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The Elections in the DR Congo: Perspectives from International Observers

The 121st Great Lakes Policy forum, which will provide a debriefing on the first round of elections in the DRC. This event will be held at John's Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies.

Date & Time

Thursday
Sep. 7, 2006
9:00am – 11:00am ET

Overview

The partners of the Great Lakes Policy Forum cordially invite you to attend the:

121st GREAT LAKES POLICY FORUM

With:

Nancy J. Walker President, Africanet

Tony Gambino Independent Consultant

Paul Simo, Independent Consultant

The forum will be facilitated by

Sandra Melone, Executive Director, Search for Common Ground

Refreshments will be served. All are welcome at the meeting. If you think of anyone else who should be invited, please pass his or her name along to us. Journalists may participate, but discussion is not for attribution.

This event will be held in the Kenney Auditorium of the Nitze Building at The School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS), 1740 Massachusetts Avenue NW, Washington, DC.

If you have any questions or feedback about the forum, please contact Marco Konings or Graham Couturier at Search for Common Ground: 202-265-4300. Kindly RSVP by following the link above or by fax to: 202-232-6718.

SPEAKER BIOGRAPHIES

Nancy Walker is President of AfricaNet, an independent institute that focuses on human security and security sector governance in Africa and serves as a long-term development resource to civilian, military, and civil society leaders throughout the continent. Prior to her work with AfricaNet, Dr. Walker spent ten years in leadership positions at the Department of Defense on U.S.-Africa relations, peacekeeping policy, and security policy. Dr. Walker served as the founding Director of the Africa Center for Strategic Studies. Dr. Walker holds a bachelors degree from Harvard and Radcliffe Colleges and a doctorate in politics from Oxford University. She serves on the International Advisory Board of the Geneva Center for the Democratic Control of the Armed Forces and on the Board of Directors of the U.S. Committee for the UNDP. Before government service, Dr. Walker was active in German Television, a women's NGO, and investment banking. Dr. Walker was stationed as an election observer for the Carter Center in Kinshasa.

Tony Gambino was a Peace Corps Volunteer in the then-Zaire from 1979-1982. He has served on the staff of the Select Committee of Hunger of the House of Representatives and as Public Policy Director for InterAction. During most of the 1980s and early 1990s he worked on Central Africa as a volunteer for Amnesty International. In 1994, he joined the State Department, working in the office of the Under Secretary for Global Affairs and later in the Bureau of Public Affairs. From 1997 to 2004, Mr. Gambino worked for USAID, first as Congo Coordinator, then as Great Lakes Coordinator, and finally as USAID Mission Director for the Congo (2001-2004). He has a Master's Degree in Public Administration from the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs and is now a self-employed consultant. Mr. Gambino was stationed in Goma as an election observer for the Carter Center.

Paul Simo until recently served as the Africa Program Director at Global Rights. Since 1999 he coordinated Central African regional projects that support indigenous civil society organizations in their efforts to monitor and challenge human rights abuses. Through Global Rights offices across Africa, Mr. Simo provided strategic guidance to in-country human rights programs, policy-makers and social justice advocates that aim to ensure justice in post-conflict environments. Before Global Rights, Mr. Simo worked for the Global Campaign for Freedom of Expression, where his research on freedom of expression in Israel and the Occupied Territories led to a report submitted in June 1998 to the U.N. Human Rights Committee. Originally from Cameroon, Mr. Simo has studied at the Universities of Buea (Cameroon), Nottingham (England), and Notre Dame (Indiana, USA). Mr. Simo is a member of the New York Bar. He was stationed as an election observer in Kasai.

The Great Lakes Policy Forum aims to keep the Great Lakes on the agenda of policy makers and provides a platform where Government, NGOs, academics, and the Diaspora come together to search cooperatively for solutions to the region's conflicts. The forum is usually held on the first Thursday of each month.

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Hosted By

Africa Program

The Africa Program works to address the most critical issues facing Africa and US-Africa relations, build mutually beneficial US-Africa relations, and enhance knowledge and understanding about Africa in the United States. The Program achieves its mission through in-depth research and analyses, public discussion, working groups, and briefings that bring together policymakers, practitioners, and subject matter experts to analyze and offer practical options for tackling key challenges in Africa and in US-Africa relations.    Read more

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