arab governance week · web viewin 1995, he was awarded the ali & othman hafiz award for best...

ARAB GOVERNANCE WEEKCAIRO 26-29 NOVEMBER 2012

MODERATORS AND SPEAKERS BIOS

Mr. Mohammad Abu-Harthieh is working with the Universal Periodic Review and its one of the drafters and a focal point in the Rule of Law, Equality and Non-Discrimination Branch in the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (UN-OHCHR) in Geneva. He worked previously as a human rights lawyer in the Rule of Law & Democracy Section in OHCHR, he was in charge of the Office mandate on security policies and human rights, in particular human rights and counter-terrorism, between 2007-2009. From 2003-2005, Mr. Abu-Harthieh worked as a Human Rights Analyst in the OHCHR – Occupied Palestinian Territory Office. He then joined until the end of 2007 the OHCHR-Nepal Office, in charge with Capacity Building, Training and Best Practices and led a series of Human Rights based training courses for the Army, law enforcement officials, NGOs, the National Human Rights Commission, legal practitioners and the Judiciary. He is a is a Palestinian lawyer and Harthieh holds two Bachelor degrees in Law and in Business Administration and an LLM in International Human Rights and Humanitarian Law

Tan Sri Hasmy Agam is the Chairman of the Human Rights Commission of Malaysia (SUHAKAM). He was a career diplomat, having joined the Malaysian Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 1968 after graduating from the University of Malaya with a degree of BA (Honours) in English. He obtained his MA in International Relations in 1981 from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, Tufts University, Massachusetts, USA. He had served in Malaysian Embassies in Saigon (South Vietnam), Washington DC, Hanoi and London, and later as Ambassador to Libya (with concurrent accreditation to Malta) and as Ambassador to France (and concurrently to Portugal). He had served twice at the Malaysian Permanent Mission to the United Nations in New York and twice in the UN Security Council during Malaysia's membership of the UNSC in 1989-90 and later in 1999-2000, serving twice as President of the Council during Malaysia’s term on the UNSC from 1999-2000.

ARAB GOVERNANCE WEEKCAIRO, 26-29 NOVEMBER 2012

Ms. Alia Al-Dalli is the Manager of the UNDP Regional Center in Cairo. She holds an MSc in Agricultural Economics, University of London and a BSc in Psychology, Brunel University. Before joining UNDP in 2002, Alia worked for the European private sector as Business Development Manager where she was responsible for putting together consortia of firms and experts and prepared project proposals for funding from major donors in the natural resources sector for implementation in developing countries in Africa, Eastern Europe and central Asia. She has long term experience with the international NGO sector as well as government and intergovernmental agencies internationally. Previous postings include Chief of SURF for the Arab States and Cluster Coordinator of Governance & Human Development in the Iraq Programme where she raised over US$ 70 million for local area development programmes which are ongoing, and most recently as RR a.i. and DRR of UNDP, Morocco.

Mr. Zuhair Al-Jezairy was born in 1945 in Najef, Iraq and got a Degree in German literature at Baghdad University. He is currently Editor in Chief of the independent Iraqi news agency Aswat Al Iraq (Voices of Iraq). Previously, he was Editor in Chief of the daily Iraqi newspaper AL Mada. He covered the Lebanese Civil war, the Israeli- Arab war in 1973, Western Sahara, the Iraqi-Iranian war and the Kurdish war with the Iraqi Army. He was also TV producer for the Associated Press Television News London between 1994 and 2001. He has written 15 books, including 7 novels and stories collections; and is the director and scriptwriter of 7 television documentary films.

Mr. Marwan Abi Samra joined the UNDP as a social policy and civil society advisor in June 2010 bringing with him over 25 years of experience in academia, and action-oriented research and interventions related to institutional, social and community-based development. Marwan started his career working in academia and research, and was heavily involved in development projects for municipalities and governmental entities with a focus on social, economic and urban integration of the youth and vulnerable populations. Since joining the UNDP Regional Center in Cairo, Marwan has been providing technical and analytical support to UN country teams and COs in defining and prioritizing their responses to social and political development-challenges. In particular, he has been providing support to country teams in the process of formulating their UNDAFs, by promoting an integrated approach to social policy and interaction with civil society.

