Amartya Sen is Thomas W. Lamont University Professor, and Professor of Economics and Philosophy, at Harvard University and was until recently the Master of Trinity College, Cambridge. He has served as President of the Econometric Society, the Indian Economic Association, the American Economic Association and the International Economic Association. He was formerly Honorary President of OXFAM and is now its Honorary Advisor. Born in Santiniketan, India, Amartya Sen is an Indian citizen. He was the Drummond Professor of Political Economy at Oxford University, and is a Distinguished Fellow of All Souls.
Amartya Sen’s books have been translated into more than thirty languages, and include Choice of Techniques (1960), Collective Choice and Social Welfare (1970), Choice, Welfare and Measurement (1982), The Standard of Living (1987), Development as Freedom (1999), Identity and Violence: The Illusion of Destiny (2006) and The Idea of Justice (2009). His research has ranged over a number of fields in economics, philosophy, and decision theory, including social choice theory, welfare economics, theory of measurement, development economics, public health, gender studies, moral and political philosophy, and the economics of peace and war.
Among the awards he has received are the “Bharat Ratna” (the highest honour awarded by the President of India); the Senator Giovanni Agnelli International Prize in Ethics; and the Nobel Prize in Economics.
Michèle Duvivier Pierre-Louis was nominated Prime Minister of Haiti in June 2008, only the second woman to hold this position. While Prime Minister, Pierre-Louis also served as Minister of Justice and Public Safety. Upon leaving office in November 2009, Pierre-Louis resumed her activities at the Fondation Connaissance et Liberté – FOKAL, as President. She is now working on special projects related to Haiti’s post earthquake reconstruction efforts.
Since her return to Haiti in 1976 after her studying abroad and obtaining her degree in Economics (cum laude) from Queens College of the City University of New York, she has devoted special attention to improving literacy and adult education, held training sessions for traditional midwives, opened libraries, and made education one of her core projects. She has also served in the private sector as Director of Credit at the Bank of Nova Scotia, Officer of Administration and Human Resources to the Haitian Development Finance Corporation, and Deputy Director of the National Airport Authority.
In 1986 she became a national trainer in the literacy campaign Mission Alpha. In 1991, President Jean-Bertrand Aristide entrusted Michèle Pierre-Louis, as a member of his private cabinet, with the task of redefining the mission of the state and coordination between the Presidency and the Ministries, taking into account the demands of civil society in general and specifically of rural organizations on land management. Directrice depuis 1995 de la Fondasyon Konesans ak Libète (Fondation Connaissance et Liberté – FOKAL) qui défend la position fondamentale que le changement véritable ne peut s’opérer que si ceux qu’il concerne en deviennent les premiers acteurs, elle intervient dans les domaines de l’éducation, de la culture, du développement communautaire, de l’environnement, de l’équité de genre, de la société civile, de la formation de jeunes entrepreneurs.Since 1995 she has created and directed the Fondation Connaissance et Liberté – FOKAL (Knowledge and Freedom Foundation), a member of the Open Society Institute – Soros foundations’ network, which defends the fundamental position that real change can only take place if those concerned become the main actors. The Foundation focuses on the areas of education, culture, community development, environment, gender equity, civil society, and training of young entrepreneurs. From September through December 2010, she is a Resident Fellow at Harvard University/ Kennedy School of Government.
Dr. Ali Cheema is Associate Professor and Head of the Economics Department at the Lahore University of Management Sciences (LUMS). Joining LUMS in 1999 after completing his PhD in Economics from the University of Cambridge, Dr Cheema’s current research interests include; institutional and development economics, rent seeking theory, small firm growth, productivity analysis and industrial economics. His Ph.D. research examines the effect of state-created rents and rent-seeking on the productivity growth performance of Pakistans spinning sector companies during 1981-94. He has recently co- authored an article titled “Technology, Trade and Industrial Policy for Developing Countries: An Institutional, Political & Technological View“, with Dr H. J. Chang of the University of Cambridge, forthcoming in the special issue of Economics of Innovation and New Technology.
Carine Roenen Laroche has joined the staff as the new Director of Fonkoze. She is a medical doctor by training. In Rwanda, where she lived and practiced medicine for 6 years, she became interested in managing health services and programs. This experience led her to obtaining a Masters Degree in Public Health in her hometown, Antwerp, Belgium, in 1995. She arrived in Haiti that same year and has been working with and leading multidisciplinary teams to develop and implement development programs since, first with Medecins Sans Frontieres, (Doctors Without Borders) then with the Belgian Bilateral Cooperation. For the last nine years Carine has served with Concern Worldwide, an international humanitarian organization working to alleviate suffering and eliminate poverty, and one of Fonkoze’s numerous partners in Haiti.
