Vice President of Economic and Social Council, on the messages from ECOSOC Integration Segment

H.E. Ambassador Valentin Rybakov has served as Deputy Minister for Foreign Affairs of Belarus since 2013, prior to which he was Assistant to the President from 2006 to 2013. From 2005 to 2006 he headed the Ministry’s American Division (2005) and from 2003 to 2005 he served as Counsellor/Minister Counsellor in the Embassy of Belarus in the United States.

He has also worked with his country’s Permanent Mission to the United Nations, serving as Counsellor from 2001 to 2003.

Having joined the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Belarus in 1993, Mr. Rybakov is a graduate of the Minsk State Pedagogical Institute for Foreign Languages.

Born in 1958 in Tomsk, Russian Federation, Mr. Rybakov has one son.

Constitutional Court of South Africa

Edwin Cameron was born on 15 February 1953 in Pretoria. He completed his schooling at Pretoria Boys’ High School and thanks to an Anglo-American Corporation Open Scholarship award; Cameron was able to attend Stellenbosch University. At Stellenbosch, Cameron acquired a BA Law degree, and an Honours degree in Latin – both cum laude.

Cameron was a lecturer in Latin and Classical Studies before he left for Oxford in 1976, on a coveted Rhodes scholarship. At Oxford, he obtained a BA in Jurisprudence with first class honours, the Jurisprudence Prize, BCL with first class honours and the Vinerian Scholarship. Cameron later attained his LLB from the University of South Africa cum laude, and was awarded the Johannes Voet Medallion for Best Law Graduate.

Cameron began practice as a lawyer at the Johannesburg Bar in 1983, and from 1986 conducted a human rights practice from the University of the Witwatersrand’s Centre for Applied Legal Studies (CALS). In 1989, he was awarded a personal professorship in law.

His practice was mainly concerned with labour and employment law, and therefore Cameron defended African National Congress (ANC) activists who had been charged with treason. He also took on cases of conscientious and religious objection, land tenure and forced removals and gay and lesbian equality. From 1988 he advised the National Union of Mineworkers on AIDS/HIV, and helped to draft and negotiate the first comprehensive AIDS agreement with the Chamber of Mines.

While at CALS, he drafted the Charter of Rights on AIDS and HIV, and co-founded the AIDS Consortium (a national association of non-governmental organizations). He chaired this association for the first three years of its existence, and became the first director of the AIDS Law Project.

Cameron was also instrumental in the gay and lesbian movement’s submissions to the Kempton Park negotiating process, during the course of which he gave his inaugural lecture at the University of the Witwatersrand, entitled "Sexual Orientation and the Constitution: A Test Case for Human Rights". This lecture, along with other work, was influential in securing the inclusion of sexual orientation in the South African Constitution.

In October 1994, he was appointed Acting judge of the High Court and chair of a Commission to investigate illegal arms transactions by President Mandela. He was then appointed on a permanent basis to the High Court from 1 January 1995. In 1999/2000 he served as an Acting Justice at the Constitutional Court and in 2000 was chosen as a Judge of Appeal in the Supreme Court of Appeal.

Cameron has also been involved in other community related activities, which include the following:

• Chair of the governing Council of the University of the Witwatersrand since 1998
• Patron of the Guild Cottage Children’s Home
• Patron of the Sparrow’s Nest Hospice
• Patron of the Community AIDS Response (CARE)
• Patron of Soweto HIV/AIDS Counsellors’ Association (SOHACA)
• Co-founder of Wits Law School Endowment Appeal and first chairman (1998-2005)
• Assistant General Secretary, Rhodes Trust in Southern Africa (1980-1992)
• General Secretary, Rhodes Trust in Southern Africa since 2003

On an international scale, Cameron has been a keynote speaker at the XII International Conference on HIV/AIDS in Durban, and was invited to deliver an inaugural lecture for British Academy, United Kingdom

A list of Cameron’s Honours and Awards include:

• Nelson Mandela Award for Health and Human Rights
• Transnet’s HIV/AIDS Champions Award
• University of Stellenbosch - Alumnus Award
• Special award by the Bar of England and Wales for ‘contribution to international jurisprudence and protection of human rights’
• San Francisco AIDS Foundation’s Excellence in Leadership Award
• ‘Witness to AIDS’ jointly awarded Sunday Times/Alan Paton Prize (South Africa’s premier literary award for non-fiction)
• Honorary Fellow of the Society for Advanced Legal Studies in London

Cameron is also an accomplished author. He has written scholarly articles on the judiciary, labour and employment law, as well the law of trusts, AIDS and HIV, the legal rights of gays and lesbians and the legal computation of time.

