The Forum
Overview
The Forum is the culmination of the MEM Summer Summit. The high-profile two-day public event brings together leaders, decision-makers, entrepreneurs, scholars and intellectuals to discuss pressing issues of the MEM region. Topics range from new geopolitical configurations to migration dynamics, through security in the Mediterranean health and food systems, endangered cultural heritage, to Euro-Mediterranean Partnership, and municipalities in the region.
Young change-makers have a unique opportunity for exchanging views with senior representatives and experts, and presenting the ideas and project-proposals elaborated during the Seminar.
The Programme
Bettina Müller
MC and presenter, Journalist RSI Radiotelevisione svizzera
Myassa Djebara
MEM Young Change-Maker 2018 and Co-presenter
Hatim El Otmani
MEM Young Change-Maker 2018 and Co-presenter
Saturday 24 August
Sunday 25 August
The health and well-being of populations are significantly influenced by socio-economic, environmental and cultural conditions as well as by inequalities. The so-called “social determinants of health” describe the circumstances in which people are born, grow up, live, work and age, and the systems put in place to deal with illness. Several surveys and studies have shown that these social determinants are closely connected with health conditions, which are generally worse in disadvantaged socioeconomic environments. Inequality is widely recognised as a major obstacle to development. The reduction of inequalities within and among countries is central to the SDGs of the 2030 Agenda. The Middle East Mediterranean region is afflicted by various long-term humanitarian crises, the displacement of population, and gender inequality. The situation in some countries of the Middle East Mediterranean region is so critical that it makes it very hard to guarantee every citizen access to healthcare. In the refugee camps in Lebanon and Jordan, for instance, there are major mental health problems. This complex topic was debated by experts from the World Health Organisation, politicians, and diplomats.
Pio Wennubst
Vice Director General, Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC), Federal Department of Foreign Affairs (FDFA), Switzerland
Benedetto Saraceno
Psychiatrist, Director Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse of WHO, SG Lisbon Institute for Global Mental Health, Italy and Portugal
Maha El-Adawy
MD and Director, Health Protection and Promotion, WHO Office Regional Office for the Eastern Mediterranean, Egypt
Souad Abderrahim
Mayor of Tunis, Tunisia
Rabih El Chammay
Psychiatrist, Saint Joseph University in Beirut, Lebanon
Hichem Touahria
Young change-maker
Emiliano Albanese
Moderator – Professor, Università della Svizzera italiana; Director, WHO Collaborating Center for Research and Training in Mental Health, University of Geneva, Switzerland
Often, regional co-operation is both the objective and the instrument of projects that involve actors from different countries and different sectors of a region. There have been several success stories, including the CERN SESAME project, launched in Jordan in 2017, which brought together the Palestinian National Authority and Israel, with Cyprus, Egypt, Iran, Jordan, Pakistan, and Turkey. The panel discussed various forms of diplomacy – scientific, cultural, and artistic – used to promote intercultural dialogue. The discussion focused on the Sommet des deux rives, the AtWork project of the Moleskine Foundation, and on the projects supported by the Union for the Mediterranean, a consortium of 43 member states.
Herwig Franz Schopper
Advisor, Experimental Physicist, Former Director General CERN and Founding Father of SESAME, Middle East, Jordan
Elena Korzhenevich
Co-Founder and AtWork Program Director, Moleskine Foundation, Italy
Enrico Granara
Minister Plenipotentiary, Coordinator Euro-Mediterranean Multilateral Activities, Directorate General for Political and Security Affairs, Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation MAECI, Italy
Cristian Chiavetta
Environmental Engineer and Industrial Researcher, Italian National Agency for New Technologies, Energy and Sustainable Economic Development ENEA, Italy
Derek Lutterbeck
Deputy Director and Holder of the Swiss Chair, Mediterranean Academy of Diplomatic Studies, University of Malta MEDAC, Malta
Maher S. M. Dudeen
Young change-maker
Rolla Scolari
Moderator – Journalist, Italy
This panel has been designed to bring together the results of the dialogue and comprehensively to express various visions emerging from the participatory and multivoiced work carried out by the young change-makers during the Seminar.
Myassa Djebara
MEM Young change-maker 2018 and Co-presenter
Hatim El Otmani
MEM Young change-maker 2018 and Co-presenter
Mohamed Adnene Ben Hajd Yahia
Young change-maker
Khadija El Alami
Young change-maker
Gibran Kokou Freitas
Young change-maker
Abdalfatah Tallouzi
Young change-maker
Gilles Kepel
Moderator – Professor and Scientific Director of the Middle East Mediterranean Freethinking Platform, Università della Svizzera italiana, Switzerland; PLS Paris Sciences et Lettres-École Normale Supérieure, France
Boas Erez
Moderator – Rector, Università della Svizzera italiana, Switzerland
Boas Erez
Rector, Università della Svizzera italiana, Switzerland
Full programme of the Forum 2019:
Speakers
The Presenters
BETTINA MÜLLER
MC and Presenter
Journalist, RSI Radiotelevisione svizzera
BETTINA MÜLLER
Bettina Müller is a radio journalist at RSI (Radiotelevisione svizzera), where she co-hosts a debating programme on politics and current affairs called ‘Modem’. She studied history at Universität Zürich and at LMU München, and International Relations at the London School of Economics.
Müller has written and published two books under the Edizioni Casagrande publishing house. In 2002 she edited ‘Le ragioni del nemico. Voci ebraiche in favore della causa palestinese’ (The enemy’s reasons. Jewish voices in favour of the Palestinian cause), and in 2013 she wrote, alongside Francesca Mandelli, ‘Il direttore in bikini. E altri scivoloni linguistici tra femminile e maschile’ (The director in a bikini. And other linguistic slip-ups between feminine and masculine).
MYASSA DJEBARA
Co-presenter
MEM Young Change-Maker 2018
MYASSA DJEBARA
Myassa Djebara is a French-Algerian strategy and editorial consultant. She is a collaborator of Societer, the first consulting house in sustainable leadership, which specialises in engaged communications, societal impact and collaborative diplomacy. She also contributes as an expert to the European Forum for Urban Security missions on radicalisation and counter-narratives.
