David Rockefeller Bridging Leadership Award Honorees

Kofi Annan emerged from the ranks of the United Nations staff to become the organization’s seventh Secretary-General, serving from 1997 to 2006. Under his leadership, the United Nations expanded its capacity to work not only with governments, but also with civil society, the private sector and other actors on issues including human rights, peace and conflict resolution, democratization and good governance, HIV/AIDS and other diseases, poverty, and the environment. He helped lead a comprehensive program of reform aimed at revitalizing the United Nations and making the international system more effective through greater coordination, such as on the Millennium Development Goals.

He played a central role in the creation of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria, and was influential in helping establish two new intergovernmental bodies: the Peacebuilding Commission and the Human Rights Council. Under Mr. Annan, the United Nations launched its Global Compact, a groundbreaking effort to encourage businesses worldwide to adopt sustainable and socially responsible policies.

At his initiative, peacekeeping was strengthened in ways that enabled the United Nations to cope with a rapid rise in the number of operations and personnel. He promoted the adoption of the United Nations’ first-ever counter-terrorism strategy and the acceptance by member states of the “responsibility to protect” people from genocide, war crimes, ethnic cleansing, and crimes against humanity.

Other highlights in his career include bringing international action to help stop violence in East Timor, mediating a ceasefire between Israelis and Palestinians, and securing international support to encourage peace and development efforts in Africa. Together with the United Nations, Kofi Annan was awarded the 2001 Nobel Prize for Peace.

Today Mr. Annan, a native of Ghana, continues to work on policies to meet the needs of the poor, particularly in Africa, and to mediate and resolve major conflicts. He has established the Kofi Annan Foundation and also serves as Chair of the Africa Progress Panel and of the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa. Kofi Annan is also one of The Elders, a group of accomplished leaders working to bring their wisdom, independent leadership, and integrity to bear on some of the world’s toughest problems.

For more information, visit www.kofiannanfoundation.org.

Sheela Patel leads the Society for the Promotion of Area Resource Centres (SPARC), an Indian civil society organization that aims to improve the living conditions and promote the rights of millions of urban slum dwellers and homeless people. Established in Mumbai in 1984, SPARC helps the urban poor to increase their voice in government order to ensure that they have proper housing, infrastructure, and other resources. The organization operates though an alliance with two major people’s movements -- the National Slum Dwellers Federation and Mahila Milan (a women’s organization with a focus on economic empowerment). Under Patel’s leadership, SPARC has catalyzed the construction of housing for over 8,500 families and over 500,000 toilets and latrines, with programs in 70 cities in India.

SPARC works in partnerships with local grassroots groups, government agencies, and other actors to build support for housing and microcredit programs for pavement dwellers, support related research, and implementation of relevant policy initiatives. The results are action- and policy-partnerships that are changing the ways in which society meets the needs of the urban poor.

Sheela Patel is also Chair of Shack/Slum Dwellers International (SDI), a confederation of slum dweller organizations from over 20 countries in the Global South. SDI and its members help move urban policy away from reactive interventions toward long-term solutions, with the urban poor – particularly women – playing a key role in this process. They engage communities, government at many levels, other civil society groups, the private sector, academia, and international institutions in this work. Through SDI, Ms. Patel is helping connect poor urban communities around the world to transfer and adapt the successful mobilization, advocacy, and problem-solving strategies they develop in one location to other cities, countries, and regions.

For more information, visit www.sparcindia.org and www.sdinet.org.