FAO Chief Economist

Mr. Maximo Torero Cullen is the Chief Economist of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). He joined the Organization in January 2019 as Assistant Director-General for the Economic and Social Development Department. Prior to joining FAO, he was the World Bank Group Executive Director for Argentina, Bolivia, Chile Paraguay, Peru and Uruguay since November 2016 and before the Bank Mr. Torero led the Division of the Markets, Trade, and Institutions at the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI). His major research work lies mostly in analyzing poverty, inequality, importance of geography and assets (private or public) in explaining poverty, and in policies oriented towards poverty alleviation based on the role played by infrastructure, institutions, and on how technological breakthroughs (or discontinuities) can improve the welfare of households and small farmers. His experience encompasses Latin America, Sub-Saharan Africa, and Asia.

Mr. Torero, a national of Peru, holds a Ph.D. and a Master’s degree in Economics from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), and a Bachelor’s degree in Economics from the University of the Pacific, Lima, Peru. He is a professor on leave at the University of the Pacific, Perú, and an Alexander von Humboldt Fellow at University of Bonn, Germany, and has also published in top journals (QJE, Econometric Theory, AER-Applied Microeconomics, RSTAT, Labor Economics and many other top journals).

Mr. Torero has received in 2000 the Georg Foster Research Fellowship of the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, won the Award for Outstanding Research on Development given by the Global Development Network, twice, in 2000 and in 2002, and received the Chevalier de l'Ordre du Mérite Agricole in 2014.

Dean of the Graduate School of Ewha Womans University, Korea

Professor Eun Mee Kim is Dean of The Graduate School, Professor in the Graduate School of International Studies, Director of the Institute for Development and Human Security and Director of the Ewha Global Health Institute for Girls at Ewha Womans University. She is also an Honorary Professor at International Institute of Korean Studies in University of Central Lancashire. She served as President of the Korea Association of International Development and Cooperation (2011, 2012). She has served as a member on the Committee for International Development Cooperation under the Prime Minister’s Office, the Policy Advisory Committee in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and the Policy Advisory Committee in the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family. In 2012, she received the Service Merit Medal from the Republic of Korea for her contributions to the Fourth High-Level Forum on Aid Effectiveness in Busan. In 2013, she received the first research grant to a university in South Korea from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation on her research project entitled, “Advocacy for Korean Engagement in Global Health and Development.” In 2016, she received a second grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation for a project entitled, “Korea Global Health Strategy.” In December 2016 she was appointed by the UN as one of 15 scientists in the world to work on the Global Sustainable Development Report 2019.

• Research interests: Economic development of South Korea and East Asian countries, International development cooperation, Globalization, Multiculturalism.

• Major Publications:

  • Human Security and Cross-Border Cooperation in East Asia (Co-edited with Carolina G. Hernandez, Yoichi Mine, and Ren Xiao, 2018)

  • Promoting Development: The Political Economy of East Asian Foreign Aid (with Barbara Stallings, 2017)

  • The South Korean Development Experience: Beyond Aid (Co-edited with Pil Ho Kim, 2014)

  • Adapt, Fragment, Transform: Corporate Restructuring and System Reform in South Korea (Co-edited with Byung-Kook Kim and Jean Oi, 2012)

  • The Sociology of the Economic Crisis: Transformation of the Developmental State and Business Group Networks (with Dukjin Chang and Mark Granovetter , 2005)

  • The Four Asian Tigers: Economic Development and the Global Political Economy Development (edited, 1998)

  • Big Business, Strong State: Collusion and Conflict in South Korean Development (1997)

Secretary General, International Federation on Ageing (IFA)

Jane M Barratt, Ph.D. is the Secretary General, International Federation on Ageing (IFA) an international non-government organisation with general consultative status with the United Nations and its agencies including formal relations with the World Health Organisation (WHO).

Representing over 75 million older people through the membership of the IFA, Jane has direct responsibility for the corporation’s global operational performance, quality and strategic implementation, and business development. This includes leadership at the United Nations Economic and Social Council in New York, Geneva and Vienna and the WHO.

Jane is a Winston Churchill Fellow and recipient of the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal in Canada in recognition of her commitment and passion to enhance the understanding of issues relating to ageing and engaging in dialogue with governments and the private sector to improve the quality of life of older people.

Among her many current positions Jane is a Member, Vision Academy, Director, Baycrest Health Sciences and Chair, Education Advisory Committee, Associate Scientist, Sinai Health System, Member, Global Committee, DR Barometer Program, Member, International Council for Adult Immunisation and Task, and CSO Representative, WHO COVAX Pillar “vaccine strategy” and Member of the European Interdisciplinary Council on Ageing Assembly.

