Keynote Speaker 2
January 28, 2006 by admin · Leave a Comment
WILLIAM EASTERLY
Economist & Professor at New York University
William Easterly is Professor of Economics at New York University, joint with Africana Studies, and Co-Director of NYU’s Development Research Institute. He is also a non-resident Fellow of the Center for Global Development in Washington, DC. William Easterly received his Ph.D. in Economics at MIT. He has spent sixteen years as a Research Economist at the World Bank. His work has been discussed in media outlets like National Public Radio, the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, the Economist, and Financial Times.
Easterly’s areas of expertise include the determinants of long-run economic growth and the effectiveness of foreign aid. He has worked in most areas of the developing world, including Mexico, Jamaica, Ghana, the Gambia, Colombia, Thailand, Russia, Kenya, Ethiopia, Bolivia, South Africa, and Pakistan. Easterly is an associate editor of the Quarterly Journal of Economics, the Journal of Economic Growth, and of the Journal of Development Economics.
He is the author of the upcoming book, The White Man’s Burden: Why the West’s Efforts to Aid the Rest Have Done So Much Ill and So Little Good (Penguin 2006), as well as the much acclaimed, The Elusive Quest for Growth: Economists’ Adventures and Misadventures in the Tropics (MIT, 2001).
Keynote Speaker 1
January 28, 2006 by admin · Comments Off
Robert Hart
President and CEO Globeleq
Globeleq President and Chief Executive Officer Robert Hart has more than 30 years experience in the energy sector, much of it devoted to investing in, developing and operating power projects in emerging markets.
Mr. Hart was the driving force behind the formation of Globeleq and has led the company since its beginning in June 2002. Globeleq is an operating power company solely focused on the emerging markets of Africa, the Americas, and Asia. Globeleq safely provides clean, reliable electricity, creating sustainable returns and supporting the development of the electric power sector in the emerging markets.
Prior to joining Globeleq, he founded Hart Energy International, an international power company that invested in Latin America. From 1994 to 1999, Mr. Hart was President and CEO of Coastal Power Company.
He holds an AB degree, magna cum laude, from Harvard University.
Opening Keynote Speaker
January 28, 2006 by admin · Comments Off
ZACKIE ACHMAT
HIV/AIDS Activist in South Africa
Born in Johannesburg, Zackie Achmat was raised in a Muslim community in Cape Town. He started his political life at 14, as one of the leaders of the 1976 anti-apartheid school boycotts. Between 1976 and 1980 he was arrested and detained by the security policy, and tried and imprisoned at some point in each of those years – which prevented him from completing high school.
After his release in 1980 he turned to underground work, revealing a flair for strategizing and tactical application as well as political education. He built a series of NGOs providing educational support to disadvantaged youth, skills training for school leavers and in the health sector. He was active in promoting the ANC at a mass level – from organizing the first open mass ANC funeral in the Western Cape, to publicizing the Freedom Charter in massive meters high murals spray painted onto walls all over Cape Town.
At the same time, Zackie remained critical of the leadership of the ANC, and never compromised his principles for the sake of political position or favor. This characteristic earned him intense loyalty from some, respect from others, often enmity from those in power. Zackie’s political philosophy was based on Marxism. As the events of the early 1990s unfolded he revised his ideas on Marxism and embraced the achievements of the new South African constitution. He realized that the struggle for social justice was going to be much more protracted than the perspective of 1980s suggested. He understood that the “human rights culture” required by the new South African constitution was not something automatic and would have to be fought for.