She holds a master’s in Public Affairs from Sciences Po Paris, as well as a bachelor’s degree in Law from the University of Paris-Panthéon-Sorbonne. She previously worked at the French Senate, in a strategy consulting firm, and in 2011 she co-founded an NGO that focuses on urban cultures, “Noise, la ville” (“Noise, the city”).
She was a participant in the MEM Summer Summit first edition in 2018, and as such she took part in April 2019 in a Volunteer Team of the Università della Svizzera italiana during a preparatory forum of the Summit of the Two Shores. Since 2016, she has also been a fellow of the German Marshall Fund’s young transatlantic network of future leaders.
HATIM EL OTMANI
Co-presenter
MEM Young Change-Maker 2018
HATIM EL OTMANI
Hatim El Otmani has a master’s degree in Environmental Law and Sustainable Development from the Mohammed V University in Rabat, Morocco. He is passionate about sustainable development, youth and Agenda 2063.
He is currently working as project manager for the National Erasmus+ Offices in Morocco and remains strongly involved in community life and civil society programmes as president and founder of Atlas For Development.
He has worked for a variety of NGOs and institutions including the United Nations Office for Project Services (UNOPS) and the official youth constituency (YOUNGO) at The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).
El Otmani co-founded Youth SDG Action Morocco during his tenure as national coordinator of MyWorld 2030. Having collected surveys from more than 16,000 citizens, in 2018 they won the UN SDG Action CAMPAIGN Award in the mobilisation category. Believing that education is the ultimate component to stimulate sustainable development, El Otmani has volunteered in rural communities to teach women how to read and write.
He recently launched The 2063 Academy in partnership with the Embassy of Switzerland in Morocco, the Ministry in charge of relations between parliament and civil society, the World Bank, and with the support of the African Union Youth Envoy.
In the international sphere, Hatim has been selected as a young change-maker by the MEM Forum and the US Department of State for the Professional Fellows Program, and has also been nominated as one of the TeachSDGs ambassadors for 2019.
The Speakers
SOUAD ABDERRAHIM
Mayor of Tunis, Tunisia
SOUAD ABDERRAHIM
Mrs Souad Abderrahim is a graduate of the Monastir School of Pharmacy and was elected Mayor of Tunis following the first democratic municipal elections in Tunisia. She is also one of the leaders of Tunisia’s decentralisation efforts as the mayor of the biggest commune in the country.
Abderrahim serves as the president of the National Federation of Tunisian Cities (FNVT), a national association created in 1973 to support and defend the interests of municipalities, as well as represent them in national and international bodies.
HE CARMELO ABELA
Minister, Ministry for Foreign Affairs and Trade Promotion, Republic of Malta
HE CARMELO ABELA
HE Carmelo Abela has been Malta’s minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade Promotion since the 2017 general election. A social democrat by conviction, he is a strong believer in the capacity of the individual to make a positive difference. Abela has represented Malta on the European and global stage, constantly making the case for a Euro-Mediterranean dimension.
Following his reelection in 2013, he was appointed as whip for the Government Parliamentary Group and, later, as Government spokesperson. In 2014, he was handed his first ministerial position as minister for Home Affairs and National Security.
In 2008, he was unanimously appointed deputy speaker of the House of Representatives, as well as the Opposition’s main spokesperson for Industry, Foreign Investment, and Social Policy.
He was first elected to Parliament in 1996, having served as a local councillor in Żejtun, Malta, between 1994 and 1996. He has been present in Parliament in all subsequent legislations. Over the years he has grown into increasingly senior roles within the Maltese Labour Party as well as Government, serving as assistant whip, Opposition spokesperson for Youth and Sport and, later, as Opposition spokesperson for Education, Youth, Sport, and Culture.
In 1990, Abela joined Mid-Med Bank Ltd, today HSBC Bank Malta plc where he worked as a manager until April 2014.
As a member of Parliament, Abela has also served as: regional representative on the Executive Committee of the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association, head of the Maltese Delegation of the Inter Parliamentary Union, and member of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE).
EMILIANO ALBANESE
Professor, Università della Svizzera italiana; Director, WHO Collaborating Center for Research and Training in Mental Health, University of Geneva, Switzerland
EMILIANO ALBANESE
Professor Emiliano Albanese is a physician with an FMH specialisation in public health from the University of Milan / London, an MSc in public health nutrition from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, as well as an MD-PhD in clinical neuropsychology.
He is currently full professor in the faculty of Biomedical Sciences at the Università della Svizzera italiana and director of the WHO Collaborating Center for Research and Training in Mental Health in the Department of Psychiatry of the School of Medicine at the University of Geneva.
Albanese has worked at the Italian National Institute of Health (ISS), the Institute of Psychiatry, King’s College London, the National Institute on Aging (NIH, Bethesda, USA) and the MRC Unit for Lifelong Health and Ageing (London, UK). Albanese is also active more broadly in the field of both global mental health, particularly in Low and Middle Income Countries, and as an epidemiologist. He has been involved in a number of large cohort studies within which he has designed and conducted advanced analyses, integrating meta-analytical, cross-cultural and life-course epidemiological models.
The focus of his research is cognitive ageing and dementia and their epidemiology from a broad public health and evidence-based perspective.
ROBERTO ANTONINI
Journalist, RSI Radiotelevisione svizzera, Switzerland
ROBERTO ANTONINI
Roberto Antonini has been a journalist at RSI Radiotelevisione svizzera since 1984. He is currently features editor and specialises in history and African, Middle-Eastern and U.S. politics. He received his degree in History from the Sorbonne, University of Paris 1, and in Anthropology from René Descartes, University of Paris V.
From 1991 to 1995 he headed the International Department of RSI. From 1995 to 2002, he was a correspondent in Washington DC, and in 2002 he was appointed editor-in-chief at RSI. Since 2008, he has been responsible for the production of in-depth programmes, including news stories and major interviews. His latest radio and TV reports have covered Syria and Iraq.
He has interviewed, among others, Bill Clinton, Itzaak Rabin, Yasser Arafat, Benazir Bhutto, Nelson Mandela, Kenneth Kaunda, Desmond Tutu, Willy Brandt, Helmut Schmidt, George Soros, Noam Chomsky, Jacques LeGoff and Paul Krugman.
