Nitin Desai, formerly under-Secretary General for Economic and Social Affairs at the United Nations

Mr. Nitin Desai, after working in universities, the private sector and for his Government, was appointed Deputy Secretary-General of the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development, in 1990, coordinating the development of Agenda 21 and, in 1993, Under-Secretary-General to head a newly created Department for Policy Coordination and Sustainable Development.  In 1997, he coordinated the consolidation of UN economic and social activities at Headquarters into the single Department of Economic and Social Affairs, which he headed till August 2003.  In October 2001, the Secretary-General asked Mr. Desai to act as Secretary-General of the Johannesburg Summit in addition to his existing responsibilities. After his retirement from the United Nations, Mr. Desai continues to be a Special Adviser to the Secretary General for the World Summit on the Information Society. He is also an Honorary Fellow at the London School of Economics and Political Science and the convenor of one of the tracks in the Helsinki Process on Globalisation and Democracy.