In 2008 a group of former international civil servants created the non-profit “Association of Former International Civil Servants for Development” (Greycells). The “development” part is what distinguishes Greycells from other existing associations, since all its activities are focused on or related to developmental issues emerging from the Sustainable Development Goals of the United Nations.

The main goal of Greycells is the dissemination of UN values by sharing the knowledge and experience of former staff members. Our activities are organised along two intertwined axes: first, the intergenerational seniors/millennials interface, and secondly the exchanges between the Geneva-Swiss population and the international expats community.

GREYCELLS HAS BEEN GRANTED ‘SPECIAL CONSULTATIVE STATUS’ WITH THE UNITED NATIONS ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL COUNCIL (ECOSOC)

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Augusto Lopez-Claros, is Executive Director and Chair of the Global Governance Forum. He is an international economist with over 30 years of experience in international organizations, including most recently at the World Bank. For the 2018/2019 academic years Augusto Lopez-Claros was on leave from the World Bank as a Senior Fellow at the Edmund Walsh School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University. Between 2011 and 2017 he was the Director of the World Bank’s Global Indicators Group, the department responsible for the Bank’s Doing Business report and other international benchmarking studies. Previously he was Chief Economist and Director of the Global Competitiveness Program at the World Economic Forum in Geneva, where he was also the Editor of the Global Competitiveness Report, the Forum’s flagship publication, as well as a number of regional economic reports. Before joining the Forum he worked for several years in the financial sector in London, with a special focus on emerging markets. He was the International Monetary Fund’s Resident Representative in the Russian Federation during the 1990s.

Georgios Kostakos is Co-founder and Executive Director of the Brussels-based Foundation for Global Governance and Sustainability (FOGGS), which focuses on the need for a new globalization narrative, rethinking education for the digital era, the establishment of a Global Resilience Council, and supporting SDG implementation. About half of his thirty-year-long work experience has been with the UN, including with the Executive Office of the UN Secretary-General, the High-level Panel on Global Sustainability, and the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).

Maja Groff, Esq., is an international lawyer based in The Hague, and is Convenor of the Climate Governance Commission, which seeks to propose high impact global governance innovations adequate to meet the climate challenge. She serves as Co-Chair of the Coordinating Committee for the International Anti-Corruption Court (IACC), as well as on The Canadian Task Force Against Global Corruption. As a Principal Legal Officer, she has previously worked on the development and administration of multiple multilateral treaties. She was a co-winner of a major international prize in 2018 on global governance innovation (New Shape Prize), and is a co-author of the 2020 book, Global Governance and the Emergence of Global Institutions for the 21st Century. She also serves on the Advisory Boards of Bcorp Europe and ebbf, organisations devoted to ethical business, and is a NOW Partner.     

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DIALOGUE BETWEEN GENERATIONS IS AS IMPORTANT

AS DIALOGUE BETWEEN NATIONS

MORE ACTIVE THAN EVER AND COMMITTED TO MAKE A DEVELOPMENTAL DIFFERENCE FOR ALL AGES