20th Anniversary Speakers

Peter Eigen

Advisory Council of Transparency International

Speaker at Forum 2000
 

Peter Eigen has worked in economic development and governance for several decades and has led initiatives for better global governance and the fight against corruption. A lawyer by training, Eigen has worked as a World Bank manager of programs in Africa and Latin America; from 1988 to 1991 he was the Director of the Regional Mission for Eastern Africa of the World Bank. Under Ford Foundation sponsorship, he provided legal and technical assistance to the governments of Botswana and Namibia to strengthen the legal framework for mining investments. In 1993 Eigen founded Transparency International (TI), a non-governmental organization promoting transparency and accountability in international development. From 1993 to 2005 he was Chair of TI and is now Chair of the Advisory Council. In 2005, Eigen chaired the International Advisory Group of the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI), was the Chairman of the EITI from 2006 to February 2011 and is now EITI Special Representative. Eigen has taught law and political science at the universities of Frankfurt Main, the John F. Kennedy School of Government/ Harvard, SAIS/ Johns Hopkins, University of Washington and Bruges College of Europe. Since 2002, he is teaching as an Honorary Professor of Political Science at the Freie Universität, Berlin. In 2000, he was awarded the ‘Honorary Doctor’ degree at the Open University, UK, in 2004, the Readers Digest Award "European of the Year 2004" and in 2007 the Gustav Heinemann Award. Since 2007 Eigen is a member of Kofi Annan's Africa Progress Panel (APP). In 2009 he joined the Management Board of the African Legal Support Facility of the African Development Bank. Eigen is member of the board of the NGOs Kabissa, building the capacity of African non-profits, and of the German Doctors (Ärzte für die Dritte Welt) and since 2011 a member of the Advisory Council of the Arnold-Bergstrasser-Institute in Freiburg.