Special Envoy for Sustainable Development, Switzerland

In 2012, the Swiss Federal Council appointed Michael Gerber Ambassador and Special En-voy for Global Sustainable Development, entrusting him to lead Switzerland’s engagement in the international process of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and Financing for Development (Addis Ababa Action Agenda) as lead negotiator.

Prior to his current position, he was Head of SDC’s Policy Division, which he joined in 2009. From 2006 to 2009, he was responsible for the Swiss development programmes in Afghani-stan and Sri Lanka. While serving in this function, he completed the post-graduate Pro-gramme on Developing Countries at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich.

Michael Gerber joined the Swiss Federal Department of Foreign Affairs in 2002, as Head of Communication for SDC’s Domain Bilateral Cooperation and later Programme Manager for Ecuador. Before, he pursued several project assignments in Ecuador, Colombia and Mexico.

Michael Gerber studied Political Philosophy, Ethics, History and Social Anthropology at the University of Bern.

Head of 10YFP Secretariat, Economy Division, UN Environment

Charles Arden-Clarke trained as a zoologist and ecologist and worked for six years in the Political Ecology Research Group in the UK, primarily on the environmental impacts of nuclear power and of conventional and organic farming systems. Between 1990 and 1999 he developed and led WWF International’s Trade and Investment programme. This work focused mainly on the environmental impacts of WTO rules and negotiations, related ISO standards and the proposed Multilateral Agreement on Investment.

He has worked for UNEP since January 2000, initially with the Economics and Trade Branch on the effects of trade liberalisation on the environment and the relationship between WTO rules and multilateral environmental agreements. Since 2004 he has worked at the Economy Division in Paris, and from 2007 onwards on sustainable consumption and production (SCP). He headed the secretariat of the Marrakech Process and is currently Head of the Secretariat of the Ten Year Framework of Programmes on SCP Patterns (the “10YFP”).

Director and founder of Southern Voice

Dr Debapriya Bhattacharya, a macroeconomist and public policy analyst, is a Distinguished Fellow at the Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD) – a globally reputed think-tank in Bangladesh – where he had been earlier its first Executive Director. He was the Ambassador and Permanent Representative of Bangladesh to the WTO, UN Office, and other international organisations in Geneva and Vienna. He was the Special Adviser on LDCs to the Secretary General, UNCTAD. Earlier, he had been a Senior Research Fellow at Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies (BIDS).

He currently chairs two global networks, viz. Southern Voice on Post-MDG International Development Goals – a network of 49 thinks tanks from Africa, Asia and Latin America, serving as an open platform to stimulate and disseminate high-quality evidence-based analyses for discussions on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and related issues; and LDC IV Monitor – a partnership of seven think tanks and international organisations, seeking to contribute to effective implementation of commitments envisaged under the Istanbul Programme of Action (IPoA) for LDCs.

Dr Debapriya is engaged in high-level policy designing and advising for the national government and various bilateral and international development agencies at home and in a number of developing countries. He serves in the boards and working groups of a number of national, regional, and international development organisations and networks (e.g. Governing Board, BRAC International), and in the editorial board of reputed journals (e.g. Oxford Development Studies). His recent edited book is Southern Perspectives on the Post-2015 International Development Agenda, Routledge, London (2017).

He holds a PhD in Economics from Plekhanov National Planning Institute, Moscow and had been a Post-Doctoral Fellow at Queen Elizabeth House, Oxford. He held a number of overseas visiting positions including Senior Fulbright Fellow at the Centre for Global Development (CGD), Washington DC.

Executive Director of UNAIDS

A long-standing champion of a people-centred approach to health and development and a strong advocate for social justice, Michel Sidibé became the second Executive Director of UNAIDS on 1 January 2009. He holds the rank of Under-Secretary-General of the United Nations.

Mr Sidibé’s vision of zero new HIV infections, zero discrimination and zero AID-related deaths has helped drive recent progress in the AIDS response. The goal of having 15 million people living with HIV on antiretroviral therapy by the end of 2015 was achieved nine months ahead of schedule. Access to these life-saving medicines has continued to expand, with 18.2 million people on treatment by mid-2016.

Under his leadership of UNAIDS, more and more countries have adopted a Fast-Track approach through which the achievement of a set of measurable targets by 2020 will set the world on course to end the AIDS epidemic as a public health threat by 2030 within the framework of the Sustainable Development Goals.

Today, a growing number of countries are also adopting the 90–90–90 targets, whereby 90% of people living with HIV know their status, 90% of people who know their status are accessing treatment and 90% of people on treatment have a suppressed viral load.

Mr Sidibé’s leadership in calling for the elimination of new HIV infections among children has contributed to a 60% reduction since 2009 in new paediatric HIV infections in the 21 priority countries of the Global Plan towards the elimination of new HIV infections among children by 2015 and keeping their mothers alive.

His idea of shared responsibility and global solidarity has been embraced by the international community. This has encouraged an increased ownership of their epidemics by the countries most affected, with domestic resources now accounting for 57% of global AIDS spending.

Mr Sidibé’s commitment to advancing global health began in his native Mali, where he worked to improve the health and welfare of the nomadic Tuareg people. He later became Country Director for Terre des Hommes. In 1987, Mr Sidibé joined the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and went on to serve with UNICEF for 14 years, overseeing programmes across 10 francophone African countries and serving as a country representative in a number of countries.

Mr Sidibé’s work has earned him widespread recognition. He has been awarded honorary doctorates from Tuskegee University, Clark University, the University of British Columbia and KwaZulu-Natal University. Since 2007, he has held an honorary professorship at Stellenbosch University. In 2017, he was awarded the Emory President’s Medal in recognition of his work as a “passionate champion for health and humanity.”

In 2012, he was named as one of the 50 most influential Africans by the Africa Report and, in 2009, as one of 50 personalities of the year by the French newspaper Le Monde. He has received the Emerging Leader Award from the United Nations Foundation and the United Nations Association of the United States of America and is a Knight of the National Order of the Legion of Honour of France, an Officer of the National Order of Mali, an Officer of the National Order of Benin and a Chancellor of the National Order of Chad. He has been awarded an Order of Saint-Charles by Monaco.

He holds two post-master’s diplomas––in social planning and demography and development and political economy––from Pascal University, Clermont-Ferrand, France. He also holds a master’s degree in economics.

Mr Sidibé is fluent in English and French and speaks several African languages. He is married and has four children.

Executive Director for Global Policy, United Nations Foundation

Minh-Thu is Executive Director of Global Policy at the United Nations Foundation. She has led UNF's effort to help create the Sustainable Development Goals, the Financing for Development agenda, and their implementation, and has taught international policymaking at Princeton.

Minh-Thu was a strategic planning and policy adviser for Secretary-General Kofi Annan on UN reform and US-UN relations and has worked in Bosnia, Ethiopia, Vietnam on peacebuilding and humanitarian issues.

Minh-Thu serves on the Advisory Council of Princeton’s Woodrow Wilson School, is 92Y Women in Power fellow, a fellow of the Truman National Security Project, and was a Term Member of the Council on Foreign Relations. She holds an MPA in International Relations from Princeton and a BA in History from Duke.