Carlos Lopes (born 1960) is a

Bissau-Guinean Guinea-Bissau ( ; pt, Guiné-Bissau; ff, italic=no, 𞤘𞤭𞤲𞤫 𞤄𞤭𞤧𞤢𞥄𞤱𞤮, Gine-Bisaawo, script=Adlm; Mandinka: ''Gine-Bisawo''), officially the Republic of Guinea-Bissau ( pt, República da Guiné-Bissau, links=no ) ...

development economist and

civil servant The civil service is a collective term for a sector of government composed mainly of career civil servants hired on professional merit rather than appointed or elected, whose institutional tenure typically survives transitions of political leaders ...

. He was executive secretary of the

United Nations Economic Commission for Africa The United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA or ECA; french: link=no, Commission économique pour l'Afrique, CEA) was established in 1958 by the United Nations Economic and Social Council to encourage economic cooperation among its ...

from September 2012 to October 2016, and is a visiting

fellow A fellow is a concept whose exact meaning depends on context. In learned or professional societies, it refers to a privileged member who is specially elected in recognition of their work and achievements. Within the context of higher education ...

at the

Oxford Martin School The Oxford Martin School is a research and policy unit based in the Social Sciences Division of the University of Oxford. It was founded in June 2005 as the James Martin 21st Century School and is located in the original building of the Indian I ...

of the

University of Oxford , mottoeng = The Lord is my light , established = , endowment = £6.1 billion (including colleges) (2019) , budget = £2.145 billion (2019–20) , chancellor ...

, and a visiting professor at the Nelson Mandela School of Public Governance of the

University of Cape Town The University of Cape Town (UCT) ( af, Universiteit van Kaapstad, xh, Yunibesithi ya yaseKapa) is a public research university in Cape Town, South Africa. Established in 1829 as the South African College, it was granted full university statu ...

. In 2018 he was appointed High Representative of the Commission of the African Union.

Life

Lopes took a PhD in history from the Panthéon-Sorbonne University in Paris, and has a research master's degree from the

Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies The Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies, or the Geneva Graduate Institute (french: Institut de hautes études internationales et du développement), abbreviated IHEID, is a government-accredited postgraduate institution ...

in Geneva. He has

honorary doctorate An honorary degree is an academic degree for which a university (or other degree-awarding institution) has waived all of the usual requirements. It is also known by the Latin phrases ''honoris causa'' ("for the sake of the honour") or ''ad hon ...

s from

Hawassa University Hawassa University (HU) ( am, ሀዋሳ ዩኒቨርሲቲ) is a residential national university in Hawassa, Sidama Region, Ethiopia. It is approximately south of Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. The Ministry of Science and Higher Education admits qualif ...

in Ethiopia and from the

Universidade Cândido Mendes Universidade Candido Mendes is a private university located in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. It is Latin America's oldest private university. History It was founded in 1902, thus being the oldest private university in Latin America, by the Count Când ...

Rio de Janeiro Rio de Janeiro ( , , ; literally 'River of January'), or simply Rio, is the capital of the state of the same name, Brazil's third-most populous state, and the second-most populous city in Brazil, after São Paulo. Listed by the GaWC as a b ...

, Brazil. From 1988, Lopes held various positions with the

United Nations The United Nations (UN) is an intergovernmental organization whose stated purposes are to maintain international peace and international security, security, develop friendly relations among nations, achieve international cooperation, and be ...

. He has been a representative in Brazil and in Zimbabwe, he was director of political affairs in the office of the

Secretary-General Secretary is a title often used in organizations to indicate a person having a certain amount of authority, power, or importance in the organization. Secretaries announce important events and communicate to the organization. The term is derived ...

, he was director for development policy at the

United Nations Development Programme The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)french: Programme des Nations unies pour le développement, PNUD is a United Nations agency tasked with helping countries eliminate poverty and achieve sustainable economic growth and human dev ...

, he was director of the United Nations System Staff College and an executive director of the

United Nations Institute for Training and Research The United Nations Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR) is a dedicated training arm of the United Nations system. UNITAR provides training and capacity development activities to assist mainly developing countries with special attention ...

. From 2012 to 2016 he was executive secretary of the

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lopes, Carlos Living people Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies alumni Bissau-Guinean officials of the United Nations Bissau-Guinean writers Bissau-Guinean male writers Bissau-Guinean economists 20th-century economists 21st-century economists 1960 births Fellows of the African Academy of Sciences Honorary Fellows of the African Academy of Sciences