Thematic Solution Forum 3

Mr. Jorge Moreira da Silva is since 1st November 2016 the Director of the Development Co-operation Directorate (DCD) at OECD.

From 2013 to 2015, he was Portugal’s Minister of Environment, Energy and Spatial Planning. Prior to this Ministerial position, Mr. Moreira da Silva served as Senior Environmental Finance Advisor and Programme Manager on Climate Change Innovative Finance at UNDP’s Bureau for Development Policy (2009-2012); Senior Advisor to the President of Portugal (2006-2009); Secretary of State for Science and Higher Education and Secretary of State for Environment and Spatial Planning (2003- 2005).

He also served as First Vice-President of the Executive Board of Partido Social Democrata, PSD (2010- 2016); Member of the Portuguese Parliament (1995-99; 2005-2006; 2015-16); and Member of the European Parliament (1999-2003). As Member of the European Parliament, he was the Standing Draftsman on climate change and he authored the Report and the political agreement on the EU Emissions Trading Directive in 2003.

He has served as Visiting Full Professor at the Lisbon University and Founder and Chairman, since 2011, of the Lisbon-based think-tank Platform for a Sustainable Growth.

Mr. Moreira da Silva graduated from the University of Porto with a degree in Electrical and Computer Engineering and holds a postgraduate degree in Senior Management from the AESE-IESE Business School, Navarra University, Spain.

As Director, Mr. Moreira da Silva plays a key role in positioning the OECD’s work on development cooperation at the leading edge. He supports the work of the Development Assistance Committee (DAC) and collaborates closely with other components of the OECD’s Development Cluster to strengthen the Organisation’s contribution to the international governance architecture, as well as to OECD-wide initiatives and work in support of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

Ashwani K. Muthoo, a national of India, has extensive experience in international cooperation, agriculture and rural development, management and development evaluation.

He currently holds the position of Director of the Global Engagement and Multilateral Relations Division in IFAD. Prior to his current position, he was Deputy Director of the Independent Office of Evaluation of IFAD (IOE).

Mr Muthoo has experience of working in more than 50 developing countries in all regions, and is fluent in English, Hindi, Italian and Portuguese, and understands French and Spanish.

Ms. ‘Utoikamanu, a Tongan national, took up her appointment as the High Representative for the Least Developed Countries, Landlocked Developing Countries and Small Island Developing States in May 2017. Prior to taking up her position with the United Nations, she was the Chief Executive Officer of the Ministry of Tourism in Tonga. Ms. ‘Utoikamanu has a wealth of national, regional and international experience at various senior leadership levels. She was previously Acting Pro-Chancellor and Chair of the Council of the University of the South Pacific (2015), Deputy Pro-Chancellor and Deputy Chair of the Council of the University of the South Pacific (2009-2016), Deputy Director General and Director of Education, Training and Human Development of the Secretariat of Pacific Community (2009-2015), Permanent Representative and Ambassador of the Government of Tonga to the United Nations, United States of America, Cuba and Venezuela and High Commissioner to Canada (2005-2009), and Secretary for Foreign Affairs and European Commission’s National Authorizing Officer for Tonga (2002-2005).

Prior to his appointment as Permanent Representative of India to the United Nations in 2016, Mr. Akbaruddin, career diplomat, was the Chief Coordinator of the India-Africa Forum Summit held in New Delhi in October 2015. Between 2012 and 2015, he served as Spokesperson for the Ministry of External Affairs. Mr. Akbaruddin also worked as an international civil servant at the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in Vienna from 2006 to 2011. During that period, he headed the Agency’s External Relations and Policy Coordination Unit and worked as Special Assistant to the IAEA Director-General. He has held a number of other diplomatic assignments, including Consul-General in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, from 2000 to 2004, and First Secretary at his country’s Permanent Mission to the United Nations in New York, from 1995 to 1998. He has also served in Riyadh and Cairo. The holder of a master’s degree in political science and international relations, Mr. Akbaruddin was born on 27 April 1960. He is married and has two children.

Alexandre Meira da Rosa has been appointed Vice-President for countries of the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) in July 2014, having previously held the position of Infrastructure and Environment Manager of IDB since July 2010. Prior to his appointments at IDB, Mr. Rosa has served as Deputy Minister and Economic Adviser to the Prime Minister of Planning, He has been member of the Committee on Financing and Export Guarantees (COFIG) and a member of the Board of Furnas Centrais Elétricas S.A. and member of the board of Banco Popular do Brasil, a subsidiary specialized in microfinance of Banco do Brasil. Mr. Rosa holds a bachelor’s degree from the Federal University of Minas Gerais, a master’s degree in Economics from the New School for Social Research in New York, and a Postgraduate Certificate in Finance from the University of California at Berkeley.

François Martel, a dual Samoan and Canadian national, is the first substantive Secretary General of the Pacific Islands Development Forum (PIDF) appointed in September 2015. The PIDF is a multilateral and multi-stakeholder organization focusing on a distinctive Pacific model of green growth in blue economies aligned to sustainable development principles. The PIDF also serves as the Pacific Islands south-south cooperation platform with the United Nations and is a member of the Inter-agency Collaborative Group on the Global Partnership on SIDS. The Secretariat is based in Suva, Republic of Fiji. Mr. Martel is a professional forester and conservationist with more than 35 years of experience working on issues of biodiversity conservation, climate change and sustainable natural resource management in island ecosystems. In Samoa, he last held senior technical advisory positions on GEF and UNDP climate resilience of forest ecosystems and critical landscape management projects. Prior to this Mr. Martel spent 10 years on the Senior Leadership Team of Conservation International as the Executive Director for their Pacific Islands Program and as a Biodiversity Conservation project officer with SPREP, based in Apia, Samoa. He has developed and nurtured a wide network of conservation, climate change and sustainable development partners and alliances in all Pacific Islands over the last 34 years. He has a Masters in Forestry Science (Distinction) from the University of Canterbury, Christchurch, New Zealand.