Klaus Leisinger | Maggie Sun

 

Klaus LEISINGER, Professor of Sociology, University of Basel; President, Global Values Alliance; Senior Adviser, Karl Schlecht Foundation.

 

Professor Klaus M. Leisinger is a social scientist and economist at the University of Basel. His professional career took him for several years to East Africa as CEO of the former Ciba Pharmaceuticals regional office and he was Managing Director and Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Novartis Foundation until 2013. He is engaged in corporate responsibility issues and actively promotes a corporate culture of dialogue with stakeholders in international policy, development cooperation and business ethics. He held numerous advisory positions in organizations such as the UN Global Compact, the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), the World Bank, the World Economic Forum (Global Agenda on Human Rights) and the Karl Schlecht Foundation.

 

 

 

Maggie SUN, Operational Coordinator, Handicap International – China Program

 

Maggie has a Degree in International Business, Concordia University. She has been working in the disability field for eight years, and previously worked for a local DPO. She is an expert on disability issues, civil society development in China and Sustainable Development Goals

 

About Handicap International

 

Handicap International is an international solidarity organization specialized in the field of disability. Non-governmental, non-religious, non-political and non-profit making, it works alongside people with disabilities. The organization was created in France in 1982 and is now active in 59 countries. As a co-founder of the International Campaign to Ban Landmines, the organization received the 1997 Nobel Peace Prize for its campaign for the victims of land mines.

China Program Handicap International has been working in China since 1998. Its objective is to promote the rights and socio-economic inclusion of people with disabilities, especially in rural China, through pilot projects run in close cooperation with government and civil society partners as well as disabled person’s organizations. Its work is guided by the principles of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD), which was ratified by China in 2008. Present projects are located in Beijing, Yunnan and other areas in China.

The mission of Handicap International includes preventing and limiting the impact of disabilities, by offering assistance to people with disabilities and those at risk of disability and supporting them in their efforts towards autonomy and social integration. Handicap International vision: a world in which all forms of disabilities can be prevented, cared for or integrated, and in which the rights of people with disabilities are respected and applied.