Ayman Al-Sayyad is currently one of the Senior Advisors to the 1st elected Egyptian President. He is also Editor-in-Chief of "Weghat Nazar" Magazine - a leading intellectual publication in the Arab world - for which he had served as the Managing Editor since 2000. Prior to that, he served as the Regional Managing Editor and Cairo-Bureau Chief of the Pan-Arab, London-based weekly magazine “Al-Majalla,” between 1991 and 1998, after having worked as its Cairo correspondent since the beginning of his journalistic career in 1983. In 1995, he was awarded The Ali & Othman Hafiz Award for Best Story

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in the Arab Press. He is one of the founders of "The Heikal Foundation for Arab Journalism"— a public service trust fund dedicated to the development of the profession established by Mohamed Hassanin Heikal, the most prominent Arab journalist and political analyst in recent decades. Mr. Al-Sayyad has served as an Executive Consultant of the Foundation since its establishment.

Ms. Elham Alshejni is the director of the Arab League Human Rights Department. She joined the League of Arab States in 1991 and holds a Masters in Public Administration from the American University of Cairo. She worked in several departments at the League and was a member of Cabinet of the former Secretary General, Amre Moussa, handling the UN, disarmament and regional security portfolios. She was appointed Director of Human Rights in October 2009 and participated in a number of fact finding missions in Sudan, Gaza, Bahrain and Syria.

Mr. Fateh Azzam holds an LLM in International Human Rights Law from the University of Essex. From 2006 until June of 2012, he was Regional Representative for the Middle East, Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights. Previously, he was Director of the Forced Migration and Refugee Studies Program at the American University in Cairo (2003-2006); Program Officer for Human Rights at the Ford Foundation’s Offices in Lagos and Cairo (1996-2003); and Director of the Palestinian human rights organization Al-Haq (1987-1995). He led the process of establishing the Arab Human Rights Fund, currently serving as Chairman of its Board of Directors. He has authored many articles on human rights, which appeared in Human Rights Quarterly, Nordic Journal of International Law, Arab Journal for Human Rights and Sur International Journal on Human Rights. Fateh Azzam also has worked as a theater performer, choreographer and teacher (1970-1987), and is the author of two plays, Ansar, and Baggage.

Mr. Hossam Bahgat is the founder and director of the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights (EIPR), a Cairo-based independent organization defending human rights in Egypt. Since 2002, the EIPR has used research, advocacy and litigation to promote and defend the rights to privacy, religious freedom, health, and bodily integrity. Since the 2011 revolution that ended the rule of Mubarak, the EIPR has expanded its scope of work to include transitional justice, the protection of civil liberties and political rights, the promotion of economic and social justice and reform of the criminal justice system. With training in political science and international human rights law, Bahgat is also a Board member of the International Network for Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ESCR-Net), and a member of the Board of Directors of the Fund for Global Human Rights. In 2010 Bahgat received Human Rights Watch’s Allison Des Forges Award for Extraordinary Activism.

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Ms. Dalia Bayoumi is currently the Senior Officer for Development Planning and M&E at the Social Contract Centre (SCC) which provides programmatic and policy evidence-based advice to Government of Egypt (GOE). Ms. Bayoumi has fourteen years work experience in Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) and Management for donor-funded programs in Egypt. She carries sound experience in designing, developing and implementing monitoring and evaluation systems, conducting program evaluations and refining results framework indicators, and developing best practices and sector studies. She has an MA in Anthropology of Media from University of London’s School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), an MA in Development Studies and a BA in Economics from the American University in Cairo. Ms. Bayoumi is a founding member of the MENA Evaluators Network and the Egyptian Society for Evaluators and a board member of the Egyptian Research and Evaluation Network.

