KEMAL DERVIS - Director of the UNDP

Kermal Dervis is currently the director of the United Nations Development Programme and the chair of the United Nations Development Group. He was unanimously approved for this position in May of 2004, by the United Nations General Assembly, which represents 191 countries. He began his four year tenure in August of 2005. Dervis holds the third highest ranking official position in the U.N., after the Secretary-General and the Deputy Secretary-General.

Before becoming the third most powerful man in the U.N., Dervis went to London School of Economics, where he earned his Bachelor Degree in Economics in 1968. He then went on to get his PhD from Princeton University, in 1973. After receiving his PhD, Dervis got a position at Middle East Technical University. He was also one of Bülent Ecevit's advisers. Dervis went on to get a position as a Department of Economics Faculty Member at Princeton University.

On the economic side, Dervis joined the World Bank in 1977. He went on to become the Middle Eastern and North African Region's Vice-President of the World Bank in 1996. As such he aided in Bosnian and Middle Eastern peace and reconstruction. Dervis then became the Vice-President for Poverty Reduction and Economic Management in 1996.

On the political side, Kermal Dervish returned to Turkey, after the country's devastating financial crisis in February 2001, and worked as the Minister for Economic Affairs and the Treasury. After the volatile financial situation was subdued, Dervis resigned. Then, from November 2002 to June 2005, he went on to represent Istanbul in the Turkish Parliament and was an active influence in the Centre for Economic and Foreign Policy Studies.

Kemal Derviş has published many articles in academic journals as well as current affairs publications on topics ranging from mathematical models of growth and social mobility and quantitative models of trade, to European enlargement and transatlantic relations (in English, Turkish, French and German - he is fluent in all four languages).

A book entitled “General Equilibrium Models for Development Policy,” which he co-authored, was published by Cambridge University Press in 1982 and became a widely used textbook in development economics in the 1980s. In cooperation with the Center for Global Development, he has published a new book entitled “A Better Globalization” (Brookings Press, March 2005) which deals with global development issues and international institutional reform.

Kemal Dervis Contact
United Nations Development Programme
One United Nations Plaza
New York, NY 10017 USA
Tel: +1 (212) 906-5000
Fax: +1 (212) 906-5364
Staff directory assistance, Tel: +1 (212) 963-1234

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