Tariq Banuri

Tariq Banuri
طارق بنوری
Chairman of the Higher Education Commission, Pakistan
In office 29-May-2018 – Present
President	Mamnoon Hussain Arif Alvi
Prime Minister	Shahid Khaqan Abbasi Imran Khan
Personal details
Nationality	Pakistani
Residence	Pakistan
Education	Harvard University (PhD — Economics) Williams College (MA — Development Economics) University of Peshawar (BE — Civil Engineering)
Known for	Sustainable development Evidence-based policy Governance
Awards	Nobel Peace Prize Sitara-e-Imtiaz/Star of Distinction Allyn Young Teaching Prize in Economics (Harvard University)

Tariq Javed Banuri (Urdu: طارق جاوید بنوری) is a Pakistani development economist, academic, climate scientist, educationalist, and author who holds a PhD in economics from Harvard University and who is the fourth and current Chairperson of the Higher Education Commission (HEC), a statutorily established regulatory agency whose mandate is to improve and promote higher education and research & development (R&D) within Pakistan. Tariq Banuri has broad experience on the interface between policy, research, and practical actions on the realization of the goal of sustainable development. He has worked in government, academia, civil society, and the international system, specializing in economic development.

He started his career as a member of the erstwhile Civil Service of Pakistan (CSP), and served in a number of positions, including as a Research Fellow at the World Institute for Development Economics Research (WIDER), Professor of Economics at the University of Utah (2012-18), Director at the United Nations Division for Sustainable Development (UNDSD) — being the first person of colour ever to hold this position — founder and first Executive Director of the Sustainable Development Policy Institute (SDPI), Director at the Asia Centre of the Stockholm Environment Institute (SEI), and Executive Director of the Global Change Impact Studies Centre (GCISC), a statutory corporation established under the GCISC Act, 2013.

He has served on national as well as international forums for policy and research, including as Coordinating Lead Author on the Nobel Prize-winning Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), member of the United Nations Secretary General’s Advisory Group on Energy and Climate Change (AGECC), member of the United Nations Committee on Development Policy (CDP), member of the Pakistan Environmental Protection Council, member of the Central Board of Governors of the State Bank of Pakistan, and member secretary of the Presidential Steering Committee on Higher Education.

He has been instrumental in the design of a number of institutions and networks on sustainable development, including the Sustainable Development Policy Institute (SDPI), the Sarhad Rural Support Programme (SRSP), the Asia Centre of the Stockholm Environment Institute (SEI), the United Nations Office of Sustainable Development (UNOSD), the Ring alliance, the Sustainable Mekong Research Network (SUMERNET), the Human Development Foundation of North America (HDFNA), and the Great Transition Initiative (GTI).

In 1992, he founded the Sustainable Development Policy Institute (SDPI), Pakistan's first ever non-governmental think tank, and currently Pakistan's top-ranked think tank according to the University of Pennsylvania’s Think Tanks and Civil Societies Program (TTCSP) 2020 Global Go To Think Tank Index report.

In 2002, he was awarded the Sitara-e-Imtiaz by the then Government of Pakistan for his services to research and education.

In 2007, he was recognized for his contributing to the award of the Nobel Peace Prize to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), which was awarded jointly to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and Albert Arnold (Al) Gore, Jr. "for their efforts to build up and disseminate greater knowledge about man-made climate change, and to lay the foundations for the measures that are needed to counteract such change."

In 2008, he was called by the then Secretary-General of the United Nations, Ban Ki-moon, to head the United Nations Division for Sustainable Development (UNDSD) — the largest division of the United Nations — becoming the first person of colour ever to hold this position, which he held until 2011. During his tenure as Director of the UNDSD, he helped lay the groundwork for what would soon thereafter become the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

In 2018, he was appointed as the fourth Chairperson of the Higher Education Commission (HEC) to bring major and critical reforms to the plummeting higher education system of Pakistan. His appointment was made by the then elected prime minister on the recommendation of a non-partisan, high-powered search committee convened by the venerable Syed Babar Ali (founder of the Lahore University of Management Sciences and one of the founding fathers of the HEC).