Mr. Ibrahim Bisharat is a Capacity Building Manager and Trainer with extensive experience in results based management of development, relief, civil society, rule of law, local government, good governance and democracy driven programs. He has over 15 years of experience in managing, overseeing and implementing UNDP, USAID, Department of State and EU democracy, development and humanitarian projects. Key skills entail program design, management, analysis, implementation and monitoring and evaluation of CSOs funded projects. Mr. Bisharat has an outstanding experience in promoting the role of civil society in policy making and conflict management and resolution. He is a researcher on human rights, citizenship and policy making, and has developed extra curriculum manuals and guidebooks in human rights education for Amnesty International, respect for rule of law for school children and youth developed for USAID, conflict management and peace building for youth developed for MEND.

Dr. Neila Chaabane is an academic Professor of public law at the Faculty of juridical, political and social sciences, University of Carthage, Tunis; Director of department of public law. Member of the National Commission of investigation on corruption and embezzlement, and the National anti-corruption Instance, Treasurer of the International Academy on constitutional Law and of the Tunisian Association on constitutional law.

Dr. Ali Dabbas holds a PhD in Constitutional Law and is currently working as Freedoms and Rights Commissioner for the National Center for Human Rights in Jordan. He has been working in the field of human rights and electoral processes for over 10 years, and has during this time authored several books and research papers.

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Mr. Khaled Dawoud recently joined EIPR as Advocacy Director (Sept 2012-) He also works Assistant Editor in-Chief of Al-Ahram Weekly newspaper, opinion writer at Al-Tahrir newspaper and analyst for Arab and international television channels on local and Arab affairs. Between 2002 and 2006, Dawoud worked as Bureau Chief of Egypt’s largest daily, Al-Ahram, in Washington, DC. In 2006, he joined Al-Jazeera Arabic, and worked as its Correspondent at the United Nations, New York. He returned to Egypt and rejoined Al-Ahram after the 25th January Revolution, 2011. Before leaving to the United States in 2002, Dawoud covered local and regional news, with special interest in political Islamic groups and human rights issues. He worked for international news agencies such as Reuters and AP, and free-lanced for The Guardian and the BBC between 1997 and 2002.

Ms. Iryna Fedorovych has been working in NGOs and IO since 2004, in particular Amnesty International in Ukraine from 2005 to 2008 and “No Borders” Project (Social Action Centre) since 2008 till now. She is an active member of the informal CSOs Coalition on UPR and Anti-discrimination Coalition of CSOs in Ukraine. One of the authors of the CSO submission on discrimination in Ukraine within the second cycle of Universal Periodic Review of Ukraine in 2012. Sphere of professional interests include human rights, anti-discrimination (refugee rights, hate crime and hate speech monitoring and prevention) and human rights education.

Mr. Mohamed El Ghannam is currently working for UNDP Somalia as Programme Manager for Governance and RoL. Previous to his post with UNDP Somalia, He worked as senior programme advisor for Rule of law and judicial reform for UNDP offices in Iraq and Libya. He also worked with the Office of Constitutional Support in the United Nations Assistance Mission to Iraq (UNAMI) on reviewing the Iraqi Constitution and drafting the constitutionally mandated legislations. Before being seconded to the UN, El Ghannam worked as a judge for the Egyptian Judiciary, a former senior prosecutor, and police officer. El Ghannam is a graduate of college of Political Science with a Master’s degree in International Human Rights Law from the American University of Cairo. He has also received an LL.M. in International Legal Studies, concentrating on International Protection of Human Rights while receiving a full award of Hubert H. Humphrey Fellowship Program at the American University, Washington College of Law.

Mr. Malek Guetat holds a BSc in Experimental Sciences from the Faculty of Medicine of Tunis, and is currently working as a physician. Mr. Guetat participated in the organization of the participatory civil constitution project ‘To Write our Constitution’ in Tunisia, the first initiative of its kind. He is active in culture and civil society, and is a spokesman for the Charter of 20 March for Democracy and Development, and a member of the OpenGovTn Group. He is a founding member of the Move! Human Development Association.

