Dr. Markandey Rai is president of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the Indian Council for International Cooperation and chancellor of the IGTAMS University, India. He is a former senior advisor of the United Nations Human Settlements Programme and former chairperson of the Joint Advisory Committee, which advises UN offices in Nairobi on administrative issues. He has served UN-HABITAT in various roles for seventeen years and was elected president of the Nairobi Staff Union from 2000-2003. Dr. Rai has served on the boards of academic, cultural, and social bodies in different countries, and in January 2006 he was the recipient of the Hindu Rattan Award. In 2009, he addressed the EU presidency seminar at the Swedish Parliament in Stockholm and the Global Parliamentarians on Habitat conference in Washington, DC. Dr. Rai is a member of the Global Peace Foundation’s Global Leadership Council and serves as president of the Global Peace and Development Service Alliance.