Priorities for Democracy that Delivers: Voices from Emerging Markets

14 December 2021  09:00 - 11:00

Virtual Event | Organised by Center for International Private Enterprise | Held in United States in English
Contact details: FEDNSecretariat@cipe.org
Defending against authoritarianism
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Presenters

• Abdulwahab Alkebsi, Managing Director, Programs, Center for International Private Enterprise – Abdulwahab Alkebsi is the Managing Director for Programs at the Center for International Private Enterprise (CIPE), a non-profit affiliate of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and one of the four core institutes of the National Endowment for Democracy (NED). Alkebsi oversees almost 200 programs in more than 80 countries and supervises staff and representatives in more than two dozen countries as CIPE expands. They include Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Tunisia, Nigeria, Ethiopia, Ukraine, Slovakia, Philippines, Cambodia, Colombia, and Guatemala and at CIPE’s head office in Washington, DC. Follow Abdu on Twitter.
• Jorge Botti, Foremer President, Fedecámaras – Venezuelan entrepreneur with business activity in Venezuela. Founding partner of various companies in the field of hardware distribution, telecommunications and consulting.
• Cynthia Gabriel, Founding Director, Center to Combat Corruption and Cronyism – Cynthia Gabriel is easily recognized as a key advocate of human rights and good governance in Malaysia and on the global platform. Academically well rounded, she has degrees in both the science and legal fraternities. She has a degree in Analytical Chemistry and is a practicing legal advocate. While she has worked in the private sector and carried out consultancies for the United Nations, she remains a strong believer in independent civil society, having served on the international board as Vice President of the global human rights advocacy group, the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH), co -founded the Asia Forum for Human Rights and Development (FORUM ASIA) human rights network, led prominent human rights group SUARAM, and is currently the Vice Chair of the UN Convention Against Corruption (UNCAC) coalition, comprising about 400 organisations worldwide. Cynthia has showed remarkable leadership and valour as she led the Centre to Combat Corruption and Cronyism (C4), from strength to strength, challenged truth to power with her courageous voice and spoken at high level panels, multistakeholder global conferences and articulately presented papers and talks at various global fora. With advanced legal knowledge on anti-corruption, and governance related laws locally and globally, Cynthia strives to offer legal and consulting services and share her expertise to help shape the anti-corruption agenda at all levels.
• Claudia Umaña Araujo, President, Fusades Claudia Umaña Araujo is a lawyer and legal researcher born in San Salvador, El Salvador. While studying for her law degree from the University Dr. Jose Matías Delgado, the country went through one of its most convulsive times. These circumstances had a great impact on her life and is what has led her to devote most of her career to the pursuit of modernization of the State, search of opportunities through trade and the promotion of the importance of transparency and rule of law as the path to prosperity and peace. She is the first woman President of FUSADES, which has been ranked among the top 12 in Latin America according the “Think Tank Initiative.” She was the founder and former President for 10 years of the NGO: Democracy – Transparency – Justice (DTJ), which promotes transparency, women’s rights and rule of law. Claudia was also a public servant for almost a decade working as the Director of Trade/Commercial Policy of the Ministry of Economy of El Salvador, with the rank of Special Ambassador for Trade Negotiations. During the years that she held office she coordinated the team that negotiated the WTO agreements, CAFTA-DR, Central America and Chile FTA, among other trade treaties. She was also the head of the Central American Economic Integration process. In 2014, she was awarded the “Order of Bernardo O’Higgins” in rank of Officer, by the Government of Chile and in June 2018. Claudia is one of the 12 Salvadoran leaders that are members of the Central American Prosperity Project which is a program to develop action-oriented strategies for achieving inclusive growth in the Northern Triangle, launched in 2018 by the George W. Bush Institute. In 2020, in honour of International Women’s Day, the Bush Institute experts recognized her as a trailblazing woman in their leadership programs.  Claudia is a Fellow of the sixth class of the Central America Leadership Initiative (CALI) and a member of the Aspen Global Leadership Network.
• Andrew Wilson, Executive Director, Center for Internation Private Enterprise – Andrew Wilson is the Executive Director of the Center for International Private Enterprise (CIPE) in Washington, D.C. Wilson has extensive experience working with the private sector on development issues in conflict and post-conflict settings, crafting successful business strategies to reduce corruption, encouraging entrepreneurship development, strengthening business advocacy, improving corporate governance standards, and promoting economic reform. He is called on frequently to speak about the linkages between democracy and business, as well as the challenges to growth in emerging markets, including corruption and the threat of corrosive capital. Follow Andrew on Twitter.