In addition to the co-chairs, the Board consists of ten eminent persons representing different constituencies and stakeholders in global decision-making. Advisory Board members were invited by the Secretary-General to join the Board in their personal capacity for a period of one year, beginning in April 2022.
Co-Chairs
Ellen Johnson Sirleaf (Liberia) was the President of Liberia from 2006 to 2018 and the first democratically-elected female Head of State in Africa. She won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2011. She has also served as the Chair of ECOWAS and founded the Ellen Johnson Sirleaf Presidential Center for Women and Development. She was the co-chair of the Independent Panel for Pandemic Preparedness and Response in 2020-2021.
Stefan Löfven (Sweden) was Prime Minister of Sweden from 2014 to 2021. He was the leader of the Swedish Social Democratic Party from 2012 to 2021, and previously the president of the Swedish Industrial and Metal Workers Union. In 2016, he launched the Global Deal, a global initiative for social dialogue and better conditions in the labour market. He has also been co-chair of the ILO’s Global Commission on the Future of Work, together with South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, and initiated, together with the Prime Minister of Spain, the Leaders’ Network for reinforcing multilateralism.
Members
Xu Bu (China) is the President of the China Institute of International Studies. He has served as Ambassador to ASEAN and to Chile, as well as in other diplomatic posts in Pakistan, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, and Canada.
Poonam Ghimire (Nepal) is a climate activist and Next Generation Fellow (2021) with the United Nations Foundation. She is the former head of the International Processes Commission at the International Forestry Students Association, a Global Citizens’ Youth Advocate, and was a Youth Power Climate Representative for COP26.
Jayati Ghosh (India) is a Professor at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, and was previously professor of economics and chairperson of the Centre for Economic Studies and Planning, School of Social Sciences, Jewaharlal Nehru University. She is also board member of the High-level Advisory Board on Economic and Social Affairs.
Donald Kaberuka (Rwanda) is Chairman and Managing Partner of SouthBridge, a Pan-African financial advisory and investment firm. Previously he served as the President of the African Development Bank, and as Rwanda’s Minister of Finance and Economic Planning. He is also the African Union High Representative for the Peace Fund and Board Chair of The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria.
Azza Karam (Egypt) is Secretary-General of Religions for Peace, a multi-religious leadership platform, and a Professor of Religion and Development at the Vrije Universiteit in Amsterdam. She was previously Senior Advisor on Culture at UNFPA and the convener of the United Nations inter-agency task force on religion and development.
Nanjala Nyabola (Kenya) is a writer and researcher based in Nairobi, Kenya. Her work focuses on the intersection between technology, media, and society. She is the Director of Advox, the digital rights research and writing initiative of Global Voices, and is the author of Digital Democracy, Analogue Politics: How the Internet Era is Transforming Politics in Kenya (Zed Books, 2018) and Travelling While Black: Essays Inspired by a Life on the Move (Hurst Books, 2020).
Tharman Shanmugaratnam (Singapore) is Senior Minister, Singapore. He co-chairs the Global Commission on the Economics of Water, and chairs the Group of Thirty. He co-chaired the recent G20 High Level Independent Panel on Financing the Global Commons for Pandemic Preparedness and Response, and the earlier G20 Eminent Persons Group on Global Financial Governance. He also co-chairs the Advisory Board for the UN Human Development Report, and the Global Education Forum. Follow: @Tharman_S
Anne-Marie Slaughter (United States) is the CEO of New America, a think tank, and a Professor Emerita of Politics and International Affairs at Princeton University. Her previous positions include Director of Policy and Planning at the US Department of State.
Ilona Szabó de Carvalho (Brazil) is founder and president of the Igarapé Institute – a think and do tank committed to human, digital and climate security. She is an affiliate scholar at Princeton University, a former Young Global Leader at the World Economic Forum and fellow at Columbia University. She is also an author, podcaster, and columnist.
Danilo Türk (Slovenia) was President of Slovenia from 2007-2012 and is currently president of the Club de Madrid, an organization of over 100 democratic former Presidents and Prime Ministers of UN Member States. He previously served as UN Assistant Secretary-General for Political Affairs and as the Permanent Representative of Slovenia to the United Nations.
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