MEDays 2010, Over 50 countries confirm their participation

The Amadeus Institute is announcing its first confirmed speakers participating in the third edition of the MEDays Forum, “The South: Between crisis and emergence” taking place from the 10^th to 13^th November in Tangier. This high level community of speakers includes international policymakers and experts from over 50 countries from the South and the North. Working sessions at the MEDays 2010 – Plenary sessions and panels – are open to the public. Information regarding registration to attend these debates can be found on the forum’s website www.medays.org.

Following the success of its first two editions, the MEDays Forum has become the strategic meeting bringing together global players involved in the geostrategic, political and economic spheres of Southern countries and more specifically the Maghreb, the Mediterranean, Africa and the Arab world. For its third edition, the MEDays opens up to Latin America and Asia and becomes officially « MEDays, the Southern Forum ». Over 50 countries at the ministerial or official level have confirmed their participation to take part in the discussions and exchanges that will be centering on experience sharing between the 3As - Latin America, Africa and Asia – while tackling the necessity to develop North-South dialogue and cooperation.
High level speakers who have confirmed their participation at the MEDays 2010 sessions already include Rajendra Kumar Pachauri ,

Chairman of the intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), Salam Fayyad, Prime Minister of the Palestinian Authority, Saeb Erakat, Chief Negotiator for the Palestinian Authority, Yasser Abed Rabbo, Member of the executive committee of the PLO & Co-Chair of the Geneva Initiative, Cheikh Muhammad Hussein, Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, William Shomali Auxiliary Bishop, Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem, Abdoulaye Diop, Minister of Economy and Finance of Senegal, Marc Otte, High Representative of the EU for the Peace Process in the Middle East, Ahmad Massad'eh, Secretary-General of the Union for the Mediterranean, Usackas Vygaudas, EU Special Representative and Head of EU Delegation to Afghanistan and Maria Cristina Perceval, Under-Secretary of State for Human Rights of Argentina.

Apart from these personalities, many international policymakers have already confirmed their participation, including among them Deng Alor - Minister of Foreign Affairs of Sudan, Samuel Amete Sarr, Minister of Energy of Senegal, Mohamed Yonis, Deputy Joint AU-UN Special Representative for Operations and Management, Laura Thompson, Deputy Director General of the International Organization for Migration, Ahmedou Ould-Abdellah, Special Representative of the Secretary General of United Nations for Somalia, John Lomoy, Director of the Development Cooperation Directorate of OECD, Philippe de Fontaine-Vive, Vice President of the European Investment Bank and Rangis Dadfar Spanta, Former Minister of Foreign Affairs, National Security Adviser of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan.

International civil society will be represented by Amadou Mahtar Ba, Chairman, AllAfrica Global Media, Ashraf Ghani, Chairman of the Institute for State Effectiveness, Bekele Geleta, General Secretary of International Federation of Red Cross, Loïc Fauchon, President of the World Water Council. Experts include Dewald Van Niekerk, Director of the African Center for Disasters Studies, Juan Emilio Cheyre, Director of the International Studies Center of the Pontificia Universidad Catolica de Chile, Arthur Hughes, Former Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs and Zorana Markovic, Director of the Anti-Corruption Agency of the Republic of Serbia.

Finally, apart from the 15 employers confederation present, the Business MEDays, with a program exclusively dedicated to energy, some of the speakers include Hector Robledo, Chief Executive Officer, HRC SA de CV, Laurent Stricker, Chairman of the World Association of Nuclear Operators (WANO) and Olivier Drücke, President of ESTIF (European Solar Thermal Industry).

This list of confirmed speakers published exactly 100 days before the Forum gives a first overview on experts and policymakers who will participate. It will be regularly updated with new confirmations in the coming weeks. The complete and definitive speakers’ list will be announced end of October at a press conference in Casablanca.

Conceived to welcome in an open and public manner hundreds of participants, the MEDays Forum is a dedicated space for high level meetings between the 150 speakers invited by the Amadeus Institute. The forum is a tool that intends to facilitate strategic communication and innovative propositions around an international forum that brings together policymakers, business leaders, experts and media.

In 2010, the selected theme, « The South: Between Crisis and Emergence » will give the opportunity to advance exchange and experience sharing on common challenges to Southern countries. Climate change and adaptation, economic development and aid programs, energy policy and technological transfers, political transitions and governance and finally the regionalization of conflicts management and regional economic integration will be among the topics discussed.

The objective is to present concrete solutions and deepen the dialogue to respond to threatening dangers and propose conclusions in terms of public policies regarding the economic and political emergence in the South.

While aiming at valuing exchange and cooperation between Southern continents, the Amadeus Institute has conceived the MEDays 2010 as an open space to favor North-South-South triangular cooperation, and not a limited space limited to the participation of developing countries or the exclusive cooperation between countries from similar regional clusters.

Timing coinciding with the G20 in Seoul and close to the COP16 (December in Cancun), the MEDays Forum in Tangier, will become a « global village », a unique and privileged space to further dialogue between the South and the North.