LUMS VC Dr. Adil Najam Appointed to Prestigious UN Body

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LUMS VC Dr. Adil Najam Appointed to Prestigious UN Body

July 31, 2012

Dr. Adil Najam, the Vice Chancellor of the Lahore University of Management Sciences (LUMS) and a leading global expert on climate change and sustainable development, has been nominated by the United Nations Secretary General Mr. Ban Ki-Moon for re-appointment to the prestigious UN Committee on Development Policy (CDP). At its annual substantive session for 2012, held in July, the members of the UN Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) voted to accept the Secretary-General’s nominations for the CDP’s 2013-15 term, including the appointment of Dr. Najam to the CDP.

Commenting on the announcement, Dr. Najam said that he was “honoured at the confidence that the United Nations Secretary General and the CDP has shown in me.” Dr. Najam who was first appointed to the CDP in 2009 while he was the Frederick S. Pardee Professor of Global Public Policy and Director of the Pardee Center and Boston University added that he was particularly humbled because of the history of the committee’s membership which has included some of the most eminent development thinkers of recent times. These have included development intellectuals including: Alice Amsden (USA), Ester Boserup (Denmark), Kwesi Botchwey (Ghana), Gamani Corea (Ceylon), Hernando de Soto (Peru), Mahbub ul Haq (Pakistan), Nurul Islam (Bangladesh), Sir Richard Jolly (United Kingdom), John Lewis (USA), Robert McNamara (USA), Maureen O’Neil (Canada), Sir Shridath Ramphal (Guyana), Klaus Shwab (Germany), do Ernst Simonis (Germany), Frances Stewart (United Kingdom), Lance Taylor (USA), Jan Tinbergen (Netherlands), etc.

The LUMS Vice Chancellor, who also serves as a Trustee of WWF-International, added, “I hope that the CDP will allow me another opportunity to highlight the intellectual contribution that Pakistan as a country and LUMS as an educational institution can make to global discussions and decisions on development issues. I hope this will also allow me to deepen the links between LUMS and the United Nations on development research.”

Dr. Najam has been a leading global public intellectual on sustainable development and global governance. He was one of the lead authors of the third and fourth assessment reports of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), work for which the IPCC was awarded the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize. As Vice Chancellor of LUMS he has continued to be intellectually active on these issues within Pakistan and globally.

The CDP is global group of experts – invited to join in their individual capacity – and convened by the ECOSOC and the UN Secretary General to advise on global development challenges and the economic agenda of the United Nations. The Committee is a subsidiary body of the United Nations Economic and Social Council. CDP provides inputs and independent advice to the Council on emerging cross-sectoral development issues and on international cooperation for development, focusing on medium- and long-term aspects. The Committee is also responsible for reviewing the status of least developed countries (LDCs) and for monitoring their progress after graduation from the category.

The 24 members of the Committee are nominated by the United Nations Secretary-General in their personal capacity, and are appointed for a period of three years. Having served on the CDP since 2009, this will be Dr. Najam’s second term on the CDP. Dr. Najam suggested that issues related to the next round of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), emerging trends in international development assistance, and the global financial crisis will be major points of discussion during this term.