Former President of Mozambique Joins Global Development Program Advisory Panel - Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation

SEATTLE -- The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation today announced that Joaquim Alberto Chissano, former president of the People’s Republic of Mozambique, has joined the foundation’s Global Development Program as a program advisory panel member. Chissano is widely regarded for his international leadership and political achievements, including winning the first-ever Prize for Achievement in African Leadership awarded by the Mo Ibrahim Foundation.

As part of the six-member advisory panel, Chissano will offer guidance to the Global Development Program President Sylvia Mathews Burwell on a range of development issues. He will also assist in shaping the strategy of the program and assessing its impact.

Chissano replaces Lawrence H. Summers, former president of Harvard University, who joined the Obama administration this year.

Chissano served as Mozambique’s Minister of Foreign Affairs before he became president in 1986. During his presidency, he successfully led socio-economic reforms in the country. These culminated with the adoption of the 1990 Constitution that led Mozambique to a multi-party system and an open market. In 1994, Chissano won the first multi-party elections in the country’s history and was re-elected in 1999.

Currently, Chissano is chairperson of both the Joaquim Chissano Foundation and the Africa Forum of Former African Heads of State and Government. He also leads the International Contact Group for mediation on the political crisis in Madagascar. Prior to these positions, Kofi Annan appointed Chissano in 2007 as the Special Envoy of the UN Secretary-General to the areas affected by the Lord Resistencia’s Army (LRA) in Uganda. In 2006 Chissano chaired a Comité International des Sages, which helped the Democratic Republic of the Congo go through its political transition.

Established in 2006, the Global Development Program seeks to increase opportunities for people in the developing world to lift themselves out of hunger and poverty. The program focuses on a limited number of areas with the potential for large-scale, sustainable impact, including agricultural development and financial services for the poor. The Agricultural Development initiative is working with a wide range of partners to provide millions of small farmers in the developing world with tools and opportunities to boost their yields, increase their incomes, and build better, healthier lives. The Financial Services for the Poor initiative is focused on increasing access to safe places to save and other financial tools so people can manage unexpected events, invest in opportunities, and build financial security. The Global Development Program also focuses on water, sanitation, and hygiene; emergency relief; and global libraries.