Dr. Naresh Singh, Executive Director of the Commission on Legal Empowerment of the Poor  

Naresh Singh is the Executive Director of the Commission on Legal Empowerment of the Poor (Legal Empowerment). Naresh will guide Legal Empowerment and lead the Secretariat staff until its mandate expires in 2008.

Naresh has had a distinguished career in the international development that has included work in 40 countries. Before joining the Commission on Legal Empowerment of the Poor, he served as Director General of Governance and Social Development at the Canadian International Development Agency. From 1996 to 2001, he worked at the U.N. Development Program as Principal Adviser on Poverty and Sustainable Livelihoods in the Bureau for Development Policy. This position followed his three year tenure as the Director of the Poverty and Empowerment Program at the International Institute for Sustainable Development in Winnipeg, Manitoba.

Naresh holds an MSc. from the Indian Agricultural Research Institute in New Delhi and a Ph.D from the University of the West Indies in Jamaica. Author of over 100 contributions (journal articles, conference papers and books) on governance, poverty and sustainable livelihoods, he is currently an Adjunct Professor at Boston University, School of Public Health, and a Visiting Scholar at Fordham University, School of Law. Naresh was also a Visiting Scholar at Harvard University, Global Equity Initiative.

Outside of academia, Naresh has advised several organizations, including the Commonwealth Secretariat; the Pan American Health Organization; and the Foundation of International Environmental Law and Development. He is an Honorary Fellow of the Centre for International Sustainable Development Law at McGill University.