Beating the Odds: Lessons Learned from Social Innovators in Government
Speakers
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Commissioner, Independent Commission for Aid Impact
Diana is a Commissioner with the Independent Commission for Aid Impact
(ICAI). ICAI is the UK independent body which scrutinises UK government aid expenditure in order ascertain its impact and effectiveness. It reports direct to Parliament. In 4 years ICAI has published 40 reports. Diana has been the lead commissioner on reports including Private Sector Development,Empowerment and Accountability, Security and Justice, Learning, Conflict Prevention in Nepal, and is now working on a report on Impact.
Diana was previously as a senior partner of Linklaters LLP where for thirty years she was a litigator and regulatory investigations lawyer. For eleven years she held a part time judicial appointment hearing cases in the criminal courts. She also works in access to justice and access to education: she is the Chair of the Mary Ward Settlement which runs both a free legal advice centre and an adult education centre in London.
She has also worked with Camfed on governance matters co-authoring the report “Accounting to the Girl: Working Towards a Standard for Governance in the International Development Sector “ which was launched at the Skoll World Forum in April 2010.
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Chair of The Elders, The Elders
Mary Robinson was elected Irish President in 1990 and served for seven years as a principled and transformative leader who fought for equality and women’s rights throughout her time in office. A firm believer in dialogue and reconciliation, she broke taboos by being the first Irish head of state to make official visits to Britain, as well as regularly visiting Northern Ireland. As UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (1997-2002), Mary Robinson became renowned as an outspoken voice dedicated to investigating and exposing human rights abuses across the world.
Mary Robinson has been a member of The Elders since the group was founded in 2007 and was appointed Chair of The Elders in November 2018. She has travelled to the Middle East several times with The Elders to encourage peace efforts and support Israelis and Palestinans working for peaceful coexistence; visited the Korean Peninsula to help ease tensions between North and South Korea and learn more about North Korea’s chronic food crisis; joined an Elders' delegation to Côte d'Ivoire to emphasise the importance of reconciliation following widespread civil conflict.
Mary Robinson also founded The Mary Robinson Foundation – Climate Justice. Its work from 2010-2019 meant climate justice went from being effectively a taboo topic to being an approach to climate decision-making and action that is people-centered, rights-informed and fair.
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Distinguished Teaching Fellow, University of California, Berkeley
Maura O’Neill through her work in the public, private and academic sectors have created entrepreneurial and public policy solutions for some of the toughest domestic and global problems. Maura has started four companies in the fields of electricity efficiency, customer info systems and billing, e-commerce and digital education. In 1989, she was named Seattle Business Person of the Year.
President Obama appointed her the first Chief Innovation Officer and Senior Counselor to the Administrator at USAID where she had responsibility for inspiring and leading breakthrough innovations in $22 billion of foreign assistance worldwide. Maura co-led USAID Forward, the Agency's major reform initiative as well as oversaw over 600 global public-private partnerships. Groundbreaking ones included mobile money; supply chain elimination of ingredients/packaging from virgin forests; water and health interventions; gender equity and entrepreneurship. Maura is most well known for adapting venture capital and drug discovery methods to development by co-creating the Development Innovation Venture Fund. She served on the White House Innovation Cohort assisting with innovation across the federal government.
Maura was Senior Advisor and Chief of Staff to the Under Secretary at U.S. Department of Agriculture, and served as Chief of Staff in the U.S. Senate (Cantwell D-WA) addressing the 2008 financial crisis, oil price explosion, renewal of clean energy tax credits and range of domestic and international issues.
Currently at the Business School at UC Berkeley Maura received 2016 Cheit Award for Excellence in Teaching. She also has taught at Stanford and Columbia Universities and regularly advises early stage companies, global government institutions and foundations.
Maura is founding Vice Chair of the Baltimore Leadership School for Young Women (public charter school). She has M.B.As from Columbia University and UC Berkeley; PhD from University of Washington.
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Executive Chairman (Netketabi), Former Presidential Advisor, Education/Government
Senior lecturer at Birzeit University. Served as an advisor to the Palestinian President on Telecom, ITand Technical Education. Former minister of Telecom & IT. Led telecom market liberalization in Palestine in 2006 introducing the second mobile phone operator. Also led the introduction and ratification of the Palestine Telecom Regulatory Authority (PTRA) law. Introduced a series of initiatives inclusive of e-Gov, the National Academic Network, Falastinyia (enhancing women participation in ICT),the Palestine Education Initiative (PEI). Helped launch .PS, the Palestinian National Internet Naming Authority (PNINA). Founded the award winning Palestine Digital Library in 2004 and the Palestine e-Republic in 2007. Also co-founded the Internet Society- Palestine Chapter (ISOC-PS), PC & Net 4 All (for providing PCs and internet connectivity to deprived Palestinians. Holds a PhD from Imperial College and a certification in Human Development form Oxford University. Born 1971.