Dr. Dilip Ratha is a Lead Economist and the Manager of the Migration and Remittances Unit at the World Bank. He acts as a focal point for the Bank’s activities and international partnerships on migration and development. Mr. Ratha also leads the “Migrating Out of Poverty” research consortium, a multi-disciplinary collaboration among 6 universities and research institutions in Africa, Asia and Europe. He has advised many governments and international forums including the Global Forum on Migration and Development, the Global Remittances Working Group, and World Economic Forum Global Agenda Council on migration. His expertise includes migration, remittances, and innovative financing. Prior to joining the World Bank, he worked as a regional economist for Asia at Credit Agricole Indosuez, Singapore; an assistant professor of economics at the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad; and an economist at the Policy Group, New Delhi. He has a Ph.D. in economics from the Indian Statistical Institute, New Delhi.
Dr. Eduardo Valencia-Ospina is the United Nations International Law Commission Special Rapporteur on the Protection of Persons in the Event of Disasters. In this position, he leads an effort to draft articles codifying customary international law on obligations of states regarding the protection of individuals in natural and other disaster situations. He has served at the United Nations since 1964. He was elected Registrar of the International Court of Justice with the rank of Assistant Secretary-General of the United Nations and served on the Court from 1984-2000. Dr. Valencia-Ospina holds a Doctorate of Juridical Sciences and a Doctorate of Economic Sciences from the Pontificia Universidad Javeriana in Bogotá, Colombia and an LL.M. from Harvard Law School.
Dr. Vivienne O’Connor is a Senior Rule of Law Advisor at the US Institute of Peace. She directs the International Network to Promote the Rule of Law, a rule of law community of practice. She also is the course lead for the Rule of Law Practitioners Course, as part of USIP’s Academy for International Conflict Management and Peacebuilding. In addition, she co-directs the Model Codes for Post-Conflict Criminal Justice Project, which provides practical tools for states reforming their criminal laws. As part of this, she has provided technical support to law reform processes in Haiti, Liberia and Afghanistan. Dr. O’Connor has a law degree from the University College Dublin, as well as a Master’s degree and a Ph.D. Degree in Law from the National University of Ireland, Galway.
Dr. Erica Harper is Senior Rule of Law Adviser of the Research, Policy and Strategic Initiatives at the International Development Law Organization (IDLO), where she manages a portfolio of legal empowerment projects in the areas of customary justice, rural tenure security and the legal protection of girls. She initially served as IDLO’s Chief of Party of the Post-Tsunami Legal Assistance Initiative for Indonesia. Additionally, she chairs the United Nations Global Protection Cluster Taskforce on Natural Disasters. Previously, Dr. Harper was the Director of the Institute for Post-Conflict and Development Law in Geneva. She also worked as a protection officer at the UN High Commissioner for Refugees in Geneva, Timor Leste, and the Philippines.
Dr. Harper holds a Doctorate in Post Conflict Judicial Rehabilitation from the University of Melbourne, Australia and a Bachelor of Commerce and Bachelor of Laws from Macquarie University, Australia.
Dr. Kala Mulqueeny is a 2010 Yale World Fellow and a Senior Counsel in the Office of General Counsel (OGC) at the Asian Development Bank (ADB). At ADB, Dr. Mulqueeny is the primary counsel responsible for regulatory work relating to the environment, and energy and climate change. Dr. Mulqueeny also leads work on forging an Asian Judges and the Environment Network, supported by senior judiciary and chief justices, which includes a program to strengthen the capacity of Asian judiciaries to decide environmental cases. In Sri Lanka, she oversees a post-tsunami legal empowerment and access to justice project, which has directly helped about 60,000 people. She has an S.J.D. from Harvard Law School, and until returning to the United States, was a Professorial Lecturer (adjunct professor equivalent) at the University of the Philippines.
Ina Ganguli is aDoctoral Fellow at Harvard’s Center for International Development and a Ph.D. Candidate in Public Policy at the Harvard Kennedy School. Her research areas are labor economics, economic history and international development, with a focus on immigration, education, innovation, and gender issues. She was previously an Embassy Policy Specialist in Tajikistan, a Fulbright Scholar in Ukraine and a Bundestag International Parliamentary Program Fellow in Germany. Ina holds a Masters in Public Policy from the University of Michigan and a Bachelor of Arts in Mathematical Methods in the Social Sciences from Northwestern University.
Ermal Frasheri is a S.J.D. Candidateat Harvard Law School, where he works in the areas of law and development, international economic law, democratic theories, and European integration. He has written on legal reform and comparative law, European Union law, and is currently completing his dissertation on the relationship between regional integration and development strategies. Mr. Frasheri has been a teaching fellow in Harvard College on social studies, democracy, European integration, and comparative politics. He is also an adjunct professor of EU Law at New England Law School. Mr. Frasheri has worked on development and rule of law projects in Albania, Nepal, Thailand, and France. Prior to coming to Harvard, Ermal was a Fulbright Scholar in Washington D.C.
Questions? Email lids@mail.law.harvard.edu.