Carlos Lopes (Guinea Bissau)
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Carlos Lopes of Guinea Bissau is the Executive Secretary of the Economic Commission for Africa of the United Nations. He was appointed to this position by the United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon in September 2012. Prior to this, he served as Executive Director of the United Nations Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR) from 2007 to 2012. He was appointed to this capacity by United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon in March 2007. Prior to this appointment, Lopes was Director for Political Affairs in the Executive Office of the Secretary-General of the United Nations.
In his early career, Lopes worked on research and diplomacy in the public service of Guinea-Bissau. In 1988, he became a development economist in United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), where he had held numerous positions, including Deputy Director for the Office of Evaluation and Strategic Planning, Resident Representative in Zimbabwe, and Deputy/Director of the Bureau of Development Policy. He was Deputy Assistant Administrator at UNDP as well as a member of the Organization’s executive team. At UNDP, he had managed a portfolio of one billion dollars and served at the level of Assistant Secretary-General for more than a year. In 2003, he was appointed UN Resident Coordinator and UNDP Resident Representative in Brazil.
Lopes has written many books and lectured in a number of academic institutions including universities in Lisbon, Coimbra, Zurich, Uppsala, Mexico, San Paulo and Rio de Janeiro. He has established INEP, a research institution in West Africa and worked as consultant for UNESCO, the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency(SIDA), the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa, the Research and Technological Exchange Group (GRET) and Ruraltec Switzerland.
Lopes holds a Ph.D. in history from the University of Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne as well as degrees from the Graduate Institute of Development Studies, in Geneva. He is fluent in English, French, Portuguese and Spanish.