Walden Bello

Focus on the Global South

Walden Bello is a senior analyst, and he co-founded Focus in 1995 with UNDP Senior Advisor Kamal Malhotra. Until recently, he was a representative to Congress in the Republic of the Philippines. A 2003 recipient of the prestigious Right Livelihood Award (the “Alternative Nobel Prize”), Walden is considered the most respected anti-globalization thinker in Asia by the Belgian newspaper Le Soir. He is the author and co-author of more than 14 books.

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Timuay Santos Magay Unsad

Timuay Justice and Governance

Timuay Santos Unsad is Teduray leader from Upi, Maguindanao. He is a member of Minted sa Inged (Supreme Council) of the Timuay Justice and Governance (TJG) with the position of Titay  Bleyen (Assistant Supreme Chieftain). Timuay Justice and Governance (TJG) is an Indigenous  Political Structure (IPS) or customary governance system of the Téduray and Lambangian Tribes in South-Central Mindanao.

Polly Jones

Global Justice Now (UK)

Polly Jones is the head of the policy and campaigns of Global Justice Now in the UK. Polly was International Officer for UNISON, the public service trade union. She has worked with trade unions and other civil society groups all around the world, in particular southern Africa and Latin America. Her areas of expertise include international development, trade and public services.

Tao

Artist

Tao sings and writes her own songs, and acts on stage and in film. She works as an assistant operations manager and events booker. She was Task Force Pride’s Communications and Campaigns Committee Co-Head for the 20th Metro Manila Pride March in 2014. She headed Lesbian Activism Project, Inc.’s staging of “Hubad: Mga Kwento ng Kalayaan”, a collection of monologues about Coming Out, in 2012 and 2013. She worked in Quezon City Hall’s Gender and Development Resource and Coordinating Office as a documentor in 2013 and 2014. Her most recent role onstage was as the 14-, 35-, and 55-year old Carmen “Nanay Mameng” Deunida in Nanay Mameng: Isang Dula, produced by Kalipunan ng Damayang Mahihirap and the Urban Poor Resource Center of the Philippines

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Surichai Wun'gaeo

Chulalongkorn University

Professor Emeritus of Sociology Surichai Wun’gaeo is currently Director at Center for Peace and Conflict Studies, Chulalongkorn University. After finishing his post-graduate studies at University of Tokyo, he has successively held various academic posts including Director, Chulalongkorn University Social Research Institute and visiting professorships at various universities including Hitotsubashi, University of Illinois-UC and Humbolt. He has been Professor of Sociology, Chulalongkorn University, since 2009. Ajarn Surichai is the current chair of Focus’ Board

Amit Sengupta

People’s Health Movement

Amit was trained in medicine and works on issues related to public health, pharmaceuticals policy, and other S&T policy issues like Intellectual Property Rights. He is associated with the Peoples Science Movement in India and the Global Peoples Health Movement. He has also been involved in implementation of a number of research projects related to health, IPRs and Medicines Policy. He held /still hold positions of: General Secretary, All India Peoples Science Network, Co-Convenor, Peoples  Health Movement-India (PHM – India), Associate Co-cordinator, Global Sectt. of Peoples Health Movement (Global), and Managing Editor of Global Health Watch.

Lidy Nacpil

Asian People’s Movement on Debt and Development (APMDD)

Lidy Nacpil, who recently joined 350.org’s board of directors, is an activist from the Philippines working on economic, environmental, social and gender justice issues in national, regional and global campaigns. She is the Coordinator of APMDD, Co-coordinator of the Global Campaign to Demand Climate Justice (DCJ), and member of the Coordinating Committee of the Global Alliance on Tax Justice (GATJ). She also serves as the Vice President of the Freedom From Debt Coalition (FDC) in the Philippines and Convenor of the Philippine Movement for Climate Justice (PMCJ).

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Jenina Joy Chavez

Action for Economic Reforms (AER)

Jenina Joy Chavez coordinates the AER Industrial Policy Team. She was a Senior Associate and Philippines Programme Coordinator with Focus on the Global South until 2011. She works on the political economy of industrial policy, the nexus of economic policy making and public health, and regional social policy. She volunteers for the Solidarity for Asian People’s Advocacy on the strengthening of the social dimension in regional integration and the democratization of ASEAN processes to include non-state actors; and the Right to Know. Right Now! Coalition on the campaign for the passage of the People’s Freedom of Information Act.

