We are delighted to welcome Margaret ("Maggie") Catley- Carlson, who, among her many activities serves as Chair of the Global Water Partnership http://www.gwpforum.org/servlet/PSP and of the International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA) http://www.icarda.org/ ,Vice Chair of the International Development Research Centre and a member of the Board of the International Institute for Environment and Development http://www.iied.org/index.html . She is also a past Chair of the Center for Agriculture and Bioscience International (CABI) http://www.cabi.org/
Maggie has successfully pursued a distinguished career in economic development and is especially remembered in Canada for her judicious stewardship of the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) as its president. She is the former Deputy Minister of Health and Welfare Canada, President of CIDA and Deputy Executive Director (Operations) of UNICEF.
Also joining us will be our good friend, Bill Cosgrove, past President of the World Water Council http://www.worldwatercouncil.org/, and now President of the Bureau d’audiences publiques sur l'environnement of Québec http://www.bape.gouv.qc.ca/, along with Robert Letendre, recently returned to the fold at the City of Montreal, after a 3-year absence during which he served as Director General of Development and Peace http://www.devp.org/testF/mission.htm and Professor Jan Jorgensen of McGill Faculty of Management, who directs the Masters program in Economic Policy Management (EPM), designed to give practitioners from developing and emerging market economies the analytical tools and management skills needed to become effective policy advisors. http://people.mcgill.ca/jan.jorgensen/
Discussion will no doubt include water, economic development, Africa, G8, World Bank .... however, given the wide-ranging interests of the participants, who knows?
Links http://www.wednesday-night.com/Wed1222.asp
At a time when more than 1 billion people around the world lack access to clean drinking water, the United Nations is spearheading cutting-edge developments in the field of isotope hydrology in countries hit hardest by water shortages.
While rich-country leaders look to heal Africa with generosity, China and India are helping to pull Africa out of poverty with good, old-fashioned greed.
As leaders of wealthy countries pat themselves on the back for debt relief and development assistance to Africa, China and India are pouring funds into the continent to find energy for their superheated economies and markets for their products.
Water management programmes across the developing world are based on the mistaken belief that trees increase the available water in an area, says a report published today. From the Mountain to the Tap summarises four years of research into water management programmes. Full report http://www.forestryresearchprogramme.org.uk/watermanagement/Water_book.pdf