Positions held

• Chairman, Higher Education Commission (HEC), Pakistan
• Professor of Economics, The University of Utah
• Associate Director, US–Pakistan Center for Advanced Studies in Water (USPCASW)
• Director, United Nations Division for Sustainable Development (UNDSD)
• Founding member of the Great Transition Initiative (GTI)
• Founder and first Executive Director of the Sustainable Development Policy Institute (SDPI)
• Founding Director, Asia Centre of the Stockholm Environment Institute (SEI)
• Executive Director, Global Change Impact Studies Centre (GCISC)
• Coordinating Lead Author, Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)
• Research Fellow at the United Nations University World Institute for Development Economics Research (UNU-WIDER)
• Judge, Climate CoLab, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)
• Assistant Professor of Economics, University of Massachusetts Amherst
• Chair of the Board of Governors of the International Centre for Trade and Sustainable Development (ICTSD)
• Member Secretary of the Presidential Steering Committee on Higher Education, Pakistan
• Member of the United Nations Secretary General’s Advisory Group on Energy and Climate Change (AGECC)
• Member of the United Nations Committee on Development Policy (CDP)
• Member of the Pakistan Environmental Protection Council (PEPC)
• Member of the Central Board of Governors of the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP)
• Assistant Commissioner (AC), Civil Service of Pakistan (CSP)
• President, Student Union, University of Peshawar

Books

• Economic Liberalization: No Panacea
• Financial Openness and National Autonomy
• Just Development: Beyond Adjustment with a Human Face
• Who will Save the Forests? Knowledge, Power, and Environmental Destruction
• Civic Entrepreneurship: A Civil Society Perspective on Sustainable Development
• Great Transition: The Promise and Lure of the Times Ahead
• Dispensation of Justice in Pakistan

Official publications

2011                Climate Change, Durban, and Rio+20, Paper presented at UNDP Conference on Climate Change, Algiers, 11-13 October 2011

2011                Contributor, World Economic and Social Survey 2011 (Technological Change and Sustainable Development)

2011                Contributor (and Main Author of Section on Sustainable Development), UN System-wide Study on the Implications of the Fukushima Disaster

2011                Main Author and Editor, Secretary General’s Report to 2nd Preparatory Committee Meeting of the UN Conference on Sustainable Development

2010                Contributor and Convenor, Technical Note on Global Green New Deal for Climate, Energy, and Development

2010                Main Author and Editor, Secretary General’s Report to 1st Preparatory Committee Meeting of the UN Conference on Sustainable Development

(http://www.uncsd2012.org/content/documents/N1070657.pdf).

2009                Main Author and Editor, Secretary General’s Report on Climate Change and its Possible Security Implications (http://daccess-dds-

ny.un.org/doc/UNDOC/GEN/N09/509/46/PDF/N0950946.pdf?OpenElement)

2009                Contributor, World Economic and Social Survey 2009 (Climate Change and Sustainable Development)

2009                Co-author, DESA Policy Brief, Global Green New Deal for Sustainable Development, New York: United Nations

2003                T. Banuri and Mosharraf Zaidi, ICTs and the MDGs in Pakistan, Kuala Lumpur: UNDP-APDIP

2002                T. Banuri and Ali Qadir, One Way Street: Pakistan’s Trade Policy After Doha, Islamabad: Government of Pakistan, Ministry of Commerce, 2002

1994                Contributor and Editor, Pakistan National Report to the CSD, Islamabad: Environment and Urban Affairs Division

1993                Contributor and Editor, Pakistan National Report to the CSD, Islamabad: Environment and Urban Affairs Division

1993                Editor, The NCS: Plan of Action, 1993-98, Islamabad: Environment and Urban Affairs Division

1993                Contributor to chapters on Basic Framework, and Education, Eight Five Year Plan, 1993-98, Islamabad: Planning Commission

