UN Economic and Social Development
Division for Sustainable Development

Ambassador Ertuðrul Apakan, Permanent Representative of Turkey to the United Nations.

• Short CV [pdf]

From December 2006 to August 2009, Mr. Apakan was serving as the Undersecretary of the Turkish Foreign Ministry before his appointment.

In his past career, Ertuğrul Apakan was also a former Ambassador to the TRNC and served as the General Director on Cyprus Affairs at the Turkish Foreign Ministry. Furthermore, he was Director General of Bilateral Political Affairs and Maritime Affairs and Aviation (2000) and Deputy Undersecretary for Bilateral Political Affairs (2004).

Ambassador Apakan is known for his expertise on the Cyprus issue. During his tenure, he served as the closest aide of three different foreign ministers, namely Abdullah Gül, Ali Babacan and Davutoğlu.

Nikhil Chandavarkar, Secretary of UN-Water, Division for Sustainable Development, United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs

• Short CV [pdf]

Nikhil Chandavarkar joined the United Nations in 1979 as Area Officer for the Southern Cone, Regional Bureau for Latin America, UNDP.

From 1992‐1994, he served as Deputy Resident Representative and then Resident Representative/Resident Coordinator a.i., UNDP Brazil, where he managed a development cooperation programme covering reform of the state, national information technology policy, ICT development, promotion of software development for export, economic policy making, health and education.

From 1994‐1997, he was Chief, Inter‐agency Coordination and External Policy, UNDP New York, responsible for UNDP’s partnerships with other agencies of the UN system and its interests in inter‐agency bodies, as well as for UNDP involvement in the preparations for and integrated follow‐up to UN conferences and summits.

From 1997‐2000, he served as Director, Division for External Relations, UNDP, responsible for UNDP’s partnerships and networks with agencies of the UN system, OECD/DAC and member states in ECOSOC and the General Assembly as well as UNDP’s involvement in the preparation of and integrated follow‐up to UN conferences and summits.

From 2001‐2005 he served as Interregional Adviser in the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs, undertaking advisory missions to Morrocco, Mongolia, East Timor, Indonesia, Thailand, and Brazil and provided advisory services using ICT (e‐TC) to Uzbekistan and Tajikistan.

Since 2009 to present Chandavarkar is Chief of Communication and Outreach Branch Division for Sustainable Development, Department of Economic and Social Affairs, United Nations, New York

Colin Chartres, Director-General of the CGIAR's International Water Management Institute (IWMI)

Colin Chartres is Director General of the International Water Management Institute. He has 30 years experience in driving research and policy reform in natural resources management. IWMI is a center of the Consultative Group on International Agricultural research. Its focus is on improved agricultural water management to improve livelihoods of the poor and to sustain the natural resource base. Dr Chartres has recently played a leading role in alerting the world to an emerging water crisis that will impact all water users and, in particular, food security in many developing countries.

Prior to joining IWMI in 2007, he was Chief Science Advisor to Australia’s National Water Commission where his role included developing improved national water data and information systems, the development of a national groundwater action plan and advising on the role of science in a range of more general water reform issues.

Previously he held senior research and research management positions with CSIRO, the Bureau of Rural Science and Geoscience Australia and has also worked in academia and the private sector.

Dr Chartres believes that most of today’s water issues cannot be solved without an integrated triple bottom line approach involving environmental, social and economic inputs.

Aaron Wolf, Oregon State University, Programme Director in Water Conflict Management and Transformation

• Short CV [pdf]
• Full Academic CV

Prof. Wolf’s research focuses on issues relating transboundary water resources to political conflict and cooperation, where his training combining environmental science with dispute resolution theory and practice have been particularly appropriate.

Wolf has acted as consultant to the US Department of State, the US Agency for International Development, and the World Bank, and several governments on various aspects of international water resources and dispute resolution. He has been involved in developing the strategies for resolving water aspects of the Arab‐Israeli conflict, including co‐authoring a State Department reference text, and participating in both official and "track II" meetings between co‐riparians. Among other publications, he is coauthor of “Managing and Transforming Water Conflicts” (Cambridge University Press, 2009) and editor of “Conflict Prevention and Resolution in Water Systems” (Elgar, 2002).

Wolf, a trained mediator/facilitator, directs the Program in Water Conflict Management and Transformation, through which he has offered workshops, facilitations, and mediation in basins throughout the world. He developed and coordinates the Transboundary Freshwater Dispute Database, which includes a computer compilation of 400 water‐related treaties, negotiating notes and background material on fourteen case‐studies of conflict resolution, news files on cases of acute water‐related conflict, and assessments of indigenous/traditional methods of water conflict resolution.

Wolf was also a member of UNESCO’s task force for the development of the Sixth Phase of the International Hydrology Program (2002‐ 2007), the UNESCO/ADC Third Millennium Program on International Waters, and IWRA’s Committee for International Collaboration, and is a co‐director of the Universities Partnership on Transboundary Waters.