He has been awarded several prizes, including: the Prix Suisse, the Schweizer Journalist Prize, Suisse Grand Prix du journalisme des radios francophones (Swiss journalism Grand Prix of French-language public radio stations), Premio ATG, and the Swiss Media Award.
MANUELE BERTOLI
State Councilor, Republic and Canton of Ticino, Switzerland
MANUELE BERTOLI
Manuele Bertoli obtained a diploma in law from Geneva in 1988. Prior to that, he received a teaching diploma which allowed him to teach in elementary schools.
From 1988 to 2002 he was secretary of the Associazione Inquilini per la Svizzera italiana (The Tenants’ Association in the Italian-speaking part of Switzerland), after which he directed Unitas, an association for the blind and partially-sighted in the Italian-speaking part of Switzerland.
He is a former member of the Board of Directors of Banca Stato, as well as a member at the town hall in Balerna and a member of the Grand Council from 1998 to 2011.
Bertoli has participated in numerous voluntary and social activities and was President of the Partito Socialista (Socialist Party) for seven years.
MARCO BORRADORI
Mayor, City of Lugano, Switzerland
MARCO BORRADORI
Mr Marco Borradori, born in Lugano, graduated at the Law faculty of the University of Zurich in 1983. He became Lawyer and notary in 1986.
Borradori was elected to the Swiss Federal Parliament in 1991. After that he joined the Municipality of Lugano in 1992 until 1995. Borradori was Minister in the Council of State of Ticino Canton from 1995 until 2013, head of the Department of Territory.
Since 2013 he has been mayor of the City of Lugano; head of the Institution Department, comprising: Chancellery, Communication and Institutional Relations, Human Resources and Economic Development.
LORENZO CANTONI
Prorector and Professor, UNESCO Chair, Università della Svizzera italiana, Switzerland
LORENZO CANTONI
Lorenzo Cantoni graduated in Philosophy and holds a PhD in Education and Linguistics. He is full professor at Università della Svizzera italiana in Lugano, Switzerland, in the Faculty of Communication Sciences, where he is director of the Institute of Digital Technologies for Communication.
His research interests are where communication, education and new media overlap, ranging from computer mediated communication and usability, to eLearning, eTourism, digital Fashion, ICT4D and eGovernment.
He is chair-holder of the UNESCO chair in ICT to develop and promote sustainable tourism in World Heritage Sites, established at USI in 2013.
He is USI’s pro-rector for Education and Students’ experience, director of the Master’s in Digital Fashion Communication, in collaboration with Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne, and a member of the board of the Master’s in International Tourism.
Cantoni was dean of the faculty from 2010 to 2014 and President of the IFITT (International Federation for IT in Travel and Tourism) from 2014 to January 2018.
OLMO GIOVANNINI
Film historian, Communication Officer at the Dicastero cultura, sport ed eventi, City of Lugano, Switzerland
OLMO GIOVANNINI
Olmo Giovannini graduated in History and Aesthetics in Cinema from the faculty of Literature at the University of Lausanne. In 2006, he began a collaboration with the programming department of the Locarno Festival, for which he coordinates numerous tributes and retrospectives, including Ernst Lubitsch, Vincente Minnelli and George Cukor. From 2013 to 2015, he was in charge of the press office of the Locarno event. He directed the Lugano Human Rights Film Festival in both 2016 and 2017, and is currently in charge of communication for the Culture, Sports and Events Department of the City of Lugano.
MARINA CAROBBIO GUSCETTI
President, National Council, Switzerland
MARINA CAROBBIO GUSCETTI
Marina Carobbio Guscetti has been vice president of the Swiss Socialist Party since 2008 and since 26th October, 2018, she has held the position of president of the National Council.
She has had a seat in the National Council since 2007, where she is a member of the finance commission, the social security commission and the health commission, as well as the finance delegation. In December 2016 she was selected as president of the 2019 National Council.
Prior to being elected to the National Council, she was active in the Ticino Grand Council from 1991 to 2007. She also holds the presidency of the Swiss Office for the Coordination of Addiction Facilities and is vice president of Iniziativa da las alps and Associazione Svizzera Inquilini (Association of Swiss tenants).
HE IGNAZIO CASSIS
Head of the Department of Foreign Affairs (FDFA), Switzerland
HE IGNAZIO CASSIS
HE Ignazio Cassis graduated from the University of Zurich in 1988 with a degree in human medicine. He then worked as a doctor from 1988 to 1996. Thereafter, in 1996, he became cantonal physician for the Canton of Ticino and in the same year he obtained a master’s degree in public health (MPH) from the University of Geneva. He also graduated in 1998, specialising in internal medicine as well as in prevention and public health.
Cassis’ political career began in 2004 with his election to the legislative authority of the Ticino municipality of Collina d’Oro. From 2008 to 2012, Cassis held the office of Vice-President of the Swiss Medical Association. From 2015, he chaired the National Council’s Social Security and Health Committee, and has also been vice-chairman or chairman of various parliamentary groups.
During the two years prior to his election to the Federal Council, Cassis was president of the parliamentary group of the FDP.The Liberals, of which he became a member since his election to the National Council in 2007.
Since 2001, he has lectured at various universities in Switzerland. He has also been a member of numerous foundations and associations. He was the head of the CURAVIVA association (care homes and institutions in Switzerland) and Curafutura, a health insurance association.
Cassis was elected to the Federal Council of Switzerland on 20 September 2017, where he took up his post as Head of the Federal Department of Foreign Affairs on 1 November 2017.
CRISTIAN CHIAVETTA
Environmental Engineer and Industrial Researcher, Italian National Agency for New Technologies, Energy and Sustainable Economic Development ENEA, Italy
CRISTIAN CHIAVETTA
Cristian Chiavetta is an environmental engineer. He graduated from the University of Bologna with a PhD in Life Cycle Assessment of renewable energy and secondary materials production. He is currently working as a researcher at the Italian National Agency for New Technologies, Energy and Sustainable Economic Development (ENEA) in the Valorisation ofResources Laboratory (RISE).
For the last ten years he has been working in the field of circular economy with a specific focus on sustainability assessment from a life cycle point of view. He carries out research activities in Italian and international projects with regard to the environmental, economic and social assessment of products, processes and systems, as well as supporting companies and public administrations in eco-innovation paths through the implementation of industrial symbiosis instruments and circular economy principles.
