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UNITED NATIONS
Expert Group Meeting (EGM)
Formal/Informal Institutions for Citizen Engagement for implementing the Post 2015 Development
Agenda
Speakers’ Bios
20 – 21 October 2014
Paris, France
www.unpan.org/ceforpost2015
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Mr. Rodolfo Cordova (Mexico)
Mr. Cordova is Project Coordinator at Fundar and at the International Network on Migration and
Development; President of the Citizen Council of the National Migration Institute and member of the
Consultative Council on migration policies, both in Mexico; member of the Global Civil Society Steering
Committee of the High Level Dialogue and the Global Forum on International Migration and Development.
He has been promoting human rights and development particularly for migrants and their families for the
past 10 years by working for civil society organizations, UN agencies and academic institutions in the
Americas and Europe.
Dr. Angelita GREGORIO-MEDEL (Philippines)
Dr. Gregorio-Medel is currently the Under-Secretary for Institutional Development of the Department of
Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) of the Philippine Government. She was formerly the Executive
Director, Affiliated Network for Social Accountability for East Asia and the Pacific (ANSA-EAP). She holds
a PhD in Sociology from the University of Bielefeld, Germany. She lectures at the Ateneo de Manila
University and serves as core faculty in the Leadership Programme for the Ateneo School of
Government. She has a wide experience in institutional reform and organization development particularly
in the area of human resource and performance management, capability building, standards development
including the formulation, implementation and assessment of reform initiatives that calibrates the balance
needed in running a bureaucracy while pursuing strategic change. She has built her competency in social
accountability design, development and implementation in several countries aside from the Philippines
(Cambodia, Indonesia, and Mongolia as well as in inter-country networking for social accountability
advocacy). Her professional experiences also includes: Country Program Development and Technical
Assistance in the area of people’s organization and community association capacity development in
livelihood and enterprise development, coalition building, organization development, and policy advocacy.
She is often tapped to undertake monitoring and evaluation interventions in assessing projects, programs
and other development initiatives of community organizing and development work among the urban poor,
fisher folk, farmers, and rural communities.
Prof. Mushtaq KHAN (Bangladesh)
Professor Mushtaq Khan is currently Professor of Economics in the Faculty of Law and Social Sciences
at the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, and has been a visiting professor at
the University of Dhaka, Bangladesh, and the Chulalongkorn University, Thailand. He received his PhD in
economics from Cambridge University. Professor Khan’s research interests lie in the areas of institutional
economics, the economics of rent seeking, corruption and clientelism, industrial policy, and State
intervention in developing countries. Other interests include South and South-East Asian economic
development, with a particular focus on the Indian subcontinent. He is the editor of State Formation in
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Palestine: Viability and Governance during a Social Transformation (2004) and Rents, Rent Seeking and
Economic Development: Theory and Evidence in Asia (2000). He is the author of numerous chapters in
books including “Corruption and governance in early capitalism: World Bank strategies and their
limitations” (2002), in Reinventing the World Bank; “State failure in developing countries and strategies of
institutional reform” (2004), in Towards Pro-Poor Policies: Aid Institutions and Globalization; and “The
capitalist transformation” (2005), in The Origins of Development Economics: How Schools of Economic
Thought Have Addressed Development. His articles have appeared in many journals including American
Economic Review, Economics of Transition, Democratization, Journal of Agrarian Change, New Political
Economy, Journal of International Development and The European Journal of Development Research.
Apart from his academic career, Prof. Khan has held appointments as a consultant for international
institutions focusing on poor countries, including the World Bank, the Department for International
Development, UNDP and the Asian Development Bank.
