chair of various WTO dispute settlement panels, has been a member of numerous trade advisory committees of the Indian government, and has helped devise India 's foreign trade policy.

Nicholas Stern is Adviser to the UK Government on the Economics of Climate Change and Development, reporting to the Prime Minister. He was educated at the Universities of Cambridge and Oxford. After following a mainly academic career, he became the Chief Economist and Special Counsellor to the President, European Bank for Reconstruction and Development between 1994 and 1999 and the World Bank Chief Economist between 2000 and 2003. He was the Second Permanent Secretary to Her Majesty's Treasury between 2003 and 2005 and Director of Policy and Research for the Prime Minister's Commission for Africa between 2004 and 2005. He is Head of the Stern Review on the Economics of Climate Change.

Anil Terway is Director of the East and Central Asia Energy Division of the Asian Development Bank in Manila. He holds a BSc in Engineering and Electrical Engineering, and an MBA obtained at Ateneo de Manila University. In India, he has held positions at Bokaro Steel Limited, the Bihar State Electricity Board, and at the National Thermal Power Corporation. He has worked in various capacities for the Asian Development Bank in Manila since 1996.

Gareth Thomas is the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for International Development in the UK. He was elected as the Member of Parliament for Harrow West in 1997. Prior to his current appointment, which he has held since 2003, he was working as Parliamentary Private Secretary to the Secretary of State for Education. At the Department for International Development (DFID) he is responsible for a number of areas including Asia , Eastern Europe, Latin America and the Caribbean, Overseas Territories, European Union, Regional Development Banks, and Civil Society and Development Awareness. He is currently Chair of the Co-operative Party.

Kiyohiko Toyama is Vice-Minister (Parliamentary) for Foreign Affairs, Japan. He graduated in law from Soka University, Tokyo and obtained a PhD in Peace Studies from the University of Bradford, Bradford, UK. Having lectured part-time in Japanese Language at the Leeds Metropolitan University, Leeds, UK, he became a Lecturer in Political Science and International Relations at the Miyazaki International College, Japan. He was elected to the House of Councillors in 2001, where he was Director of the Committee on Health, Welfare and Labour. He also served on the Special Committee on Okinawa and Northern Problems and the Special Committee on Humanitarian Reconstruction Support for Iraq and Responses to Armed Attacks. He took up his current position in 2005.

Erna Witoelar is the UN Special Ambassador for the Millennium Development Goals in Asia Pacific. She was educated at the Bandung Institute of Technology and the University of Indonesia. She was the Minister of Human Settlements and Regional Development in Indonesia between 1999 and 2001. She currently serves as chairperson of the Indonesia Biodiversity Foundation (KEHATI) and co-chair of the Partnership for Governance Reform in Indonesia. At the international level, she was the President of Consumers International (1991-1997), a member of the Commission on Developing Countries and Global Changes (1990-1992), and member of the Advisory Committee on Industry and Sustainable Development of the Brundlandt Commission (1985-1986).

Chhieng Yanara is Secretary General of the Council for Development of Cambodia (CDC) and the Cambodia Rehabilitation and Development Board (CRDB), and Deputy Secretary General of CDC. He holds a Master's in Economics, a Master's in Business Management, and a PhD in Economics. He worked initially in the Ministry of Planning, serving as Director General from 1988–1993, since when he has worked for the CDC. His responsibilities have included preparation of policies on poverty alleviation for the World Summit in Copenhagen, formulation of the first Socio-Economic Development Plan, preparation and conduct of bilateral consultation with donors, and preparation of position papers and the Development Cooperation Report for the International Conference for Cambodia.

Xiulan Zhang is Director and Professor at the Institute of Social Development and Public Policy at Beijing Normal University, China. She is also Adjunct Professor at the Institute of Population Studies , East China Normal University and Visiting Assistant Professor at the Institute of Health and Aging at the University of California. She was educated at Beijing Normal University and the University of California, Berkeley. She has acted as a consultant to a range of organisations including the World Bank and the American Legacy Foundation. She is also a Standing Board Member of the China Social Work Association since 2000.