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Silvia Ribeiro

ETC

Silvia Ribeiro is the Latin America Director for ETC group and a board member of Focus on the Global South. She has a background as a journalist and environmental campaigner in Uruguay, Brazil and Sweden and extensive experience in social and environmental advocacy. As a civil society representative, she has attended and followed the negotiations of several of United Nations environmental treaties. She has also been an invited speaker at many civil society events around the world speaking on transgenic and other new technologies, corporate concentration, intellectual property, indigenous and farmers’ rights.

Nutchanart Thanthong

Four Regions Slum Network

Nutchanart is an urban poor and land activist in Thailand and is one of the key active members of the Four Regions Slum Network and People’s Movement (PMove).

Max de Mesa

Philippine Alliance of Human Rights Advocates (PAHRA)

Max de Mesa is the Chairman of PAHRA, an advocacy centre that has been committed to working towards the respect, promotion, protection and fulfillment of human rights since 1986.

Premrudee Daoroung

TERRA

Premrudee is the co–director of Toward Ecological Recovery and Regional Alliance (TERRA) and has been working in the Mekong for more than 20 years on ecological issues.

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Peter Rosset

La Via Campesina

Dr. Peter Rosset is a food rights activist, agroecologist and rural development specialist based in Chiapas, Mexico, where he is a researcher at El Colegio de la Frontera Sur (ECOSUR) and at El Centro de Estudios para el Cambio en el Campo Mexicano, and co-coordinator of the Land Research Action Network. He is also a member of the technical team of La Via Campesina. Peter was board member for many years of Focus on the Global South.

Charles Santiago

Member of Parliament-Malaysia

Charles Santiago is a Malaysian economist and MP. Prior to his election, he worked for NGOs such as the Coalition Against Water Privatization and Monitoring the Sustainability of Globalization Malaysia. He is the co-coordinator of the EU-ASEAN FTA Campaign Network and is part of the international organizing committee of the Asia Europe Peoples’ Forum (AEPF).

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Christophe Aguiton

ATTAC - France

Christophe Aguiton is a French alter-globalization activist and a board member of Focus on the Global South. In the 1980s Christophe Aguiton co-founded the union Solidarity, Unity, Democracy (SUD). He is also a co-founder of Attac France, and a member of the International Council of the World Social Forum.

Henry Saragih

La Via Campesina

Henry Saragih is Chairman of the Indonesian Peasant Union (SPI — Serikat Petani Indonesia), and the former General Coordinator of La Via Campesina. La Via Campesina is an organization of organizations, part of a global movement of peasants, family farmers, indigenous and landless people.

Brid Brennan

Transnational Institute

Brid is a researcher with TNI’s Economic Justice and Alternatives Program. She is co-founder of the European Solidarity Centre for the Philippines and most recently, RESPECT, a Europe-wide anti-racist network for migrant domestic workers. Brid is also one of the prime movers of the Global Campaign to Dismantle Corporate Power and Stop Impunity.

Marina Durano

UP Asian Center/DAWN

Marina Durano is currently a professor at the University of the Philippines Asian Center. Before joining the university, she spent more than 15 years engaged in strengthening women’s political engagement with macroeconomic policies and global economic governance structures with DAWN or Development Alternatives with Women for a New Era and with the International Gender and Trade Network.

Seema Mustafa

The Citizen

Seema is the Editor-in-Chief of The Citizen, India’s first independent online daily newspaper in English. She is also the Director of the Centre for Policy Analysis (CPA), an independent and non-profit policy research centre based in New Delhi and a board member of Focus on the Global South. Seema is a senior journalist who has worked in and edited several newspapers, including Patriot, Indian Express, The Telegraph, Economic Times and Asian Age. She was also with the News X channel as their National Affairs Editor. She has covered conflict in both India and abroad, and writes extensively on politics. She has authored two books V.P.Singh: The Lonely Messiah; and more recently Azadi’s Daughter. She has edited a book of essays on Journalism: Ethics and Responsibilities

Pablo Solon

Fundacion Solon

Pablo Solon is Focus on the Global South’s former Executive Director (2012-2015). He was also previously the ambassador of Bolivia, under the Evo Morales government, to the United Nations. As ambassador, he became known as a tireless advocate for the rights of nature; he delivered the now famous speech explaining why Bolivia chose to “stand alone” by not signing the Cancun climate agreement in 2010. Before holding this post, he was a social activist involved in indigenous movements, workers’ unions, student associations, human rights and cultural organizations in his native Bolivia. He is also extensively involved in the global justice movement.