1993                Islamabad: Environment and Urban Affairs Division; Contributor to Report of SAARC Poverty Commission, Kathmandu: SAARC Secretariat;

1992                Editor and Lead Author, Pakistan National Report to UNCED, Islamabad: Government of Pakistan, Environment and Urban Affairs Division

1989                With Tariq Hussain, Conceptual Design of Sarhad Rural Support Corporation, Peshawar: Government of NWFP

1989                Conceptual Design for the SAARC Centre for Human Resource Development, Islamabad, Government of Pakistan, Planning Commission

Professional papers and publications

2007                T. Banuri and H. Opschoor (2007) Climate Change and Sustainable Development, WP 56, New York: UN (http://www.un.org/esa/desa/papers/2007/wp56_2007.pdf)

2005                Environment and Sustainable Development in Asia, Stockholm: SEI and Swedish Foreign Ministry

2005                Economic Growth or Social Mobilization: Alternative Approaches to Poverty Eradication. Environment

2002                P. Raskin, T. Banuri, G. Gallopin, P. Gutman, A. Hammond, R. Kates, and R. Swart (2002) Great Transition, Boston: Tellus.

http://gtinitiative.org/resources/gtessay.html

2002                T. Banuri and Adil Najam, Civic Entrepreneurship, Vol. I: Global Synthesis, Islamabad: Gandhara Academy Press

2002                T. Banuri, Adil Najam, and Nancy Odeh, eds. Civic Entrepreneurship, Vols. II to VII, Islamabad: Gandhara Academy Press

2002                Alternative Public Regimes for Achieving Environmental Improvement In The Global Cotton Commodity Chain: The Case of Pakistan, in Shahrukh Rafi

Khan, ed. Trade and Environment: Difficult Policy Choices at the Interface, London: Zed Press, 2002

2001                T. Banuri, J. Weyant, G. Akumu, A. Najam, L. Pinguelli-Rosa, S. Rayner, W. Sachs, and G. Yohe (2001), Setting the Stage: Climate Change and

Sustainable Development, Chapter 1 in Working Group (Mitigation), IPCC Third Assessment Report. http://www.grida.no/publications/other/ipcc_tar/

2001                T. Banuri and Erika Spanger-Siegfried, The Global Compact and the Human Economy, Journal of Human Development, 2(1) November 2001: 7-17

2001                Contributor, Report of the Boston Group on Higher Education in Pakistan

2000                T. Banuri and Erika Spanger Siegfried, Global Public Policy Networks, Boston: Stockholm Environment Institute, 2000

2000                T. Banuri and Erika Spanger Siegfried, UNEP and Civil Society, Boston: Stockholm Environment Institute, 2000

2000                T. Banuri and Sujata Gupta, The Clean Development Mechanism and Sustainable Development: An Economic Analysis, Manila: ADB, February

1998                T. Banuri, Sharukh R. Khan, and Moazam Mahmood, eds. Just Development: Protecting the vulnerable and promoting growth, Karachi: Oxford

University Press, 1998

1998                Pakistan: Environmental Impact of Cotton Production and Trade, in Konrad von Moltke et al., eds. Global Product Chains: Northern Consumers,

Southern Producers, and Sustainability, (Environment and Trade 15: 1998)

1998                If You Torture the Data Long Enough: The Case of the Environmental Kuznets Curve, Paper submitted for the Human Development Report 1998, UNDP

(January 1998)

1997                Sustainable Livelihoods, Governance, and Policy, Paper presented at UNDP Workshop on Sustainable Livelihoods, November

1995                F. Amalric and T. Banuri, People, the Environment, and Responsibility: Case Studies from Rural Pakistan, London: Taylor and Francis

