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Head of economic research at International Trade Union Confederation-Africa to join debate on macroeconomic and financial governance on the road to 2015, at UNCTAD Public Symposium

18 June 2013

"A global governance which is only focusing on fiscal and macroeconomic stability is a catastrophe for States and people. It must rather allow bearing the challenge of the creation of productive and decent jobs, which is the guarantee of sustainable development for the benefit of the people."   Boèvi Kouglo Lawson Body

Mr. Boèvi Kouglo Lawson Body will take part in the plenary session discussing macroeconomic and financial governance on the road to 2015, on the first day of the Symposium (24 June).

Mr. Lawson Body is an economist, and the coordinator of the Economy and Social Policy Programme, at the African Regional Organization of the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC-Africa). ITUC-Africa represents several million workers who are organized into 94 trade union centres in 51 African countries. ITUC-Africa was created in Accra in November 2007, following the merger of two former African trade union organizations, namely the African Regional Organization of the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU-AFRO) and the Democratic Organization of African Workers' Trade Unions (DOAWTU).

Mr. Lawson Body began his career as a lecturer and a researcher: he worked from 1979 to 1983 at the University of Bordeaux I, from 1984 to 2001 at the Ecole Nationale d'Administration in Lomé, and from 1987 to 2007 at the Faculty of Economics and Management of the University of Lomé. He also served as Chief of the Department of Economics (1990-1995) and Chief of the Division for Scientific Research (1999-2007) at the University of Lomé. During his academic career he also was a member of various research networks.

Mr. Lawson Body is very active in the trade union movement and in civil society in Africa, as well as on an international level. As such, he has participated in several high-level meetings dealing with questions of development. At ITUC-Africa, he is responsible for supervising and coordinating trade union researchers who are working on issues of economic and social development in African countries. Mr. Lawson Body is a member of a trade union working group that is entrusted with elaborating a new model for development and growth in Africa. As part of his professional activities and his civic commitment, he has carried out a range of various research works and has authored several publications.

Mr. Lawson Body holds a master's degree in economics from the University of Benin in Lomé (Togo) and a doctorate in economics and international finance from the University of Bordeaux I (France).