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Dr. Mahjoub El Haiba is a Professor of Higher Education at the Faculty of Law of the University Hassan II Ain Chock, Casablanca. Mr. El Haiba is a consultant in the areas of human and environmental rights, and is the founding member of the Moroccan Organization for Human Rights, the Arab Network for Environment and Development. He is a former member and President of the Arab Environment Price, and has also served as a member of the jury of the Prix Hassan II Environment. Mr El Haiba is the former Vice Dean of the Faculty of Law of Casablanca (1997-2000), the former member and Secretary General of the Consultative Council on Human Rights (December 2002-July 2005 - March 2011), a former member of the Equity and Reconciliation Commission, and is currently serving as the Interministerial Delegate for Human Rights.

Dr. Abdellah Herzenni is a member of the National Human Development Observatory in Morocco, and is also the President of the Local Development Association in Rabat. Dr. Herzenni is a professor of Rural Sociology, and has been responsible for water management and sociological and institutional studies on irrigated areas. His professional interests are local and global governance, and he has extensive experience in managing rural local projects of development and assessing development projects, primarily from Morocco, Burkina Faso, Gabon and Haiti.

Mr. George Hodge has been working in the development sector since 2002. For the past four years he has been with UNDP in Kosovo and Armenia. He's passionate about self-organization, co-creation and getting beyond the "usual suspects". Youth and technology, consequently, play a large role in the projects he develops.

Mr. Paul van Hoof has been working as a professional in the field of decentralization and local governance in Africa for more than 20 years. His core competencies are: governance and service delivery assessment (both sectoral and local); strategic planning for local government; organisational assessment and change process facilitation. Presently, Paul is attached to Idasa, the Institute of Democracy in Southern Africa, working in four countries simultaneously, promoting democratic local governance and providing capacity development support to municipalities committed to improving their service delivery and governance performance. In addition, he provides backstopping support to UNDP regarding the design and implementation of governance assessments in Jordan, Egypt and Liberia.

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Dr. Yasmin M. Khodary has since 2003 been working on development project in areas of education, environment and democracy. In late 2010, Yasmin started her work as the Governance Program Coordinator and the Governance in Education specialist in the Social Contract Center (SCC) in Egypt. She and her young team in SCC have been involved in preparing the first governance assessments in Egypt for three lively sectors: education, health and water and sanitation. Their pioneering work in the field of governance assessments has encouraged the Ministry of Local Development to get involved in similar assessments to three other local development sectors in Egypt. Yasmin also highly contributed to SCC winning the Democratic Governance Thematic Trust Fund (DGTTF) for the past two years consecutively. Yasmin received her MA from the American University in Cairo and earned later two PhDs in Development from the American University of London and in International Relations from Cairo University.

Mr. Kishan Khoday has been with UNDP since 1997, as UNDP Governance Advisor and Deputy Programme Coordinator in Indonesia (1997-2005), UNDP Assistant Representative in China (2005-2009) and UNDP Deputy Representative in Saudi Arabia (2009-ongoing). Kishan holds a Juris Doctor in Law, and has focused on issues of social accountability throughout his career. This began in Indonesia where he led initial law reform and human rights programming during Indonesia’s post-autocracy transition to becoming the world’s third largest democracy. He has published widely on related topics with his latest UN publication in 2012 entitled ‘Development as Freedom in the Arab Revolution’. He also served as a contributor to the UNDP Arab Development Challenges Report (2011) and the UNDP Strategy of Transformational Change in the Arab Region (2011).

Dr. Nina Kolybashkina has been working in the field of international development for the past twelve years either professionally or academically. Prior to joining the UNDP Regional Center in Cairo, she was an ARR (P) in Turkmenistan, providing technical backstopping for the activities in local governance and poverty reduction portfolios, as well as taking part in the overall programme management. Prior to joining UNDP Nina has worked as a free-lance consultant, with focus on evaluation, and served as UNV in Kosovo. While studying for her PhD, she has also lectured at Brunel University in UK and ILO Training Center in Italy. She has also been actively engaged in the work of several NGOs, as well as research on civil society. Nina has a PhD from the Department of Social Policy at University of Oxford.

