Prof. Adil Najam Attends 2011 CDP Meeting at the United Nations

Dr. Adil Najam, Director of the Frederick S. Pardee Center for the Study of the Longer-Range Future, attended the 2011 annual meeting of the UN Committee on Development Policy (CDP). Prof. Najam has served on the CDP since 2009 when he was nominated to it by the United Nations’ Secretary-General Mr. Ban Ki-moon. (See news reports of Prof. Najam’s appointment in BUToday and in The Daily Free Press).

The week-long annual meeting of the CDP (March 21-25, 2011) was held at the United Nations Headquarters in New York and a variety of important development issues were discussed. These included issues related to education, migration, economic frameworks, environment and gender. The CDP formulated its recommendations to the United Nations, the Secretary-General and to the ECOSOC.

The Committee for Development Policy (CDP) 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 by the Council for a period of three years.

Leading thinkers and scholars of global development have served on the CDP before, including: 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), Rahman Sobhan (Bangladesh), Frances Stewart (United Kingdom), Lance Taylor (USA), Jan Tinbergen (Netherlands), etc.