Professor Stephan Klasen has been re-elected to the UN Committee for Development Policy

Prof. Dr. h.c. Stephan Klasen, PhD, has been confirmed by the United Nations (UN) Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) as a member of the Committee for Development Policy. As a development economist at the University of Göttingen, he has been a member and sole representative of Germany in the UN Committee since 2013. His renewed three-year term begins on 1 January 2019.

ECOSOC is one of the six principal organs of the UN. Its tasks include raising the standard of living in the world, formulating proposals for solutions to international economic, social, and health problems, and promoting human rights. The Committee for Development Policy advises ECOSOC on economic development issues pertaining to Least Developed Countries (LDCs). It is also responsible for determining which countries belong to the group of LDCs and therefore, which countries receive various trade and development benefits. The committee comprises 25 academics from across the globe who provides advise in their personal capacity.

"It is a great honour to have been re-elected to the Committee for a rather unusual third term, and I am pleased that despite the limitations of my severe chronic illness, there is an interest in my participation," said Klasen. Since 2015, he has been suffering from Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) and is severely impaired in mobility and speech.

Stephan Klasen has served as head of the Department of Development Economics at the University of Göttingen Faculty of Business and Economics since 2003. His research interests include the measurement and analysis of poverty and gender inequality in developing countries. He also heads the Ibero-America Institute for Economic Research at the Faculty.