Ms. Carmen Malena is a political scientist with special interest inthe areas of civil society, social accountability and participatory governance. She has 20+ years’ experience as a development practitioner, researcher, writer, trainer and facilitator. Carmen has worked in more than 20 countries across the developing world and has authored and edited numerous publications including Demanding Good Governance: Lessons from Social Accountability Initiatives in Africa (World Bank, 2010) and From Political Won’t to Political Will: Building Support for Participatory Governance

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(Kumarian, 2009). Carmen is former director of the CIVICUS Participatory Governance Program. She has held positions at the World Bank and African Development Bank and worked for a range of multilateral and bilateral donors and NGOs. She is based in Quebec, Canada.

Mr. Stefan Manevski is the Secretary General of the Young European Federalists (JEF Europe) and international political youth organization based in Brussels. Previously he served as President and later Secretary General of the Centre for Intercultural Dialogue (CID) in Macedonia, a civil society organization working to support intercultural understanding and cooperation, as well as youth participation by providing educational and volunteering opportunities and events within youth work. He was involved in setting up and running youth support systems in Macedonia such as the Youth Council in Kumanovo, the National Youth Council – Youth Republic and creation of local youth centres. He works as a trainer in non-formal education processes for youth, offering services to institutions and organizations such as SALTO South East Europe Resource Center and the Peace Corps in Macedonia.

Dr. Rania El Masri has been working in the field of environmental management for the past twelve years, either academically or professionally. Prior to joining the UNDP Regional Center in Cairo, Rania served as Chairperson and assistant professor of Environmental Sciences at the University of Balamand in Lebanon. During that time, she researched and published widely on issues of food security, environmental management and education, with a particular focus on climate change. Prior to academia, Rania worked at the Institute for Southern Studies (North Carolina, USA) on environmental and economic justice issues. Rania also has extensive experience (18 plus years) on media platforms (TV, print, radio, and internet). Rania holds a Doctorate in Forestry from North Carolina State University, a Master of Environmental Management from Duke University, and a Bachelor of Science in Conservation of Natural Resources from North Carolina State University.

Ms. Cvjetana Plavša-Matić, B.Sc.Ec. is the Director of the National Foundation for Civil Society Development (NFCSD) in Croatia since 2003. Prior to start working in the NFCSD, Ms. Plavša-Matić served as Head of the Government Office for Cooperation with NGOs from 1998 till 2003, and from 1993-1998 she was Head of Department for PR and Humanitarian Assistance in the Government Office for Victims of War. She initiated and actively participated in creation of key national documents important for civil society development in Croatia and development of cooperation between the State and civil society organisations, including Law on Volunteering, Code on Public Consultation and National Strategy for Creation of Enabling Environment for Civil Society Development and Law on Associations.

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Dr. Khadija Moalla has 20 years of experience in development (1991-2012), including 7 years in Senior Leadership positions in the United Nations, with a repertoire that includes extensive expertise in international law and Human Rights, gender equality and women empowerment, strengthening civil society organizations and networking. Dr. Moalla has provided advice and shared in constructing the AIDS policy of the League of Arab States and the Arab Parliament, she is also one of the Founding members of the New Middle East Gender Parity at the World Economic Forum, was a member of the Arab Human Development Report core team, AHDR, human security, 2008, and a Member of the Legal Network Global Steering Committee and of the Global Country Rating Advisory Group. Since February 2012, Dr. Moalla is based with the UNDP country office in Kuwait as the Senior Policy and Programme Advisor.

Ms. Mitra Motlagh has been working in law and international development for the past ten years. Prior to joining the UNDP Regional Centre in 2010, she worked for the World Health Organization on health and human rights, gender and equity at country level (Mozambique) and regional level (regional office for the Asia-Pacific, Philippines). Before joining the UN, Mitra collaborated with the ICC in The Hague, and worked as a lawyer in the private sector in the area of European law. Her publications include high impact journals such as The Lancet. She also co-edited a book on health capital and sustainable development. Mitra holds a Law degree and Master’s Degree in International Law from the University of Brussels, and a Master’s degree in Human Rights Law (Georgetown University).