He is an expert in Life Cycle Assessment methodology (LCA), Resource Efficient Management and Green Public Procurement (GPP). He is a member of the ENEA working group, which supports the Italian Ministry for the Environment, Land and Sea (MATTM) in the European Technical Advisory Board (TAB) of the Product Environmental Footprint (PEF) pilot phase.
He is also one of 10 Italian experts on circular economy who was selected by the Italian Ministry for Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation (MAECI) to participate in the Summit of the Two Shores initiative.
LORENZO CREMONESI
Journalist and Middle East Correspondent, Corriere della Sera, Italy
LORENZO CREMONESI
Lorenzo Cremonesi is a graduate in Philosophy. Since 1982, his work has mainly concentrated on the Middle East.
From 1984 to 2000 he was a writer for il Corriere della Sera in Jerusalem, firstly as a collaborator and then as correspondent. He has followed other crisis areas as a reporter, including the Afghan crisis, and was also in Iraq for almost three years.
In addition to having written papers on the relationship between Israel and Santa Sede, in 2003 he published Le origini del sionismo e la nascita del kibbutz (The origins of Zionism and the birth of the kibbutz), and in 2008 he published Dai nostri inviati. Inchieste, guerre ed esplorazioni nelle pagine del Corriere della Sera (From our correspondents. Investigations, wars and explorations in the pages of il Corriere della Sera).
ISHAC DIWAN
Professor, PSL – Paris Sciences et Lettres, École normale supérieure, France
ISHAC DIWAN
Ishac Diwan is a visiting professor at SIPA, Columbia University. Diwan received his PhD in Economics from the University of California at Berkeley in 1984. He holds the chair of the Socio-Economy of the Arab World at Paris Sciences et Lettres, a consortium of Parisian universities. He is currently directing the Political Economy programme of the Economic Research Forum, an association of social scientists from the Middle East.
From 1984 to 1987, he taught international finance at New York University’s Business School, after which, from 1987 to 1992, he worked in the Research Complex of the World Bank, in the Middle East department from 1992 to 1996, and then at the World Bank Institute from 1996 to 2002.
He held teaching positions at Harvard Kennedy School from 2011 to 2013, and at Dauphine University in Paris from 2014 to 2015. He was the Kuwait visiting professor at the Belfer Center of the Harvard Kennedy School of Government from 2016 to 2017. He is a frequent consultant with international organisations and governments.
Diwan spent time in Addis Abeba, from 2002 to 2007, and in Accra, from 2007 to 2011, as the World Bank’s country director for Ethiopia and Sudan, and then for Ghana, Liberia, Sierra Leone, Burkina Faso, and Guinea. He has worked extensively on conflict prevention as well as state building in Palestine, Sudan, Liberia, Sierra Leone, Yemen and Guinea. He has also participated in the Sudan Comprehensive Peace Agreement, the Darfur Peace Negotiations, and the Oslo negotiations.
Diwan’s work on international finance, as well as on the Middle East, is widely published and cited. His current research interests focus on the political economy of the Middle East, in addition to broader development issues.
STEFANO DOMINIONI
Executive Secretary, Council of Europe Enlarged Partial Agreement on Cultural Routes (EPA); Director of the European Institute of Cultural Routes, Luxembourg
STEFANO DOMINIONI
Stefano Dominioni is executive secretary of the Council of Europe Enlarged Partial Agreement on Cultural Routes (EPA) and director of the European Institute of Cultural Routes in Luxembourg. He received his PhD, MPhil and MA from Yale University, as well as an MA from Université d’Aix-Marseille, and a BA from the University of Milan. He was also a research fellow at Cambridge University, England.
His responsibilites involve overseeing the certification by the Council of Europe of Cultural Routes in the field of European culture and heritage across its 47 member states and the regular evaluation of the current 33 certified cultural routes. Dominioni ensures EPA Governing Board and Statutory Committee operations, management of the European Institute of Cultural Routes, and coordination with the Cultural Routes of the Council of Europe.
He is also responsible for the implementation of Joint Programmes with the European Commission, and cooperation with other international organisations such as UNESCO, UNWTO, OECD and OEI. During his career at the Council of Europe, he has worked for the directorate general of Education, Culture and Youth and the directorate general of Social Cohesion.
RABIH EL CHAMMAY
Psychiatrist, Saint Joseph University, Lebanon
RABIH EL CHAMMAY
Dr Rabih El Chammay is a member of the Department of Psychiatry at Saint Joseph University in Beirut, Lebanon, where he teaches at the Faculty of Medicine. He is currently the head of the National Mental Health Programme at the Ministry of Public Health in Lebanon.
Upon founding the programme he led its development and is currently overseeing the implementation of the first National Mental Health and Substance Use Strategy 2015-2020, with the aim of reforming the Mental Health System for individuals in Lebanon, including Syrian and Palestinian refugees, and restructuring community-based mental health services that are in line with human rights.
For the past ten years he has been working on strengthening the health system in the MENA region, as well as internationally, in conjunction with various agencies such as WHO, UNHCR, UNICEF, IMC and many other NGOs, including International Medical Corps.
MAHA EL-ADAWY
MD and Director, Health Protection and Promotion, WHO Office Regional Office for the Eastern Mediterranean, Egypt
MAHA EL-ADAWY
Dr El-Adawy holds a bachelor of Medicine and Surgery from the Faculty of Medicine, Cairo University, Egypt, as well as a master’s degree in Public Health from the same university. She received a master’s degree in Public Health in Maternal and Child Health from the Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, USA, and a PhD in Public Health from Cairo University. She has been the director of the Division of Health Protection and Promotion at the World Health Organization since July 2016.
From August 2015 to July 2016 she worked as the representative of UNFPA in Iran. From January 2009 to August 2015 she held the position of program and technical regional advisor for Sexual Reproductive Health and Rights at the UNFPA regional office in Cairo. El-Adawy was also the policy adviser for health at the UNDP office in New York, USA, from June 2007 to December 2008.
