H.E. Dr. Rima Khalaf Hunaidi

Dr. Rima Khalaf Hunaidi

The HAAA is honored to announce that Dr. Rima Khalaf Hunaidi - HAAA's keynote speaker in Cambridge, MA Dec. 2009 - was recently recognized as one of the 50 faces that shaped the decade by the Financial Times.

Fifty faces that shaped the decade

By FT reporters

Published: December 28 2009 16:50 | Last updated: December 29 2009 11:18

In a decade that opened with the devastating events of September 11 and had survived the prospect of a global economic collapse as it closed, the FT’s choice of the 50 people who most shaped the last 10 years forms a very diverse group: not all are heroes, some are villains, and many fall somewhere in between. All such lists are subjective and somewhat arbitrary, but we have tried to capture individuals who have had a powerful impact on the world or their region – for good or bad – in four areas: politics, business, economics and culture.

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It was not an easy task. There could easily have been 50 people from each category. So the men and women on our list should be seen as representative of the larger themes of the decade. There are some striking omissions, because we felt that a historic event or trend had been captured by someone already on our list. Why no Saddam Hussein? Surely Iraq, and the overthrow of its ruler, has been one of the stories of the decade? Ultimately, we felt that the Iraq war was encapsulated by the two western politicians who did most to create it: George W Bush and Tony Blair.

Some of our choices may not be familiar names around the world, but they will have had an important effect on their region or particular industry. And in the cultural category, our list focuses on those who have had a profound influence on a large number of people, rather than making judgments about the instrinsic artistic merit of their work.

We recognise that the 50 faces on this list are a jumping-off point for debate. Who did we miss? Who should not have made the cut? Who will shape the next decade?

In addition, Dr. Rima Khalaf Hunaidi is the first MEI visiting scholar from the region. While at Harvard she will be delivering a seminar series on human development issues in the Middle East. Presentation titles and dates will be made available shortly.

http://www.hks.harvard.edu/middleeast/rkhalaf.html

Rima Khalaf
Middle East Initiative Visiting Scholar
March - May, 2010

Former Assistant Secretary-General and Director of the Regional Bureau for Arab States at the United Nations Development Program, and Former Deputy Prime Minister of Jordan.

Dr Khalaf has held several high-ranking ministerial positions in Jordan, including that of Minister of Industry and Trade (1993-1995), Minister of Planning (1995-1998) and Deputy Prime Minister (1999-2000), where as head of the ministerial economic team, she promoted the drive for economic reform while simultaneously working on a package for building human capabilities, alleviating human poverty and strengthening the social safety net.

Between 2000-2006, Dr. Khalaf served as Assistant Secretary-General and Director of the Regional Bureau for Arab States (RBAS) at the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), where she initiated and led important regional initiatives on Arab education, knowledge acquisition and economic growth. She was the principal architect of the pioneering Arab Human Development Report series. The first Report in the series on “Creating Opportunities for Future Generations,” received the 2003 Prince Claus Award, and the third, “Towards Freedom in the Arab World,” received the King Hussein International Leadership Prize.

Between February 2006 and December 2007, Dr. Khalaf served as the Chairperson of the UN Global Democracy Fund Advisory Board; and between 2008 and March 2009 as the Chief Executive Officer of the Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Foundation.

Dr. Khalaf is a regular contributor to regional and international policy forums concerned with the state of development in the Arab world. In 2005, she was honored with the League of Arab States award for “the Most Distinguished Arab Woman in the Field of International Organizations.” In 2009, she received the Honorary Degree of Doctor of Humane Letters from the American University of Cairo in recognition of her “important regional initiatives in education, women’s rights, civic engagement and economic growth”. And at the end of December 2009, the Financial Times listed Dr. Khalaf among the top fifty people who shaped the decade.

Dr. Khalaf has participated in a number of international commissions chief among them are the High Level Commission for the Modernization of the World Bank Group Governance (2008-2009), and Managing Global Insecurity Project Advisory Group (2007-2008). She currently serves on the boards of a number of regional and international organizations including the Board of Trustees of the American University of Beirut, the Board of Directors of AMIDEAST, the Carnegie Middle East Advisory Council, and the IMF Middle East Advisory Group. In Jordan, she serves on the Board of Trustees of the National Center for Human Rights, and the Higher Education Council.

A Jordanian citizen, Dr. Rima Khalaf holds a BA in economics from the American University of Beirut and a Master’s in Economics and a Ph. D in System Science from Portland State University in the United States.