Ashraf Ghani’s Address to Wooster Forum Rescheduled for Sept. 27

Former economic advisor to Afghan President Hamid Karzai to speak at The College of Wooster

WOOSTER, Ohio — Ashraf Ghani, former Afghan Finance Minister and Presidential candidate, will address the second session of the 2010 Wooster Forum eight days earlier than originally scheduled. Ghani will present "Afghanistan: Owning the Present; Building the Future" on Monday, Sept. 27, at The College of Wooster’s McGaw Chapel (340 E. University St.). The event, which is free and open to the public, begins at 7:30 p.m.

Ghani, who is now chairman of the Institute for State Effectiveness, was named one of the 20 most influential global thinkers of 2009 for his work on fragile states. As adviser to the United Nations Secretary General, he assisted with the Bonn Agreement for Afghanistan. As Finance Minister, he was credited with a series of successful reforms in the treasury, customs, budget, and currency. He prepared Afghanistan's first National Development Framework and “Securing Afghanistan's Future,” a $28 billion reconstruction program for the country. In 2010, he developed and facilitated the successful Kabul Conference and Process to build internal consensus and external alignment on priorities in Afghanistan. Previously, he was nominated for the posts of UN Secretary General and the President of the World Bank.

Trained in political science and anthropology at the American University of Beirut and Columbia University, Ghani served on the faculty at Johns Hopkins University from 1983 to 1991 and has taught at Kabul University, Aarhus University, and the University of California, Berkeley. Between 1991-2001 he was chief anthropologist at the World Bank where he worked on large-scale development and institutional projects in East Asia, South Asia, and Russia, as well as global issues of strategy and development. He serves on the advisory boards for a number of activities supporting the reform of global institutions, including the Commission on the UN High-Level Panel on Legal Empowerment of the Poor, the UN Democracy Fund, and the Inter-American Development Bank. He is a former chair of the World Economic Forum’s Global Agenda Council on Fragile States and a Senior Non-Resident Fellow at the Brookings Institution. He is also author (with Clare Lockhart) of Fixing Failed States (2008) and a Window to a Just Order (in Pushtu and Dari) (2009).

The next Wooster Forum event is scheduled for Wednesday, Oct. 13, when Vandana Shiva, a physicist and environmentalist, addresses “Sustainability in South Asia.” Additional information about the Wooster Forum is available by phone (330-263-2132) or e-mail.