Lecturer in Public Policy, Harvard Kennedy School and Co-Founder, Internationla Coordinator Emeritus and Senior Advisor, Globalizing and Organizing (WIEGO) Network

Martha (Marty) Chen is a Lecturer in Public Policy at the Harvard Kennedy School, an Affiliated Professor at the Harvard Graduate School of Design, and Senior Advisor of the global research-policy-action network Women in Informal Employment: Globalizing and Organizing (WIEGO). An experienced development practitioner and scholar, her areas of specialization are employment, gender and poverty with a focus on the working poor in the informal economy. Before joining Harvard in 1987, she had two decades of resident field experience in South Asia: in Bangladesh in the 1970s, working with BRAC, an NGO which has gained world-wide scope and reputation: and in India in the 1980s, where she served as field representative of Oxfam America. In both capacities, she worked closely with working poor women in both villages and urban settlements to promote their economic empowerment. She co-founded and led the WIEGO Network for twenty years. Today, WIEGO is well known worldwide for its work to improve the status of the working poor in the informal economy through stronger organizations, improved statistics and research and a more favorable policy environment. The networks of informal workers in the WIEGO Network have more than 1000 affiliates in 90 countries: www.wiego.org. Dr. Chen received a PhD in South Asia Regional Studies from the University of Pennsylvania. She was awarded a high civilian award, the Padma Shri, by the Government of India in April 2011; and a Friends of Bangladesh Liberation War award by the Government of Bangladesh in December 2012.

Executive Director, Fiji Women’s Rights Movement (MGoS)

Nalini Singh, from Fiji, is a feminist and a social development specialist with over 17 years’ experience in design, implementation, management, monitoring and evaluation of women’s rights and development programmes in Asia Pacific. Her particular interests are in the issues of women’s sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR), decent work and organisational capacity strengthening.

Nalini is presently the Executive Director of the Fiji Women's Rights Movement (FWRM- www.org.fj). Prior to joining FWRM over two years ago, Nalini worked as the Programme Manager- Advocacy and Capacity Building for the Asian Pacific Resource and Research Centre for Women (ARROW- www.arrow.org.my) based in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia for 7 years. And before this she was a Programme Officer at the Asia Pacific Forum on Women, Law and Development (APWLD- www.apwld.org) based in Chaing Mai, Thailand for 5 years. Nalini is a graduate of the University of the South Pacific with a Bachelor of Arts.

In other roles, Nalini is also a Steering Committee member and current Chair of the Fiji Women’s Fund (www.fijiwomensfund.org); the National Gender Adviser, Asian Development Bank Technical Assistance Project 9348-REG: Strengthening Women’s Resilience to Climate Change and Disaster Risk in Fiji; Regional Council member of Asia Pacific Forum for Women, Law and Development; Board member of International Women’s Rights Action Watch Asia Pacific (www.iwraw-ap.org) ; and the International Advisor- Women’s Rights to LOOM Nepal (a Nepali young women’s NGO).

With her work on women’s rights, Nalini has been involved in monitoring the MDGs and advocating for the advancement of gender equality through the various goals. As the focus shifted to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), Nalini followed closely the processes through the over year –long Open Working Group processes. She participated in online meetings, selection processes for speakers for the formal dialogues and attended many meetings in Asia Pacific and internationally advocating for the inclusion of meaningful targets and indicators; meaningful engagement of governments and greater focus on accountability to the people. Nalini also has participated in the High Level Political Forum and in the 2017 session she was invited to be a discussant at the High Level Panel on Gender Equality. Back at home in Fiji, Nalini is monitoring how her government is delivering on the SDGs with a particular focus on how the national development agenda is delivering for women and young women and leaving no one behind.

Director, NYU Center on International Cooperation

Sarah F. Cliffe is currently the director of New York University’s Center on International Cooperation. Prior to that, she was the Special Representative for the World Bank’s World Development Report on Conflict, Security and Development, and the Special Adviser and Assistant Secretary-General of Civilian Capacities to the United Nations.

Ms. Cliffe has worked for the last twenty years in countries emerging from conflict and political transition, including Afghanistan, Burundi, Central African Republic, Democratic Republic of Congo, Guinea Bissau, Ethiopia, Haiti, Indonesia, Liberia, Mali, Rwanda, South Sudan, South Africa, Somalia, and Timor-Leste. At the World Bank, her work has covered post-conflict reconstruction, community driven development, and civil service reform. Ms. Cliffe was the chief of mission for the Bank’s program in Timor-Leste from 1999 to 2002; led the Bank’s Fragile and Conflict-Affected Countries Group from 2002-2007; and was the Director of Strategy and Operations for the East Asia and Pacific Region from 2007-2009.

Ms. Cliffe has also worked for the United Nations Development Programme in Rwanda, the Government of South Africa, and the Congress of South African Trade Unions, as well as for a major management consultancy company in the United Kingdom on public sector reform issues.

Ms. Cliffe has a Bachelor’s degree in history from Cambridge University and a Master’s degree in international relations and international economic policy from Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs.