Speaker

Dr. Hans d'Orville

From 2000 until end-2014, he served as Assistant Director-General for Strategic Planning of UNESCO, having also been in 2010 Acting Deputy Director-General of the Organization. In 2015, he was Special Advisor to the UNESCO DG. His responsibilities covered global strategic planning, UN systemwide reform issues, including the Agenda 2030 and its sustainable development goals (SDGs). - In 2014, he also directed the Secretariat of the Scientific Advisory Board of the UN SG, chaired by the UNESCO DG. In 2016, he served as Senior Consultant on budgetary issues to La Francophonie. Prior to joining UNESCO in 2000, Mr d’Orville was 1996-2000 Director of the Information Technologies for Development Programme of UNDP. In 1975 he had been appointed to the UN Secretariat, where he held various functions, among others Secretary of the UN Committee on Conferences. In 1982, he became Senior Officer to the UNDP Administrator, dealing with UNDP’s Governing Council. Between 1986 and 1995, he was - on assignment from UNDP - Executive Coordinator of the InterAction Council of former Heads of State and Government, chaired by former German Chancellor Helmut Schmidt and comprising more than 30 former world leaders. Further, Mr. d’Orville was Member/Co-founder of the Africa Leadership Forum, Ota, Nigeria, led by former President Olusegun Obasanjo, serving on its Executive Committee (1988-2007). He was Advisor to international initiatives like the Independent Commission of Population and Quality of Life, the International Commission on Forests and Sustainable Development, and the annual Eco-Forum Global (EFG) in Guiyang, Guizhou province (from 2009 until now), with membership since 2014 on the EFG International Advisory Council, co-chaired by former Chinese State Councilor Dai Bingguo, former Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd and former Irish Prime Minister Bertie Ahern. Since 2014, he is Honorary Professor at the South China University of Technology, Guangzhou and the Guangdong University of Foreign Studies. In 2021, he became Guest Professor at Jinan University, where he also holds the position of Senior Consultant of the Academy of Cultural Heritage and Creative Industry. - He further is an Advisor to the Centre for China and Globalisation (CCG) in Beijing and serves since 2019 as President of the Advisory Committee of the International Centre for Creativity and Sustainable Development and as Chief Advisor to its Creativity 2030 journal. From 2019 to 2020, he served as Senior Fellow of the International Bureau of Education (IBE), Geneva. During 2014-2015, he also was Economic Advisor to the Governor of Guangdong Province. Since 2021, he has co-organised a series of international youtube webinars on the impact of creative cities, architecture and music on sustainable development. In 2014, he was elected Fellow of the World Academy of Arts and Sciences. He served as member of the board of various cultural associations, Since 2017, he is an elected Board member of the German Association for the UN. He further is a member of the German Association for Foreign Policy and the Cercle de l’Union Interalliee in Paris. A speaker at numerous international events and conferences since more than 40 years, he is also author and/or editor of a large number of publications and articles. Born in 1949, he holds a Dr. rer. soc. (1976) and M.A. (1973) in economics from the University of Konstanz, Germ