El-Adawy held the position of senior Regional Reproductive Health and Reproductive Rights Program officer at the Ford Foundation, New York, from March 2000 to June 2007. She has held other senior health positions at the European Commission Delegation in Cairo, as well as at the Harvard School of Public Health in Boston.
She holds the Eisenhower fellowship for leadership development and also received a Takemi fellowship from the Harvard School of Public Health. She has also worked as a consultant for UNICEF, the World Bank and the American University in Beirut.
LAZARE ELOUNDOU ASSOMO
Director, Culture and Emergencies, UNESCO, France
LAZARE ELOUNDOU ASSOMO
Lazare Eloundou Assomo has been director for Culture and Emergencies at UNESCO since November 2018. He is an architect conservator and town-planner who specialises in earthen architecture and cultural heritage.
He was deputy director of the Division for Heritage and the UNESCO World Heritage Centre from 2016 to 2018. The entity for which he is responsible takes care of all matters regarding museums, restitution and the fight against illicit traffic, protection of cultural heritage in conflict situations, and underwater cultural heritage.
Before October 2016, he was UNESCO head of office and representative in Mali. His main responsibilities involved coordinating UNESCO’s actions to rehabilitate Mali’s cultural heritage and ancient manuscripts. It is in this capacity that he successfully coordinated the rapid reconstruction of the destroyed mausoleums in Timbuktu in close cooperation with MINUSMA, the United Nations peacekeeping mission in Mali.
Prior to being posted in Mali, Assomo was the chief of unit for Africa at the UNESCO World Heritage Centre, where he was in charge of coordinating cooperation between UNESCO and African member states for all issues related to world heritage.
He is the author of the book ‘African World Heritage, a remarkable diversity’, which was recently published by UNESCO.
BOAS EREZ
Rector, Università della Svizzera italiana, Switzerland
BOAS EREZ
Professor Boas Erez graduated in 1981 from the Liceo Cantonale (scientific lyceum) in Lugano, and continued his studies at the University of Geneva where he obtained a degree in mathematics in 1985 and, in 1987, a Ph.D. in mathematics. From 1985 to 1990, he was an assistant at the same university, before moving to Harvard University where he was Benjamin Peirce Assistant Professor from 1990 to 1993. In 1993, he was appointed Full professor of mathematics at the University of Bordeaux, where he held several executive positions at the level of institute, faculty, commissions, programmes, doctoral committees and international scientific projects. Erez was time and again a Board member of the University of Bordeaux 1, and was also vice-president of the university from 2005 to 2008. Erez is the author of numerous quality scientific publications and has regularly organized international activities in his subject field. He has great experience in the coordination of joint international projects in higher education. As of September 1st, 2016, Boas Erez is Rector of the Università della Svizzera italiana.
AMOS GITAÏ
Filmmaker and Author, Israel
AMOS GITAÏ
Amos Gitaï is an Israeli filmmaker. Upon receiving a PhD in architecture from the University of Berkeley, California, Gitaï devoted his first film, House (1980), to the construction of a house in West Jerusalem. His other films include Field Diary (1982), as well as fictional works and documentaries, including, Esther (1986), Berlin-Jerusalem (1989) and Golem, the Spirit of Exile (1991).
Gitaï’s work has received numerous awards, including: a Leopard of Honour in Locarno in 2008 for his lifetime’s work, the Roberto Rossellini Prize in 2005, the Robert Bresson Prize in 2013, and the Paradjanov Prize in 2014. He has also been awarded the distinctions of Officier des Arts et des Lettres (Official of Arts and Literature) and Chevalier de la Légion d’Honneur (Knight of the Legion of Honour).
Upon his return to Israel in 1993, Gitaï directed a three-city trilogy: Devarim, shot in Tel Aviv in 1995, Yom Yom, filmed in Haifa in 1998, and Kadosh, which was shot in Jerusalem in 1999. Four of his films have been shown in competition at the Cannes Film Festival (Kadosh, Kippur, Kedma, and Free Zone), and a further six at the Mostra in Venice (Berlin-Jerusalem, Eden, Alila, Promised Land, Ana Arabia, and Yitzhak Rabin: the Last Day).
In October 2018, a performance of Yitzhak Rabin: Chronicle of an Assassination Foretold, which was developed for the Festival d’Avignon in 2016, was presented at the Philharmonie de Paris, which featured the soprano Barbara Hendricks.
Retrospectives of his complete works have been presented at numerous institutions worldwide, including: Centre Pompidou, Cinémathèque française, Jerusalem Cinematheque, New York Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), Lincoln Center (New York), British Film Institute (London), Museo Reina Sofia (Madrid), Mostra São Paulo, State Film Museum (Moscow), and Japan Film Institute (Tokyo).
ENRICO GRANARA
Minister Plenipotentiary, Coordinator Euro-Mediterranean Multilateral Activities, Directorate General for Political and Security Affairs, Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation MAECI, Italy
ENRICO GRANARA
Enrico Granara graduated in Political Sciences from the University of Padua. Since 2013, he has been the coordinator of the Euro-Mediterranean Multilateral Activities at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. In this capacity he represents Italy at: the 5+5 Dialogue; the conference of ambassadors of the Union for the Mediterranean; the board of governors of the Anna Lindh Foundation for Dialogue between Cultures; and the Mediterranean Centre for Integration (CMI) supervisory committee.
He joined the Italian Foreign Service in 1983; in 1984, he was assigned to Maputo, Mozambique, where he served as first secretary for Development and Emergency Aid at the Italian Embassy.
In 1988, he was appointed consul in Grenoble, France, and in 1990 he was appointed consul general in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. He resumed his duties at the Foreign Ministry in 1992, where he served as deputy director of the Middle East and North Africa Desk until 1995.
He was then assigned to Mexico City as counsellor and DHM. In 1999, he was appointed consul general in Chicago (US Midwest). In 2003, he resumed his duties at the Ministry as head of the Budget Unit in the Directorate General for Development Aid, also serving as the Italian focal point for the Global Fund to Fight HIV, AIDS, TB and Malaria (GFATM).
In 2005, he was elected executive president of the Italian Diplomats Union and in 2008 he was appointed ambassador of Italy to the State of Kuwait. Upon completion of his mandate, he resumed his duties in Rome from 2012 to 2013 as counsellor for International Affairs at the Centre for High Defence Studies (CASD-Ministry of Defence).