Ms. Hellen Mutellah is a Human Rights Lawyer and a practicing Advocate of the High Court of Kenya. She currently works as a Programme Officer with The East African Centre for Human Rights (EACHRights). Prior to joining EACHRights, Ms. Mutellah worked with The CRADEL, a children foundation. She has taken part in a number of human rights processes in Kenya, including the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) where she currently sits in the Kenya Stakeholders Coalition on the Universal Periodic Review (KSC-UPR) Steering Committee; the development and compilation of Kenya’s Initial State Party Report on the International Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities(UNCRPD), the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child(UNCRC), lobbying the Kenyan State to support the Optional Protocol to the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) on an Individual Complaints Mechanism, among others.

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Mr. Joachim Nahem is Programme Manager of the UNDP's Global Programme on Country-Led Democratic Governance Assessments. Prior to this he was with the BDP Democratic Governance Group in New York as programme manager for UNDP support to the 6th International Conference of New or Restored Democracies (ICNRD) held in Doha, Qatar. He was also the International Technical Adviser at UNDP Country Office in Mongolia where he was supporting the Government of Mongolia and a national team of researchers in developing democracy assessment tools. From 2003-2005, Joachim coordinated the Governance Indicators project at the UNDP Oslo Governance Centre where he also worked as a researcher on justice and human rights. Joachim has held positions with the French NGO La Chaine del'Espoir and the Council on Foreign Relations in Washington, DC. He holds degrees from the London School of Economics (Msc Human Rights) and the Walsh School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University (Bsc International Affairs)

Ms. Anita Nirody is the United Nations Resident Coordinator and UNDP Resident Representative in Egypt. She has over two decades of experience in the field of international development, and has coordinated and overseen the formulation, implementation and delivery of multi-disciplinary development programmes across the world, and had advised over 60 countries in the formulation and implementation of sustainable development programmes. She has held various senior management positions with UNDP, working with countries in Latin American, Africa, the Arab region, Asia Pacific, and Europe-CIS regions at country, regional and at the UN headquarters. Prior to her current position, Ms. Nirody served as UN Resident Coordinator and UNDP Resident Representative in the Republic of Uzbekistan. Other senior appointments include: UNDP Country Director in Afghanistan and Global Coordinator of the UNDP-managed Trust Fund on Capacity Development, supporting over 75 countries.

Mr. Andrea Ori Worked in the field of human rights for more than twenty years, starting in 1989 when elected as Town Council member assisted in the establishment, at the municipality level, of the Office of the Ombudsman. He is currently heading the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights Regional Office for North Africa, temporary based in Tunisia. He started his UN experience in 1992 in Cambodia with the United National Transitional Authorities in Cambodia, and then moved to the first field mission run by the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights in Rwanda (96-99). He joined the European Union in 2002 as Chief of the Programme Office and responsible for the police reform and rule of law in BiH. In 2005, he joined the UN mission in Cote d’Ivoire as Head of the Technical Cooperation Unit and UN Activities Unit within ONUCI. Responsible for the development of a technical cooperation programme and human rights capacity-building activities. In 2010 until September 2012, he was the Senior Human Rights Officer and Acting Chief for eight months of the Human Rights Office of the United National Assistance Mission in Iraq.

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Dr. Magued Osman, an expert in Statistics and public opinion research, is the Managing Director of the Egyptian Center for Public Opinion Research "baseera". Dr. Osman acted as the chairman of the Egyptian Cabinet of Ministers' Information and Decision Support Center (IDSC) from January 2005 to February 2011 when he was appointed as the Minister of Communications and Information Technology in the post revolution caretaker government. Dr. Osman acted as the director of the Cairo Demographic Center and is also a Professor, at the Department of Statistics, Faculty of Economics and Political Science, Cairo University and served as a member in the board of a number of universities, associations and NGO's. He is the founding Chairman of the Arab Network for Public Opinion Polling Centers and the Vice Chairman of the Arab Union for Statisticians.

