Capacity Development in Multilateral Diplomacy for Africa

Dr Katharina (Kat) E Höne researches, writes, and teaches on a number of issues in the area of diplomacy, global governance, and the impact of technology on international relations. Over the last years, she has focused on research at the intersection of diplomacy and technology. She was part of a research project on Data Diplomacy: Updating diplomacy to the big data era and the lead researcher and author of Mapping the challenges and opportunities of artificial intelligence for the conduct of diplomacy report, both supported by the Ministry for Foreign of Affairs of Finland. In addition, she has more than 10 years of experience in teaching international relations at universities in the UK and Germany, and in delivering in-situ, blended, and online training to diplomatic practitioners. Kat holds an MA in Diplomatic Studies (University of Leicester, UK) and a PhD in International Politics (University of Aberystwyth, UK). In her work, she is driven by her aim to level the playing field at international negotiation tables through capacity development, and to provide out-of-the-box thinking and inspiration by drawing on her passion for science-fiction.

Professor Dr Milan Jazbec is Ambassador of Slovenia to North Macedonia, and a Professor of Diplomacy at the University of Ljubljana and the New University in Kranj in Slovenia. He is also a Visiting Professor at the South East European University and at the International Balkan University in North Macedonia.

Milan is a poet and a writer, and has published 60 books and over 120 articles in 14 languages. He has a long and distinguished career covering diplomacy, business, journalism, and politics.

He obtained a PhD in the sociology of diplomacy from the University of Klagenfurt (Austria) and has lectured at various universities, including Columbia (New York) and the Diplomatic Academy of Vienna (Austria). He was also Visiting Professor at the Bilkent University, the Middle East Technical University, and the University of Ankara in Turkey.

Professor Jazbec was Ambassador of Slovenia to Turkey, and an accredited non-residential Ambassador to Azerbaijan, Iran, Iraq, Lebanon, and Syria. He served as Minister Plenipotentiary at the Embassy of Slovenia in Stockholm (Sweden), covering five Nordic and three Baltic states. He was the last Yugoslav Consul in Klagenfurt, and the first ever Slovenian Consul. Milan was State Secretary at the Ministry of Defence of Slovenia, and the Director of Policy Planning and Research at the Foreign Ministry of Slovenia.

He is a member of the Slovenian Association of International Relations, the Slovenian Association of Political Sciences, the Slovenian PEN Centre, as well as the Editor of the international journal European Perspectives. He holds the distinguished Grand Golden Decoration of Honour with Star for Merit of the Republic of Austria.

Christopher Lamb is a former Australian Ambassador and is now Special Adviser to the Australian Red Cross and the IFRC. He also has advisory responsibilities with many RCRC National Societies, business groups and universities. He is president of the Australia Myanmar Institute and holds positions with several NGOs and foundations. As Special Adviser on International Relations for the IFRC until his retirement in June 2010, he was responsible for the diplomatic positioning of the IFRC and National Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies in the international intergovernmental and non-governmental communities. He coordinated the development of IFRC positions in various humanitarian and political fields, supporting the work of National Societies in these respects through the development of the IFRC’s policy on humanitarian diplomacy. Before joining IFRC in 2000, he was an Australian diplomat and Ambassador to Myanmar, Serbia, Romania, and the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, after serving in several multilateral and bilateral posts and as foreign ministry legal adviser.

Solange Mike (nee Cross), a national of both the United Kingdom and Trinidad and Tobago, holds degrees in the field of International Relations from the University of the West Indies, the University of Malta, and the University of Reading. Solange has worked on a number of research consultancies in the Caribbean region for various clients ranging from government agencies, international organisations, and multi-national corporations. She has also served as a facilitator in many diplomatic training programmes. Her areas of research interest include small state diplomacy, information and communication technologies in international relations, and geopolitics and energy diplomacy. She has lectured in the area of diplomacy at the Institute of International Relations, the University of the West Indies St. Augustine campus on Trinidad and Tobago, and currently is an associate faculty member in DiploFoundation’s academic programmes through the University of Malta.

Born (and currently residing) in the United States, Ms Virginia (Ginger) Paque lived in Venezuela for more than 35 years. An educator and administrator by profession, she has 25 years’ experience in business and manufacturing systems consulting. As a board member of the United Nations Association of Venezuela, her work as the Venezuelan member of the World Federation of United Nations Associations Task Force on WSIS marked her entry to the world of Internet governance (IG) during the Geneva PrepComs. Active in Civil Society discussions on IG, Ginger served as IG Caucus co-coordinator for two years. She was a member of the UN Internet Governance Forum (IGF) Multistakeholder Advisory Group (MAG) from 2015 to 2017, with a specific focus on moving online 'observation' to online 'participation' for greater inclusion. Having completed a Master in Contemporary Diplomacy with a thesis focusing on the importance of IG as a new diplomatic priority, Ginger currently lectures on IG for Diplo and curates human rights topics for the GIP Digital Watch observatory. Accessibility to support inclusion is a high priority, particularly through support for persons with disabilities and multilingual approaches.

Ms Michaela Told is currently Executive Director of the Global Health Centre at the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies, Geneva. Prior to moving into academia, she has been working more than 10 years with the Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement at local, regional and international level in all continents, most recently heading the Principles and Values Department of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, Geneva. She then was also involved in negotiations and policy-making within the statutory bodies of the RCRC Movement. Earlier in her career, she worked with the Austrian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Division of Development Cooperation and later served as Secretary General of an international women’s human rights NGO based in Geneva.

In her current position as Executive Director of the Global Health Centre at the Graduate Institute she is responsible for the successful implementation of all activities of the Global Health Centre. In her research and teaching she focuses on Global Health Diplomacy, among others, she directs the online courses in global health diplomacy. She holds a MSW (School of Social Work, Vienna), a MCom (Development Economics, University of Economics and Business Administration, Vienna), and a MA in Development Studies (Women & Development, Institute of Social Studies, The Hague), as well as a PhD (School of Law and Social Sciences, University of East London, UK).