SUZY HATOUGH
Director, Middle East Travel and Tourism Development Network, Middle East University, Jordan
SUZY HATOUGH
Dr Suzy Hatough-Bouran has more than 20 years’ experience in tourism education, quality assurance and human resources development. She is currently the advisor at Jordan Inbound Tour Operators Association (JITOA), leading the mission to empower youth in tourism and promoting sustainable tourism development in Jordan and the Middle East Region. Hatough believes that tourism is a vehicle for the advancement of the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), making it possible to create a better world for future generations.
Hatough was the former director of the Middle East Travel and Tourism Development Network Center at Middle East University (MEU) for one year. She was responsible for enhancing cooperation for sustainable development between countries in the Middle East, North Africa and the Mediterranean regions.
In 2000, she headed Ammon College for Hospitality and Tourism Education as vice dean for four years, after which, in 2009, she established Dar Al-Diafa for Hospitality and Tourism Education Consultancy, which offers academic and professional services to enterprises in order to contribute to the development of the tourist industry and competitiveness in Jordan and the Middle East Region.
Since 2009, Hatough has been a certified UNWTO TedQual Certification Program auditor. She has conducted audits on several tourism education programmes at universities in Europe and Asia and has also implemented regional developmental projects in the MENA Countries, with a particular focus on developing tourism education strategies and plans with regard to labour market needs in Algeria, Syria and Saudi Arabia.
Hatough has conducted customised sustainable development projects in the tourism sector in Jordan in cooperation with the USAID/Jordan Tourism Development Project (Siyaha), as well as the ongoing five-year USAID/Building Economic Sustainability through Tourism Project (BEST).
Hatough was appointed alternate member of the UNWTO-World Committee for Tourism Ethics (WCTE) from 2013 to 2017; her 4-year post has been renewed, which she will serve until 2021. She is responsible for promoting, advocating and implementing the Global Code of Ethics for Tourism in the Middle East Region.
NASSER KAMEL
General Secretary, Union for the Mediterranean UPM, Spain
NASSER KAMEL
Nasser Kamel has spent his career as a diplomat for the Egyptian government and is currently the secretary general of Union for the Mediterranean.
Kamel studied Political Science at Brussels University from 1977 to 1979 and at Cairo University’s Faculty of Economics and Political Science, obtaining his bachelor’s degree in 1981. He graduated from the Diplomatic Institute – Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Cairo in 1982 and the École Nationale d’Administration (ENA) in Paris in 1983.
From 2014 to 2018 he held the position of ambassador of Egypt to the United Kingdom. He was ambassador to France from 2006 to 2012, during which he took part in the drafting of the Joint Declaration of the 2008 Paris Summit that marked the launch of the Union for the Mediterranean. Furthermore, between 2012 and 2014, he was assistant minister for Arab and Middle Eastern Affairs. From 2004 to 2006, he was the director of Egypt’s Public Information Service.
He has also served in various embassies, including: Washington (1984-1988), Lisbon (1990-1994), Tunis (1994-1998), Brussels (1999-2001) and Paris (2001-2004).
He holds the title of Grand Officier de l’Ordre National du Mérite of the Republic of France and has also received decorations from the Kingdom of Belgium and the Republic of Portugal.
KARIN KNEISSL
Ambassador; Former Minister of Foreign Affairs; Analyst, Austria
KARIN KNEISSL
Karin Kneissl served as Austria’s minister of foreign affairs from December 2017 to June 2019.
She studied law and Arabic at the University of Vienna and received a scholarship for the Hebrew University of Jerusalem in 1988 where she wrote her thesis. Thereafter, she studied in Amman and at GU Washington, DC. She is also a graduate of ENA.
She lectures at the Vienna National Defence College and EBS Universität, Germany, as well as in Beirut, Tehran, and many other reputable institutions.
Karin joined the Austrian Ministry for Foreign Affairs in 1990 and served in Paris and Madrid, as well as in the legal office. In 1998, she became a freelance analyst and has written several books on energy, geopolitics and the Middle East.
GILLES KEPEL
Professor and Scientific Director of the Middle East Mediterranean Freethinking Platform, Università della Svizzera italiana, Switzerland; PLS Paris Sciences et Lettres-École Normale Supérieure, France
GILLES KEPEL
Professor Gilles Kepel is a French Political Scientist and Arabist, has specialised in the contemporary Middle East and Muslims in the West. He is the Director of the Middle East and Mediterranean Chair at PSL Paris Sciences et Lettres Research University, based at École Normale Supérieure. Kepel holds degrees in Arabic, English, and Philosophy, a PhD in Sociology and a Habilitation à Diriger des Recherches (HDR) in Political Science.
He has specialised in contemporary islamist movements since his 1983 PhD. He has been a Visiting Professor at New York University and Columbia University and was elected as a Senior Fellow at the Institut Universitaire de France from 2010 to 2015.
Professor Kepel created and was general editor of the series ‘Proche Orient’ at Presses Universitaires de France, which was comprised of 23 volumes between 2004 and 2017. His books, such as ‘The Revenge of God’ and ‘Jihad: The Trail of Political Islam’, have been translated in a dozen languages. Recently he has published ‘Terror in France: The Rise of Jihad in the West’ (Princeton U. Press, 2017).
ELENA KORZHENEVICH
Co-Founder and AtWork Program Director, Moleskine Foundation, Italy
ELENA KORZHENEVICH
Elena Korzhenevich is a graduate in Linguistics and International Communication at the Moscow State Linguistic University. She went on to receive a Master of Science in Journalism and Mass Communication, focusing primarily on advertising at San José State University, California, USA.
In May 2014, her career path took a different direction and she decided to dedicate herself to culture and knowledge. In the same year she joined the lettera27 Foundation as the communication director.
In 2017, she became the co-founder of the Moleskine Foundation and since 2019 she has been AtWork programme director, the key educational framework of the foundation. She is also in charge of the Moleskine Foundation Collection.
She has 13 years’ experience working at advertising agencies, including Ogilvy&Mather, Goodby, Silverstein&Partners and Leo Burnett, where she was a client service director on multiple key international accounts on a European and worldwide basis.