Mr. Christophe Peschoux has been working for the past 30 years in the fields of humanitarian, human rights and refugee protection. He is currently the head of the Universal Periodic Review team in the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights in Geneva. From 2007 to 20011 he was the High Commissioner’s Representative in Cambodia. Prior to this, he worked with the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) for 4 years (Iraq, 2003; Central Asia, 2004-2006; and Ethiopia (2006-2007). From 1993 to 2003 he served in the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (Cambodia, 1993-1999; Headquarters 1999-2003). During that period, he contributed to the office’s work in Afghanistan, Togo, Palestinian Occupied Territories, and East Timor. Prior to joining the United Nations, Mr. Peschoux worked with a several non-governmental organizations in the fields of humanitarian, human rights and refugee protection (Ecoles sans Frontières, Médecins du Monde and Amnesty International).

Mr. Geoffrey Prewitt has been working in the field of international development for the past seventeen years, either academically or professionally. Prior to joining the UNDP Regional Center in Cairo as Practice Coordinator and Deputy Head, he served as the Leader for both the Governance Team and the Poverty Reduction Team of UNDP's Programme of Assistance to the Palestinian People (PAPP), and the Senior Governance Advisor. He has worked for UNDP for 14 years, including in Bratislava, Addis Ababa, and New York. Prior to joining UNDP, he worked with civil society organizations in Malawi and Hungary. Geoff has written extensively on issues of civic engagement, his most recent work focused on Social Enterprises, CSO Governance, and income-diversification of the not-for-profit sector.

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Ms. Sohair Riad is a researcher with the International Advocacy Program (IAP) for the Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies (CIHRS). She has extensive experience from UPR processes, including from Egypt and Bahrain.

Mr. Roland Sarton is a Programme Officer at UNDP Algeria since 2009 where he is in charge of key projects in the democratic governance area. Currently collaborating with the Algerian Penitentiary and Reinsertion administration to propose new methods on the individualization of treatments of prisoners, Roland has also been involved in capacity building projects to support the Algerian Parliament, the former Ministry of Prospective and Statistics and the National Economic and Social Council. He is currently monitoring the Algerian financial markets reform to develop the Algerian stock market institutions and support new ways of financing for economic actors. Prior joining UNDP, Roland worked on the field with INGOs in Chad, Burundi, and China for local development projects and refugees assistance programmes. He has a financial background from the private sector where he worked 6 years for General Electric company.

Mr. Torsten Schackel has an academic background in linguistics (Arabic) and international studies from the Universities of Leipzig and Mainz in Germany. He completed postgraduate studies at Nottingham Law School and qualified as a lawyer in the United Kingdom. He also completed a Masters’ Degree (LL.M.) in international law at the Humboldt University in Berlin. His initial work experience was in the legal area, where he worked with international law firms in Dubai, UAE (1992-1994), London, UK (1997-1999) and Muscat, Oman (1999-2001). In 2001, he joined the United Nations, where he worked with the Department of Political Affairs (DPA) and the Department of Peacekeeping Operations (DPKO) in New York. In 2006, he took up a position with the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) in Geneva, where he initially worked with the treaty system, including as Secretary of a treaty body addressing issues of discrimination (CERD), before joining the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) team in 2009.

Ms. Yuliya Shcherbinina is a Programme Officer at UNDP Ukraine overseeing Democratic Governance portfolio of projects in the area of civil society development, human rights, legal aid and anti-corruption. She started her career in UNDP as a Public-Private Partnership Officer back in 2008. Prior to her engagement with UNDP Ms. Shcherbinina worked for four years in academia and for three years in the private sector. She is a graduate of the Kyiv Shevchenko University, Faculty of Economy and holds a PhD in Social Sciences from St. Thomas University in Rome.

