Global Peacebuilding Association of Japan (GPAJ)
Academic Council on the UN System (ACUNS) Tokyo Office
Kyoto Peacebuilding Center (KPC) andAssociation of Former International Civil Servants (AFICS) – Japan

United Nations 75th Anniversary Declaration and the SDGs
2 October 2021 (Saturday)
8:00 PM – 9:30 PM Japan Standard Time
8:00 – 8:05
8:05 – 8:20
8:20 – 8:30
8:30 – 8:40
8:40 – 8:50
8:50 – 9:25
9:25 – 9:30

Opening announcement by Dr Dahlia Simangan
Presentation by Prof. Akiko Yuge
Comments by Mr. Norimasa Shimomura
Comments by Ms. Mikiko Tanaka
Comments by Ms. Chikako TakaseDiscussion moderated by Prof. Sukehiro Hasegawa
Closing announcement by GPAJ

To attend the meeting, register through https://forms.gle/GeqMM1jitjn9NbFF9or contact Dahlia Simangan via simangan@hiroshima-u.ac.jp.

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SpeakerProf. Akiko YUGE assumed her current position as Professor, Department
of Global Politics, Faculty of Law, Hosei University, Tokyo in 2014. Prior tothe current position, she served as Director, United Nations Development
Programme (UNDP) Representation Office in Tokyo and Special Advisor tothe UNDP Administrator (2012-13); UN Assistant Secretary-General/UNDP
Assistant Administrator and Director, Bureau of Management in UNDP
Headquarters (2006-2012); Director, UNDP Tokyo Office (2002-06).
Previously, she was Professor of Development Studies, Department of Globaland Inter-Cultural Studies, Ferris University, Japan (1999-2002). In UNDP,
she also served as UN Resident Coordinator and UNDP Resident
Representative in Bhutan, Deputy Resident Representative in Indonesia, andAssistant Regional Representative in Thailand. Earlier in her career, she
worked as Programme Officer, Engineering Consulting Firms Association(ECFA), Japan; and Area Officer for China and the Philippines, Regional
Bureau for Asia and the Pacific, UNDP Headquarters. Professor Yuge holds a Bachelor of Arts (B.A.)
from Barnard College, Columbia University, and Master of Arts (M.A.) in Development Economics fromNew York University.

Commentators
Mr. Norimasa SHIMOMURA has started as UNDP Resident
Representative in Indonesia on 1 October 2020. He has more than 25 yearsof experience at the United Nations, promoting sustainable humandevelopment in many countries.
Prior to his current assignment, he served as the United Nations
Resident Coordinator for Kazakhstan in 2015-2020 and UNDP Resident
Representative for Kazakhstan until December 2018 when the global UNreform separated the positions of UN Resident Coordinator and UNDP
Resident Representative. Earlier, he spearheaded development initiatives asacting UNDP Resident Representative in Montenegro, UNDP Country
Director in Tajikistan and Albania, UNDP Deputy Resident Representativein the Republic of North Macedonia, and acting UNDP Deputy Resident
Representative in Georgia. He also served as Program Manager of Western
Balkans cluster at UNDP headquarters Regional Bureau for Europe & CIS, and Special Assistant to theDirector of UNDP’s Bureau for Crisis Prevention and Recovery. Prior to that, he was Economic Advisor
at the Permanent Mission of Japan to the United Nations serving as delegate for the GA SecondCommittee, ECOSOC and its subsidiary committees, and UNDP/UNFPA Executive Board. He started
his career as UNDP programme officer in Turkmenistan and Bosnia-Herzegovina.
He holds Master of International Affairs from Columbia University in the City of New York, andB.A. from Sophia University in Tokyo, Japan.
Ms. Mikiko TANAKA was the UN Resident Coordinator in Guyana (2016August 2021). She has 27 years of international development experience insustainable development, youth and women empowerment, publicadministration and decentralization, rule of law, disaster risk management,conflict prevention and recovery, partnering with governments, private
sector, civil society organisations and UN agencies at field level (Guyana,Yemen, Timor-Leste, Pakistan, Benin, China, Lao PDR, Thailand) andheadquarters in New York.
Ms. Tanaka worked in several crisis contexts when serving as UNDPCountry Director in Yemen (2013-2016) and Timor-Leste (2010-2013), andas Deputy Country Director in Pakistan (2007-2010). Earlier in her career,
she served as UNDP Deputy Resident Representative in Benin (2002-2007),

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UNV programme coordinator and UNDP poverty alleviation advisor in China (1999-2000), and UNDP
Assistant Resident Representative in Lao PDR (1995-1999). Prior to joining the UN, she worked inCARE International in Thailand (1993-1995) in rural community micro-enterprise development projects.
Ms. Tanaka earned her MSc in Public Policy and Management from the School of Oriental andAfrican Studies in the University of London, Masters of Rural Development Management from Khon
Kaen University in Thailand. She obtained her BA specialized in intercultural communications from theInternational Christian University in Japan.
Ms. Chikako TAKASE retired from the United Nations in June 2017
after serving for 34 years. She started as Associate Expert for UNIDO in
Jakarta, Indonesia in 1983, before joining the UN in 1984 to work on mediumterm forecasting of the world economy at Department of International
Economic and Social Affairs (currently DESA). She then worked on theWorld Economic Survey (1989-1994), before joining the Division forSustainable Development (DSD) (1995-2005). While at DSD, she wasinvolved in the preparation as well as organization of the World Summit on
Sustainable Development, held in Johannesburg, South Africa in 2002. AtDSD, her work mainly focused on changing consumption and production
patterns. She also had an opportunity to work for the Secretariat of theConvention on Biological Diversity (1996-1999). She then served as Deputy
Chief of the Policy Coordination Branch, Office for ECOSOC Support andCoordination, UN DESA, before assuming the Director of the United Nations Centre for Regional
Development (UNCRD) in Nagoya, Japan in 2011. Currently she teaches part-time at several universities.
She also serves as a member of the Executive Committee of the Association of Former International Civil
Servants – Japan (AFICS-Japan). She holds B.A. in Liberal Arts (Economics) from International Christian
University, Japan, and M.A. in Development Economics from the University of Sussex, UK.

Moderators
Prof. Sukehiro HASEGAWA is Distinguished Professor of the Kyoto
University of the Arts and Director of Kyoto Peacebuilding Center. He is also
President of the Global Peacebuilding Association of Japan (GPAJ).
Executive Director for Academic Exchange, UN Association of Japan (UNAJapan). Director, Academic Council on the United Nations (ACUNS), Tokyo
Liaison Office. He is former Special Representative of the Secretary-Generalof the United Nations for Timor-Leste. UN Resident Coordinator and UNDP
Resident Representative in South Pacific, Rwanda and Timor-Leste; Deputy
Executive Coordinator of the UN Volunteers Programme; UNDP Deputy
Assistant Administrator and Regional Director for Asia and the Pacific.
Director of Policy Planning, UNOSOM II, Somalia.

Dr. Dahlia SIMANGAN is an Associate Professor at Hiroshima
University’s Graduate School of Humanities and Social Sciences. She
contributes to the research activities of the university’s Network for Education
and Research on Peace and Sustainability (NERPS) and teaching activities ofthe International Peace and Co-existence Program of the School. Prior to that,
she was a Kanagawa University JSPS postdoctoral fellow for research inJapan, nominated by the United Nations University–Centre for Policy
Research in Tokyo. She holds a PhD in International, Political and Strategic
Studies from the Australian National University.

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