DEREK LUTTERBECK
Deputy Director and Holder of the Swiss Chair, Mediterranean Academy of Diplomatic Studies MEDAC, University of Malta, Malta
DEREK LUTTERBECK
Dr Derek Lutterbeck is deputy director and holder of the Swiss Chair at the Mediterranean Academy of Diplomatic Studies in Malta (MEDAC). Lutterbeck holds a master’s degree and a PhD in Political Science from the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies in Geneva, as well as a master’s Degree in Law from the University of Zürich.
Prior to joining MEDAC, he was at the Geneva Centre for Security Policy (GCSP). He has also worked as a consultant for the Geneva Centre for Democratic Control of Armed Forces (DCAF), the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), the International Centre for Migration Policy Development (ICMPD), and the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA).
His current research interests focus primarily on migration, as well as security and security sector reform issues in the Mediterranean region. His teaching interests also include 20th century international history.
His recent publications have appeared in journals such as Armed Forces and Society, the Journal of North African Studies, Mediterranean Politics, Mediterranean Quarterly, the Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, the Journal of Borderland Studies, Sicherheit und Frieden, the European Journal of International Relations, Contemporary Security Policy, European Security, and Cooperation and Conflict.
SAFWAN M. MASRI
Executive Vice President for Global Centers and Global Development, Columbia University, USA
SAFWAN M. MASRI
Professor Safwan M. Masri is executive vice president for Global Centers and Global Development at Columbia University and a senior research scholar at Columbia’s School of International and Public Affairs (SIPA). He is a lifetime member of the Council on Foreign Relations, an honorary fellow of the Foreign Policy Association, and a member of the International Advisory Council of the World Congress for Middle Eastern Studies (WOCMES).
A scholar on education and contemporary geopolitics and society in the Arab world, his work focuses on understanding the historic and postcolonial dynamics in religion, education, society and politics.
His writings on education and current affairs have been featured in the Financial Times, the Huffington Post, The Hill and Times Higher Education.
He is the author of ‘Tunisia: An Arab Anomaly’ (Columbia University Press, 2017), which examines why Tunisia was the only country to emerge from the Arab Spring as a democracy. The book has received positive coverage in a number of media outlets, including the Financial Times, Le Monde, Foreign Policy, Foreign Affairs, and the Journal of Democracy.
EL MOUHOUB MOUHOUD
Professor, University of Paris Dauphine PSL, France
EL MOUHOUB MOUHOUD
El Mouhoub Mouhoud is professor of Economics at the University of Paris Dauphine PSL where he teaches international economics. He is the director of the master’s in International Affairs and the founding director of the International research group Développement des Recherches Économiques Euroméditerranéennes (DREEM) of the French Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS).
Mouhoud’s research centres on globalisation, European integration, FDI, international migration and political economy of countries in the Middle East and North Africa. His current focus is on the role of migration policies in development, most notably on ways to leverage brain drain and remittances for development. As well as being a research fellow of the Economic Research Forum, he is a regular consultant for the OECD (Division of International Migration), the World Bank, UNFPA and UNCATD with regard to the aforementioned topics.
He has conducted several surveys among migrants and communities from France, Morocco, Algeria and Lebanon and has strong publication records in various journals, including: The Scandinavian Journal of Economics, Economic Modelling, The Journal of Development Studies, World Economic Review, Foresight, and The International Review of Applied Economics.
He has published many books, including L’immigration en France. Mythes et Réalité. (Fayard), in 2017.
EDUARDO SANTANDER
Executive Director, European Travel Commission (ETC), Belgium
EDUARDO SANTANDER
Mr Eduardo Santander is executive director of ETC and holds a PhD, as well as an MBA. Having been educated in Spain, USA and Austria, and having worked in various private companies and public institutions in the tourism and hospitality sector, his experience in tourism marketing, advocacy and public affairs is wide-ranging.
He is a guest lecturer on tourism marketing at international business seminars in a number of US and European universities. Santander is a frequent speaker in tourism, the hospitality industry and destination marketing forums, and is also a panellist.
BENEDETTO SARACENO
Psychiatrist; Director Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse of WHO, SG Lisbon Institute for Global Mental Health, Italy and Portugal
BENEDETTO SARACENO
Benedetto Saraceno is General Secretary of the Lisbon Institute of Global Mental Health and Global Ambassador of Special Olympics.
He is full professor of Global Health at the University of Lisbon where he directed the Global Mental Health project of the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation. In Lisbon he also heads the International Diploma in Mental Health Policies.
He served as Commissioner of the Lancet Commission on Global Mental Health. In Milan he leads the SOUQ Study Centre of the House of Charity. From 1999 to 2010 he had been the Director of the Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse of the World Health Organization and since 2008 he has also been leading the Department of Non-Communicable Diseases.
During his time at the WHO, Saraceno promoted the World Report on Mental Health and World Mental Health Day (2001) and developed mental health policies and human rights promotion in Africa, North and South America, the Middle East, South East Asia and the Far East. Saraceno is a psychiatrist and public health expert.
He has worked as a psychiatrist in Trieste under the direction of Franco Basaglia and in Milan as head of the Community for serious psychotic patients “Nuova Legge”. In 1985 he left the medical practice and became involved in research at the Mario Negri Institute for Pharmacological Research in Milan. In 1990 he became director of the Laboratory of Epidemiology and Social Psychiatry at the Mario Negri Institute. In 1990 he was one of the promoters of the Caracas Conference, which spread throughout the Latin America community models of psychiatric care inspired by the defense of the human rights of psychiatric patients, and taught at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro.
Saraceno has received an Honorary Degree from the Universities of Birmingham and Lisbon and is an honorary member of the Royal College of Psychiatry.
HERWIG FRANZ SCHOPPER
Advisor, Experimental Physicist, Former Director General CERN and one of the Founding Fathers of SESAME, Middle East, Jordan
HERWIG FRANZ SCHOPPER
Herwig Schopper has a diploma in Physics and a PhD from the University of Hamburg and is currently professor emeritus. He has held professorships at Erlangen, Mainz, Karlsruhe and Hamburg. He has also been the director of DESY in Hamburg, as well as the director general of CERN in Geneva, Switzerland. He has been the president of DPG and European Physical Society, and has been on the scientific council of The Cyprus Institute and the first SESAME Council.
