Ricardo MELÉNDEZ-ORTIZ is ICTSD’s co-founder and its Chief Executive Officer since 1996. Currently, he is co-convener of the joint initiative on promotion of sustainable energy, a project of the Global Green Growth Institute, ICTSD, and the Peterson Institute for International Economics. Previously, he co-founded and was General Director of Fundación Futuro Latinoamericano (Quito). He has represented Colombia as a negotiator in several multilateral fora, including as permanent delegate of Colombia in Geneva and as a negotiator in GATT’s Uruguay Round, the Rio’92 UN Conference process, UNCTAD VIII, the Climate Change Convention, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and the Montreal Protocol. He acted as spokesperson for the G77 in several fora and served as chair of the UN Standing Committees on Commodities and on Trade Preferences. Earlier, he had served as Principal Adviser to the Colombian Minister of Economic Development and as Chief of Administration of the Office of the President of Colombia. Since 1997, Mr. Meléndez-Ortiz has been the publisher of BRIDGES and its sister publications, and has edited, authored and published a wide range of books, articles and opinion pieces in English, French and Spanish on economic governance, trade, sustainable development and conflict management. He has served or currently sits on advisory committees and the boards of a number of global policy initiatives, including as Member of the Panel of Experts, CEC Assessment of NAFTA’s Environmental Effects, Group Leader appointed to spearhead the expert working group on Environment, Energy and IP of WIPO’s Framework for Designing National Intellectual Property Strategies for Development, Member of the Board of Intellectual Property Watch (Geneva); the Operating Board of AccountAbility (London); the World Economic Forum’s Global Agenda Council on Trade and on New Energy Architecture, as well as WEF’s Working Group on Trade and Climate Change; The Pardee Center Task Force on Governance for a Green Economy (U of Boston); The Center for Global Development’s Global Trade Preference Working Group (Washington, DC); The Evian’s Group Brains Trust (IMD); the Global Governance Network of Globus et Locus (Milano); the Steering Committees of DfID’s Global Trade and Finance Architecture Initiative and of UN DESA’s Sustainable Development Knowledge Partnership (New York), a Patron of the Earth Focus Foundation (Geneva); in the recent past he served as Chair of the Global Action Network’s Council (Cambridge, MA); and member of the U.N. Secretary General Millennium Project Task Force on Trade; the WTO’s Director General NGO Advisory Group; and the MOFCOM/IISD China Sustainable Development and Global Markets Task Force. Mr. Meléndez-Ortiz is a graduate of Harvard University. He holds Colombian and Belgian nationalities and is a resident of Switzerland where he lives with his wife and two daughters.
Non-exhaustive list of publications:
Books
WTO Dispute Settlement: The Developing Country Experience. Shaffer, Gregory and Ricardo Meléndez-Ortiz (eds). (Cambrige University Press 2010).
Intellectual Property and Sustainable Development, Agendas in a Changing World. Meléndez-Ortiz, Ricardo and Pedro Roffe (eds). (Edward Elgar Publishing 2009).
Agricultural Subsidies in the WTO Green Box: Ensuring Coherence with Sustainable Development Goals. Meléndez-Ortiz, Ricardo, Christophe Bellmann and Jonathan Hepburn (eds). (Cambridge University Press 2009).
Rebuilding Global Trade: Proposals for a Fairer, More Sustainable Future. Deere-Birkbeck, Carolyn and Ricardo Meléndez-Ortiz (eds). (ICTSD and International Centre for Trade and The Global Economic Governance Programme, Oxford 2009).
Envisioning a Sustainable Development Agenda for Trade and Environment. Najam, Adil, Mark Halle and Ricardo Meléndez-Ortiz. (Palgrave Macmillan 2007).
Trade and Environment : A Resource Book. Najam, Adil, Mark Halle and Ricardo Meléndez-Ortiz. (IISD, ICTSD and The Regional and International Networking Group 2007).
Trading in Genes: Development Perspectives on Biotechnology, Trade and Sustainability. Meléndez-Ortiz, Ricardo and Vicente Sanchez (eds). (Routledge 2005).
Trading in Knowledge: Development Perspectives on TRIPS, Trade and Sustainability. Bellmann, Christophe; Dutfield, Graham and Meléndez-Ortiz, Ricardo (eds). (Routledge 2003).
Commerce international et développement durable: Voix africaines et plurielles. Meléndez-Ortiz, Ricardo and Christophe Bellmann (eds). (Editions Charles Léopold Mayer 2002).
Trade, Environment and Sustainable Development: Views From Sub-Saharan Africa and Latin America: A Reader. Koenz, Peider, Christophe Bellmann, Lucas Assuncao and Ricardo Meléndez-Ortiz (eds). (ICTSD and UNU/IAS 2000).
