2024 edition of the Kofi Annan Eminent Speakers’ Lecture Series

His Excellency Mr. Michael Daniel Higgins
President of Ireland

On 11 November 2011, Michael D. Higgins was inaugurated as the ninth President of Ireland and re-elected on 11 November 2018 to serve a second term in office. A passionate political voice, a poet and writer, academic and statesman, human rights...

KOFI ANNAN EMINENT SPEAKERS’ LECTURE SERIES, 2023 EDITION

Jim Yong Kim

Former World Bank President Jim Yong Kim will deliver the 2023 Kofi Annan Eminent Speakers’ Lecture at an online event organised by the African Development Bank Group’s African Development Institute (ADI).

The session, titled The Changing Global Development Finance Architecture: Implications for Multilateral Development Banks post COVID...

KOFI ANNAN EMINENT SPEAKERS’ LECTURE SERIES – 26 November 2012

Jean-Michel Severino 

The management of international development has been the dominant part of Mr. Jean-Michel Severino’s career. General Inspector of Finances, French Ministry of Finances. Former Vice-President of the World Bank for Asia, former Director General of the Agence Française de Développement From 2001 to 2009, Jean-Michel Severino was the...

KOFI ANNAN EMINENT SPEAKERS’ LECTURE SERIES – June 2007

Prof. Paul Collier

Prof. Paul Collier of Oxford University presented a paper entitled: "Post Conflict Recovery: How Should AfDB Strategies Be Distinctive" in which he said that post-conflict countries in Africa constituted a unique group deserving special policies and assistance from aid donors, given that there was a high risk...

KOFI ANNAN EMINENT SPEAKERS’ LECTURE SERIES – 13 April 2006

Calestous Juma

Prof. Calestous Juma, Director of the Science, Technology, and Globalization Project at Harvard University, presented a highly interactive seminar on the theme: "Reinventing Growth: Technological Innovation and Economic Revival in Africa". The professor perceived an opportunity for Africa’s sustainable development through a new conceptual framework, which defines the...

KOFI ANNAN EMINENT SPEAKERS’ LECTURE SERIES – 12 October 2006

Michel Camdessus

Mr. Michel Camdessus, the International Monetary Fund’s former Managing Director, focused on: Improving Access for African Rural Areas to Water and Sanitation. He reflected on various efforts made to achieve the Millennium Development Goal (MDG) of reducing, by half, the over two billion people who lack access to...

KOFI ANNAN EMINENT SPEAKERS’ LECTURE SERIES – 13 November 2006

Kingsley Y. Amoako

Mr. K. Y. Amoako, the United Nations’ Economic Commission for Africa’s (UNECA) former Executive Secretary and a member of the International Task Force on Global Public Goods, presented the Task Force’s report entitled, "Meeting Global Challenges: International Cooperation in the National Interest". He focused on six categories...

KOFI ANNAN EMINENT SPEAKERS’ LECTURE SERIES - October 25, 2010

Wole Soyinka

The first African to win the Nobel Prize in literature, Wole Soyinka, has said that the reversal of Africa’s brain drain is key to the continent’s development. The Nigerian literary icon and civic activist made the statement at the African Development Bank (AfDB) Group’s Sixteenth Eminent Speakers Programme...

KOFI ANNAN EMINENT SPEAKERS’ LECTURE SERIES - 2 March 2006

Kenneth Kaunda

The AfDB launched the 2006 Eminent Speakers Seminar on Thursday 2 March 2006. The Keynote speech was delivered by Dr. Kenneth Kaunda, the First President of the Republic of Zambia who spoke on the theme: "The HIV/AIDS Pandemic in Africa: My Hopes and Fears".

Kenneth Kaunda (28...

KOFI ANNAN EMINENT SPEAKERS’ LECTURE SERIES - 13-Dec-2006

Benjamin Mkapa

Tanzania’s former President, Benjamin Mkapa, was in Tunis on December 11 and 12 to make a presentation on "Governance and Investment in Africa: Experience After 40 Years" as part of the African Development Bank (AfDB) Group’s Eminent Speakers’ series. Mr. Mkapa, came to the Bank with a message:...

KOFI ANNAN EMINENT SPEAKERS’ LECTURE SERIES, 6 July 2012

John Agyekum Kufuor

John Agyekum Kufuor Former President of Ghana (2001-2009) Date and Place of Birth: 8 December 1938, Kumasi (Ghana). Education: Mr. Kufuor was called to the Bar at Lincoln Inn, London (1959-1961) and obtained an Honours Degree in Philosophy, Politics and Economics from Exeter College, University of Oxford...

KOFI ANNAN EMINENT SPEAKERS’ LECTURE SERIES – 27 September 2007

Abdou Diouf

Mr. Diouf will give a presentation onImproving Africa’s Perspectives in a Globalized World: the Role of Regional Integration.The session will be chaired by ADB President, Mr. Donald Kaberuka.

Mr. Abdou Diouf was elected Secretary-General of the Francophonie on 20 October 2002, during the Ninth Francophonie Summit in Bayreuth....