Schopper has carried out research in Stockholm with Lise Meitner, at the Cavendish Laboratory in the UK with O.R.Frisch, and at Cornell University, USA, alongside R.R.Wilson. He has also carried out research in optics, as well as in nuclear- and elementary particle- physics.
In addition to having received several honorary doctorates, he is a member of various academies. He is also a recipient of the Grosses Bundesverdienstkreuz (The Great Federal Cross of Merit), the Grand Cordon of Order of Independence from Jordan, the Great Cross of Order of Merit from Cyprus, the UNESCO Albert Einstein Gold Medal, and the Niels Bohr Gold Medal.
ROLLA SCOLARI
Journalist, Italy
ROLLA SCOLARI
Rolla Scolari is a journalist who works with the Italian daily newspapers La Stampa and Il Foglio. Since 2005, she has worked in the Middle East for several Italian and international newspapers and television stations, including: Il Giornale, Il Foglio, Panorama, IL magazine (Il Sole 24Ore), Sky TG24 and The National.
From 2015 to 2018 she was editorial and communication director at Fondazione Internazionale Oasis, a research centre based in Milan and Venice, which studies the interaction between Christians and Muslims within the global context. From 2011 to 2013 her reporting on the ground focused on explaining to readers the Arab revolts and their aftermath in Tunisia, Egypt, Libya and Morocco.
She has covered the Israeli disengagement from the Gaza Strip, the rise to power of Hamas, and the subsequent Palestinian struggle. In November 2006, she was in Istanbul and Ankara, Turkey, for the historic visit of Pope Benedict XVI. From December 2007 to January 2008 she was embedded within the American army in Iraq.
In 2005, she reported for Il Foglio in Beirut, a period during which the country was going through testing times. During her time in Cairo from 2005 to 2006, she reported on the Egypt’s historic first presidential elections and the subsequent parliamentary vote that saw the ascendance of the Muslim Brotherhood.
YVES UBELMANN
President and Co-founder, Iconem, France
YVES UBELMANN
Yves Ubelmann is president and co-founder of Iconem, which specialises in the 3D digitisation of endangered cultural heritage sites. After graduating from the École Nationale Supérieure d’architecture de Versailles in 2006, Ubelmann worked as an architect in Syria and Afghanistan, where he surveyed and interpreted archaeological sites. This experience inspired him to develop a high-tech, photogrammetric approach to survey archaeological sites.
In 2013, he co-founded Iconem, which is currently active in 30 countries, to further conservation of cultural heritage threatened by looting, urbanisation, mass tourism, armed conflict, and climate change. Its expert team travels the globe, combining the largescale scanning capacity of drones and the photorealistic quality of 3D to create digital replicas of our most treasured places. Iconem works with international organisations, national governments, local authorities, and world class museums such as UNESCO, the Aga Khan Trust for Culture, the Sultanate of Oman, the City of Paris, and the Louvre.
TARIK M. YOUSEF
Director, Brookings Doha Center, Qatar; Board Member, Central Bank of Libya, Libya
TARIK M. YOUSEF
Tarik M. Yousef is senior fellow and director of the Brookings Doha Center. His professional career has spanned the academic world at Georgetown University and the Harvard Kennedy School; the public policy arena at the IMF, the World Bank, the UN, and more recently the NGO space at Silatech.
His research has focused on the political economy of policy reform and the dynamics of youth inclusion in the Arab world. He has contributed to more than 50 articles and chapters, and co-edited several volumes, including: ‘Generation in Waiting: The Unfulfilled Promise of Young People in the Middle East’ (Brookings Press, 2009); ‘After the Spring: Economic Transition in the Arab World’ (Oxford University Press, 2012); ‘Young Generation Awakening: Economics, Society, and Policy on the Eve of the Arab Spring’ (Oxford University Press, 2016); and the forthcoming volume ‘Public Sector Reform in the Middle East and North Africa: Lessons of Experience for a Region in Transition’ (Brookings Press, 2018).
PIO WENNUBST
Vice Director General, Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC), Federal Department of Foreign Affairs (FDFA), Switzerland
PIO WENNUBST
Ambassador Pio Wennubst is assistant director general of the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) and head of the Global Cooperation Department.
He is a visionary who has worked successfully in promoting sustainable and fair globalisation. Having trained as an agricultural economist, his work involves developing viable solutions for implementing political agreements. After working as managing director of a Swiss chemical company, he moved to the public sector, joining the SDC in 1995. On the strength of many years’ experience in international development diplomacy, in his current position he is successfully mobilising both private companies and individuals to take part in building the ‘new economy’.
Forum Programme and Registration
Programme
The Forum programme will be available in the weeks leading up to the Forum dates.
Registration
Online registrations for the Forum will open in the weeks leading up to the event.
Language
English, French, and Italian with simultaneous interpretation.
Practical Information
Transport
By train: Lugano is one of the principal stops on the main European North-South route and can be reached from many cities in the northern and southern part of Europe by direct day or night train connections. Check trains and updated departure times from/to Lugano here.
By plane: The quickest way to get to Lugano from most places abroad, will be through a number of airports listed below:
- From Milano Malpensa: The S50 is the train line that connects Lugano and Malpensa. Check trains and updated departure times here. Direct bus connections to Lugano are available on demand. To make a reservation contact Giosy Tours at +41 79 133 53 23.
- Lugano Airport is served by Swiss International Air Lines. From the airport, you can take a shuttle bus to the centre of the city or a taxi.
- Zurich Airport: As an alternative you might consider flying to Zurich and use the train to travel to Lugano (overall, a 2h journey). There is a direct, hourly train from Zurich main station to Lugano. It is a chance to experience the longest train tunnel in Europe by passing under the Gotthard.
Visa
For citizens of the following countries, only a valid passport is required to travel in Switzerland: Americas (except Belize, Dominican Republic, Haiti, Colombia and Peru), Europe, Japan, Australia and New Zealand. Passport holders from other countries should consult the relevant visa requirements.
Please note that the general visa and entry procedure is described in detail in this information sheet.
Leisure
The Lugano region is well-known for the beauty of its landscape, lake, mountains and Mediterranean vegetation.
For further information: https://www.luganoregion.com/en