Chapters in books, articles, working papers and contributions
South-South Solutions. In: Making it, issue 12, 4 January 2013, pp. 25-26.
The Shifting Geography of Global Value Chains: Implications for Developing Countries and Trade Policy. World Economic Forum 2012.
Governance of International Trade for the Green Economy. Meléndez-Ortiz, Ricardo. In: Beyond Rio+20: Governance for a Green Economy, ed. Henrik Selin and Adil Najam, pp. 33-42 (The Frederick S. Pardee Center for the Study of the Longer-Range Future, Boston University 2011).
What Europe Could do to Save the Doha Round. Meléndez-Ortiz, Ricardo and Trineesh Biswas. In: Europe’s World, 2011.
A Sustainable Development Perspective On Global Trade Governance. Meléndez-Ortiz, Ricardo and Trineesh Biswas. In: Making Global Trade Governance Work for Development Perspectives and Priorities from Developing Countries, ed. Carolyn Deere Birkbeck, pp. 100-134 (Cambridge University Press 2011).
At Cancún and Elephant Fills the Room and yet Remains Elusive. Meléndez-Ortiz, Ricardo. 12 December 2010.
Trade And Sustainable Development: The Ends Must Shape The Means. Meléndez-Ortiz, Ricardo. In: Peace and Prosperity through World Trade. Achieving the 2019 Vision, ed. Fabrice Lehmann and Jean-Pierre Lehmann, 185-190 (Cambridge University Press, 2010).
Anticipating Pressing Issues in Integration: The Trade, Climate and Sustainable Development Nexus. Meléndez-Ortiz, Ricardo, Trineesh Biswas and Ingrid Jegou. In: Integration and Trade, no. 30, vol 14, January-June 2010, pp. 21-32.
Selected Issues for LDCs in Current Trade and Climate Change Talks. Meléndez-Ortiz, Ricardo. In: Achieving the Millennium Development Goals through New Development Partnership: Building Up Sustainable Growth and Country Ownership, UNCTAD, pp.72-78 (Report based on the High-Level Workshop on Status and Trends for Asian, Caribbean and Pacific Least Developed Countries 2008).
Trade and Equity in a World Where Goods Carry Carbon Passports. Meléndez-Ortiz, Ricardo. In: Trade – What if? Consumers, Ethics and Environment, ITC, pp.79-88 (Research publication for the 2008 World Export Development Forum).
Sustainability in Trade. Meléndez-Ortiz, Ricardo. 2008.
What Matters to Europe Matters to the World. Meléndez-Ortiz, Ricardo. In: New Thinking on Trade Policy and Development. The Relationship between Multilateral Negotiations and Regional or Bilateral Negotiations, Socialist Group in the European Parliament, pp.12-14, 2007.
The Trade Round Of Unbelievers. Meléndez-Ortiz, Ricardo. In: D+C, issue 8-9, 2006.
Finalising Modalities In NAMA And Agriculture By End April 2006, What Is And What Should Be Possible? Meléndez-Ortiz, Ricardo. 2005.
Preface - Trade and Development Law. Meléndez-Ortiz, Ricardo. In: Sustainable Development in World Trade Law, ed. Gehring, Markus and Marie-Claire Cordonier Segger, (Kluwer Law International, 2005).
Trade, Europe And A Livable World. Meléndez-Ortiz, Ricardo. In: European Trade and Global Biodiversity, Volume 9, pp. 1-2, 2005.
L’agenda incertain. Meléndez-Ortiz, Ricardo. 2005.
Environment At Cancún: Issues In The Current Trade Round. Meléndez-Ortiz, Ricardo. In: Policy Matters. Trade, Environment and Investment: Cancun and Beyond, IUCN Commission on Environmental, Economic and Social Policy, issue 11, September 2003, pp. 22-27.
Sustainable Development: Filling the Governance Gap for Globalisation. Meléndez-Ortiz Ricardo, Bernice Wing Yee Lee, and Adil Najam. A think piece produced as background reading for the third panel of the Dialogue on Governance, Globalisation and Development. 2003.
Reflexiones y Sugerencias para el Debate Multilateral sobre Comercio y Ambiente. Meléndez-Ortiz, Ricardo. In: Comercio y Ambiente: Temas para avanzar el Diálogo, ed. Mónica Araya, pp. 25-34 (Washington, DC: OEA, 2000).
Sustainable Development and Environmental Policy Objectives. Meléndez-Ortiz, Ricardo and Ali Dehlavi. 2000.
Collective reports
Agriculture and Climate Change: A Scoping Report. 2011.
From Collision to Vision: Climate Change and World Trade. 2010.
Trade for Development (UN Millennium Task Force on Trade). 2005.
Reference Manual for the Integrated Assessment of Trade-Related Policies. 2001.