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Mr. Alaa Sayed Kamel Shalaby is the Secretary General of the Arab Organization for Human Rights (AOHR). A lawyer by education, Mr. Shalaby has worked extensively within the field of human rights, including through agencies such as UNAMI, OHCHR, UNDP and UNESCO. He is the author of several books, reports and researches in the fields of: International Law, Democracy, Governance & Civil Society affairs, Conflict Management and Resolution, Human Rights, and in particular the AOHR Annual Report "the Status of Human Rights in the Arab World", years of 2005, 2007 & 2008. Mr. Shalaby has also served as Vice President for the Arab Institute for Human Rights (AIHR) in Tunisia.

Mr. Aladeen Shawa is a Senior Technical Advisor in Local Governance and Economic Development (LED). His primary areas of specialization are local development promotion and the strengthening of local government systems. Over the past decade, he provided support to several states in Asia and Africa on decentralization reform and the promotion of local development and is currently launching the Arab States presence of the UN Capital Development Fund. He founded and managed an economic development foundation in 1991 through 2001 providing technical support services to micro, small and medium enterprises in Palestine and Jordan. Aladeen holds Bachelor Degrees in Architecture and Construction Engineering from Temple University in Philadelphia Pennsylvania, A Masters in Architecture (Urban Design) and Masters in Urban Planning (Public Policy and Economic Development) from MIT in Cambridge Massachusetts and a MBA from Columbia University in New York.

Dr. Azmi Shuaibi is an anti-corruption activist, a reformist, and an expert in the field of good governance. He currently serves as the Commissioner for Combating Corruption at AMAN (Transparency Palestine); Commissioner at the Palestinian Independent Commission for Human Rights and a board member of Arab Parliamentarians against Corruption. Dr. Shuaibi is a former member of the Legislative Council and served as Minister of Sport and youth in the first Palestinian Cabinet.

Mr. Jeff Thindwa is Manager of the Social Accountability Practice in the World Bank Institute at the World Bank. A Malawian national, he joined the World Bank in 2000 as Senior Social Development Specialist, and has worked across the Bank's regions promoting the use of social accountability mechanisms to improve public governance, and performance of Bank funded operations. The Social Accountability Practice engages and empowers key stakeholders: media, parliaments and civil society, strengthening their capacity to make public policy, budgets and programs more effective and accountable in servicing citizens, with priority focus on access to information, open and inclusive budgeting, and third party monitoring and citizen feedback. Prior to joining the Bank Jeff was Director of International Programs Director of World Vision United Kingdom, and has 17 years working in civil society.

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Mr. Christopher Wilson Christopher Wilson is communications focal point for the UNDP Global Programme on Governance Assessments. The Global Programme on Governance assessments provides support to governance assessments that are nationally owned, participatory, and responsive to national and regional priorities. Christopher supports country efforts to mobilize communications strategies and digital technologies to make assessment processes inclusive and governance data actionable. He has previously worked with civil society organisations on freedom of expression campaigning and coordination, consulted international and national organisations on the use of ICTs to disseminate information and build local partnerships, and managed independent survey research on the role of media in protest mobilization. Christopher also founded the engine room (https://theengineroom.org), an applied research organisation dedicated to exploring and supporting the effective use of technology in advocacy.

Ms. Kawtar Zerouali is the Regional Programme Manager of the Arab Youth Volunteering for a Better Future Programme led by the United Nations Volunteers programme (UNV). Kawtar has served as a Specialist on National Dialogue/Civil Society Strengthening supporting the Constitutional Process, Parliamentary Development and National Dialogue programme within UNDP Tunisia, and has also served as a Portfolio Manager for the Arab States within the Development Division at UNV HQs in Bonn. Kawtar has a solid mix of development experience in several countries with UN system, World Bank and Mosaic Foundation focusing on good governance, community centered projects, gender equality and women’s empowerment. Kawtar is an economist by education with a special focus on Organizational Management and has a passion for Women issues and Youth empowerment.

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