1995                F. Amalric and T. Banuri, Population: Malady or Symptom?, Third World Quarterly, 1995

1995                Noah’s Ark or Jesus’s Cross: UNCED as a Tale of Two Cities, Review

1994                F. Amalric and T. Banuri, The Roots of Unsustainability: Colonization in Space and Time, in Philip B. Smith, Samuel E. Okoye, Jaap de Wilde, and Priya

Deshingkar, eds., The World at Crossroads, London: Earthscan

1994                Rape as a metaphor for modernity, Development, Spring

1994                Justice is the Strife, New Perspectives Quarterly, 11(2): 33-7 (Spring)

1994                T. Banuri, G. Hyden, C. Juma, and M. Rivera, Defining and Operationalizing Sustainable Human Development: A Guide for the Practitioner, New York:

UNDP, Bureau of Programme Policy and Evaluation

1994                T. Banuri and Franck Amalric, eds., Population, Environment and Responsibility, London: Parthenon

1993                Landscapes of Diplomatic Conflict, in Wolfgang Sachs, ed. Global Ecology: Conflicts and Contradictions, London: Zed Press

1993                Editor, with F. Apffel Marglin, Who Will Save the Forests?: Resistance, Knowledge, and the Environment, London: Zed Press

1993                T. Banuri and F. Apffel Marglin, A Systems of Knowledge approach to the environmental crisis, in Banuri and Apffel Marglin, eds., Who Will Save the

Forests?, Zed Press

1993                T. Banuri and F. Apffel Marglin, The role of local knowledge in forest management, in Banuri and Apffel Marglin, eds., Who Will Save the Forests?, Zed

Press

1993                Democratic decentralization and the Judiciary, SDPI Research Report No. 1

1993                Improving the Provision of Justice in Pakistan, SDPI Policy Paper Series, No. 2

1993                Implementation of the Environmental Protection Ordinance 1983, SDPI Policy Paper Series, No 4 (1993)

1993                T. Banuri and Martina Jagerhorn, To Him that Hath: The Social Costs of Economic Restructuring in escap Countries, Bangkok: escap

1992                Editor, with J. B. Schor, Financial Openness and National Autonomy Oxford: Clarendon Press

1992                Currency black markets and policy effectiveness, in Banuri and Schor, eds., Financial Openness, OUP

1992                T. Banuri and J. Holmberg, Governance for Sustainable Development: A Southern Perspective, London: IIED

1992                Decision making on sustainable development in Asia, Paris: UNESCO

1992                Quel espoir pour les pays de Sud? in Martine Barrere, ed. Terre, patrimoine, commune, Paris

1992                Editor, Economic Liberalization: No Panacea: The Experiences of Latin America and Asia, Oxford: Clarendon Press

1992                T. Banuri and E. Amadeo, Worlds within the Third World: Labor market institutions in Asia and Latin America, in Banuri, ed., No Panacea, OUP

1992                E. Amadeo and T. Banuri, Democracy, governance, and the management of conflict, in Banuri, ed., No Panacea, OUP

1992                The limits to economic liberalization: A comparison of Latin American and Asian experience, in Banuri, ed., No Panacea, OUP

1990                Modernization and its discontents, in F. Apffel Marglin and S. A. Marglin, eds., Dominating Knowledge, Oxford: Clarendon Press

1990                A wider perspective on macroeconomics, Paper presented at bids conference on structural adjustment, Dhaka, January 14-7

1990                Development and the politics of knowledge, in Apffel Marglin and Marglin, eds., Dominating Knowledge, OUP 1990

1989                Durre S. Ahmed and T. Banuri, Official nationalism, ethnicity and collective violence, Paper presented at wider Conference on Systems of Knowledge,

Karachi, January 14-17, 1989

1986                Macroeconomic Effects of Worker Remittances, unpublished PhD dissertation, Harvard University

References

6. https://www.thenews.com.pk/amp/813837-civil-society-demands-restoring-dr-tariq-banuri-as-hec-head

7. https://faculty.utah.edu/u0845940-Tariq_Banuri/hm/index.hml