IIEP Governing Board member appointed new Executive Secretary of UN Economic Commission for Africa (ECA)

09 Avril 2012
Carlos Lopes will lead the largest UN entity devoted to Africa

Carlos Lopes, IIEP Governing Board member since 2008, has been appointed by the UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon as the new Executive Secretary of ECA, the largest UN entity devoted to Africa with around 300 economists and 800 staff, based in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Mr Lopes will have the rank of UN Under-Secretary-General and will be the senior African in the UN leadership when he takes up his duties. His main objective is to enhance African strategic capacity by making ECA the largest think tank on the continent. Mr Lopes has 24 years of UN experience, is fluent in English, French and Portuguese and has vast knowledge of the continent.

Mr Lopes has established several institutions, including the main research institute in his home country (Guinea Bissau), and has been associated with major reforms of the United Nations System. At present, he serves on high level committees of the UN Secretary-General, including the one related to change and reform. He is considered an institutional development and reform specialist.

Mr Lopes worked in the Nordic Africa Institute, served as UN Resident Coordinator in Zimbabwe and Brazil, led UNDP’s Bureau for Development Policy, and served as Political Director for Secretary-General Kofi Annan. Currently he is in charge of two UN institutions for training and research: UNITAR in Geneva and the UN Staff College in Turin. Mr Lopes was the architect of UNDP’s sophisticated global Knowledge Systems. He also led the reflection on capacity building, including co-editing the reference book Capacity for Development, with the contribution of Economics Nobel Prize winner Joseph Stiglitz. For over four years he has managed a UNDP project portfolio of about $1 billion. Since 2006 Mr Lopes has had the rank of UN Assistant Secretary-General.