Dr. Don LENIHAN (Canada)
Dr. Don Lenihan is Senior Associate at the Public Policy Forum in Ottawa, Canada. He is an
internationally recognized expert on democracy and public engagement, Open Government and service
delivery. He recently served as Chair of the Open Government Engagement Team for the Government of
Ontario. Don also recently completed an 18-month, province-wide public engagement initiative for the
Government of Ontario to renew the Ontario Condominium Act 1998, which governs the provinces
600,000 condominiums. Don’s latest book, Rescuing Policy: The Case for Public Engagement, was
published in January 2012 and is an introduction to the field of public engagement, as well as a blueprint
for change. Over the last decade, he has been closely involved in a series of innovative projects. From
2009 – January 2012, Don led the Public Engagement Project (PEP), a research and capacity-building
project involving some 500 public servants from nine federal, provincial/territorial and municipal
governments, and the Government of Australia. He was a senior advisor on the development of the
Canadian Sport Policy, endorsed by federal, provincial and territorial ministers on June 27, 2012 in Inuvik,
Northwest Territories. He worked closely with the Government of Nunavut on its Poverty Reduction
Project, leading to the creation of the Anti-Poverty Roundtable and legislation to support it. He also
advised all three levels of government in Australia to test a “community approach” to improving service
delivery. In 2007-2008, at the request of Premier Shawn Graham, he served as advisor to the
Government of New Brunswick on public engagement. Don has over 25 years of experience as a project
leader, writer, speaker, senior government advisor, trainer and facilitator. He has developed and led
research and consultation projects involving senior public servants, academics, elected officials,
journalists, and members of the private and third sectors across Canada. He has authored numerous
books, articles, studies, and columns. He earned his PhD in political theory from the University of Ottawa.
Ms. Snežana MIŠIĆ MIHAJLOVIĆ (Bosnia and Herzogovina)
Ms. Snežana Mišić Mihajlović works as an expert for environmental governance in the Centre for
Management, Development and Planning and is active member of several think-tanks and NGOs in
Bosnia and Herzegovina. She has more than 15 years of experience in managing projects that cover a
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wide range of topics related to local development, good governance, democracy, and environmental
affairs. Her professional interests extend to the academic and policy research related to mechanisms for
citizen participation, formal and informal institutions, tools for power analysis and promotion of
democracy. Increasingly, she provides advisory and consultancy services to development cooperation
agencies and international and local NGOs active in Bosnia and Herzegovina and other countries in the
Western Balkan region. She holds an MSc in Environmental Sciences and Policy from the Central
European University in Budapest (Hungary) and has completed a policy fellowship on the topic “Citizen
Participation in Public Decision-Making: How Sub-national Governments Can Support Citizen
Engagement and Institutionalize Participatory Practices” at the Local Government and Public Service
Reform Initiative (LGI OSI), Budapest, Hungary.
Mr. Robby MUHUMUZA (Uganda)
Mr. Robby Muhumuza works as a Management and Communications Consultant with the United
Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) in Uganda in charge of youth engagement programming. He started
his career as a Lecturer at Makerere University between 1982 and 1987. In the past, he has worked as
Communications Director for World Vision Uganda (1987-1999); National Director for World Vision
Uganda (1999-2006); East Africa Regional Director for World Vision based in Nairobi and overseeing
World Vision operations in Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania, Rwanda, Burundi, Sudan, Somalia and Ethiopia
(2006-2009); Adjunct Professor of Leadership and Management with Development Associates
International (DAI) in Nigeria, Burundi, Kenya, Uganda, India and Nepal, 2009-2011. He has a Bachelor
of Arts (Literature in English) from Makerere University, 1982; Master of Science in Journalism from Ohio
University, 1987; and a Master of Arts in Organizational Leadership and Management from Uganda
Christian University, Mukono. He is a Director on a number of Boards including Monitor Publications
(owners of KFM and Dembe FM radio stations), Power FM Radio Station, Straight Talk Foundation,
African Centre for Apologetics Research and Reformed Theological College.
Dr. Graham SMITH (United Kingdom)
Dr. Graham Smith is currently Professor of Politics at the Centre for the Study of Democracy, University
of Westminster, UK. He has written a number of books and essays on democratic theory and practice,
environmental politics and the social economy. One of his two main areas of research focus is democratic
innovations - institutions designed to increase and deepen citizen participation in the political decisionmaking process. This work builds on the theoretical approach initially developed in his book Democratic
Innovations: Designing Institutions for Citizen Participation (Cambridge University Press: 2009). He is
active in the development of Participedia, a global knowledge platform for democratic innovations
www.participedia.net with colleagues in Universities of Harvard and British Columbia. Also he is on the
Executive Committee of Participedia and a Trustee of the Foundation for Democracy and Sustainable
Development.
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Mr. Anthony ZACHARZEWSKI (United Kingdom)
Mr. Anthony Zacharzewski is the director of the Democratic Society, a British non-profit organisation that
promotes democracy, good debate and new models of participative government. The Society is involved
in a range of projects designing new democratic spaces, including NHS Citizen and the United Kingdom
Government’s Open Policymaking programme. In his earlier career, he was a senior civil servant in the
British Cabinet Office and worked on strategy and policy in HM Treasury, the Privy Council Office,
Brighton & Hove City Council and the Department of Health.
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