This is a free public event. Free Parking.
This lecture will cover:
1. an analysis of the security situation, including trends for 2008,
2. the relationship between the international military effort and the effort to rebuild infrastructure and provide basic services,
3. challenges in the governance area, including corruption and the narco trade,
4. I will also discuss some priority concerns from the point of view of the afghan government,
5. and of course, in discussing the above, the role played by canada in the various sectors will be discussed as a case in point
Speaker Bio
Jawed Ludin was appointed as Afghanistan’s Ambassador to Norway by His Excellency President Hamid Karzai in February 2007, and was officially accredited to the court of Norway on 31 May 2007. Ambassador Ludin is also a non-resident envoy to Sweden, Denmark, Finland and Iceland. Ambassador Ludin was born in Kabul on 16 March 1973, and was there when the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan in 1979. In April 1992, as the Government of Dr Najibullah collapsed and anti-Soviet Mujahideen factions entered Kabul, Jawed Ludin was attending the second year of university at Kabul’s prestigious medical faculty. However, due to the outburst of war, the university was shut down and he had to give up his ambition of studying medicine. Between 1994 and 1998, Mr Ludin worked for various non-governmental organizations, engaged in providing humanitarian assistance to the Afghan people, as the country descended deeper and deeper into poverty and conflict. Mr Ludin resumed his studies when he moved to London, UK, in 1998, giving up medicine and instead politics and sociology. In 2002, Mr Ludin earned a Master of Science Degree in Political Theory from the University of London. In 2001 he worked with the United Nations in organizing the Bonn Conference that laid out the democratic framework for a post-Taliban Afghanistan. From 2001 to 2003 he worked for British Overseas NGO’s for Development (BOND), Britain’s largest network of development NGO’s working in international development, where he led a program for promoting organizational learning in the development sector. In 2003 Ambassador Ludin returned to Afghanistan, and became the Presidential Spokesman and Director of Communications for the Office of the President. In that role, he set up a modern Spokesman’s Office within the President’s Office, and led a vigorous effort to bring the new government closer to the people through open and constructive engagement with free media. In May 2005 he was appointed Chief of Staff of President Hamid Karzai, making him responsible for overall management of the President’s Office and its various organs. Ambassador Ludin has written extensively on Afghanistan, as well as on conflict and development issues. He co-authored the book Working with conflicts: Strategies and Skills for Action in 2002, and has published articles and commentaries in various publications including the Guardian in the UK. He is fluent in Dari, Pashto and English. He also speaks some Hindi and French. Ambassador Ludin is married and has two daughters.