Bjørn Førde

Bjørn Førde is Director of the new Danish Institute for Parties and Democracy [Institut for Flerpartisamarbejde] in Copenhagen. This follows his position as Director of the UNDP Oslo Governance Centre since 2005. Before Oslo, Bjørn Førde was Resident Representative of UNDP and Resident Coordinator of the UN in Botswana between 2003 and 2005. He graduated from University of Copenhagen in 1975, with a degree in political science and international relations, including development studies. He served as a member of the Board of DANIDA between 1998 and 2002, appointed by the Minister for Development, and he was a member of the Executive Committee of the Danish Centre for Culture and Development between 1998 and 2000. In 2000 he was appointed to the UNDP CSO Advisory Committee established by the then Administrator, Mark Malloch Brown. He has published more than 25 books on a broad variety of development issues, but also fiction for children and youth.