The Road to Rio: Recommitting to sustainable development

Helen Clark (Administrator of the United Nations Development Programme and Chair of the United Nations Development Group; former Prime Minister of New Zealand) will give a series of public lectures and a concluding symposium on 'Development in the 21st Century'.

Helen Clark became the Administrator of the United Nations Development Programme in April 2009. She is also the Chair of the United Nations Development Group, a committee consisting of the heads of all UN funds, programmes and departments working on development issues. Prior to this, she served three successive terms as Prime Minister of New Zealand. During her career in Parliament, she chaired the Foreign Affairs Committee and, as Minister, was responsible for Conservation and Housing and subsequently Health and Labour, and was also Deputy Prime Minister. Prior to entering Parliament, she taught in the Political Studies Department of the University of Auckland.

Humanitas is a series of Visiting Professorships at Oxford and Cambridge intended to bring leading practitioners and scholars to both universities to address major themes in the arts, social sciences and humanities. Created by Lord Weidenfeld, the Programme is managed and funded by the Institute for Strategic Dialogue with the support of a series of generous benefactors, and co-ordinated in Cambridge by the Centre for Research in the Arts, Social Sciences and Humanities (CRASSH). Humanitas Visiting Professors are held by distinguished academics and leading practitioners who have contributed to interdisciplinary research and innovation in a broad range of contemporary disciplines in the arts, social sciences and humanities. Covering areas of urgent or enduring interest in today's society as well as the performing arts, Humanitas Visiting Professors will present their pioneering work through a series of lectures or performances open to University audiences and the wider public.