Bharrat Jagdeo

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Bharrat Jagdeo bigraphy, stories - President of Guyana, economist

Bharrat Jagdeo : biography

23 January 1964 –

Bharrat Jagdeo (born 23 January 1964) is a Guyanese politician who was President of Guyana from 11 August 1999, to 3 December 2011. He holds a number of global leadership positions in the areas of sustainable development, green growth and climate change.

Prior to his presidency, he was Minister of Finance, GINA. and became President after Janet Jagan resigned for health reasons. Subsequently he won two elections, in 2001 and 2006. He was the first President of Guyana to relinquish office in accordance with term limits he signed into the Guyanese Constitution.

Jagdeo was born in Unity Village on the East Coast of Demerara.

Honours

Jagdeo has been conferred with honorary doctorates of the Peoples’ Friendship University of Russia, TERI University, the University of Central Lancashire and Trent University.

Jagdeo was awarded the Pushkin Medal by the Government of Russia, and the Pravasi Bharatiya Samman Award by the Government of India.

In April 2013, Jagdeo was conferred with the highest honour of the State of Roraima, Brazil, the Order of Merit ‘Forte Sao Joaquim’ http://www.guyanatimesgy.com/?p=10913.

International profile and post-presidency career

President Jagdeo was elected as Chairman of the Board of Governors of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank in September, 2005http://www.imf.org/external/am/2006/speeches/pr01e.pdf. He occupied this position until September 2006.

The World Economic Forum (WEF) identified Jagdeo as one of their inaugural Young Global Leaders in 2006.

Time Magazine named Jagdeo as one of their “Heroes of the Environment" in 2008, and he was awarded the United Nations “Champion of the Earth” award in 2010.

In early 2010, the Secretary General of the United Nations asked Jagdeo to serve on the Secretary General’s High Level Advisory Group on Climate Finance.

Jagdeo is a Patron of the Delhi-based World Sustainable Development Forumhttp://www.wsdforum.org/patrons.htm.

In 2011, Heads of State and other leaders from the world’s rainforest countries asked him to be “Roving Ambassador for the Three Basins" (Amazon, Congo Basin, South East Asia)http://rovingambassadorjagdeo.org/what-we-are-doing/three-basins-initiative.

In March 2012, the world’s largest and oldest environmental organisation, the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN), announced that President Jagdeo would become the IUCN High Level Envoy for Sustainable Development in Forest Countries and an IUCN Patron of Naturehttps://portals.iucn.org/2012forum/?q=node/2086.

In June 2013, Commonwealth Secretary-General Kamalesh Sharma announced that former President Jagdeo will lead a high-level team of experts to identify solutions for unlocking resources to enable small, poor and climate-vulnerable Commonwealth countries to combat climate change. Mr Sharma said Mr Jagdeo will be joined by eight others to press the international community to help identify practical solutions for those countries most vulnerable to climate changehttp://thecommonwealth.org/news/34580/255699/200613cegclimatefinance.htm.

In March 2013, the ACP Council of Ministers inaugurated a 14-member Eminent Persons Group (EPG) whose mission will be to provide guidance and concrete recommendations for the future of the ACP Group. The 14 members of the group who met in Brussels designated the former Nigerian President, Chief Olusegun OBASANJO, as their Chairperson, with Jagdeo designated as one of two Vice Chairs http://www.acp.int/content/acp-council-ministers-brussels-march-25-26-2013.

Jagdeo has been a guest lecturer at Columbia University (New York City, USA), York University (Toronto, Canada), Trent University (Peterborough, Canada), the University of Toronto, United Nations University (Tokyo, Japan), and the University of the West Indies. He has also taken part in Trent University’s Carbon Conversation http://www.trentu.ca/tcbr/carbon.php, focusing on the need to de-carbonize the global economy.

Initiatives