Contributor(s): Khalid Malik | The LSE Global South Unit is delighted to host Khalid Malik. As the lead author of the 2013 UNDP Human Development Report, Mr Malik will share the important findings of the report and highlight the unprecedented speed and scale of the rise of the Global South. Khalid Malik is the director of the Human Development Report Office, United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). Mr Malik is a development economist with extensive leadership, research and advocacy experience. He was appointed director of the UNDP Human Development Report in June 2011. Born in Pakistan, he studied economics at the universities of Punjab, Cambridge, Essex, and Oxford. Mr Malik has had a long, distinguished career with the UN. Prior to joining the Human Development Report Office served as a special advisor on New Development Partnerships (2010-2011); UN Resident Coordinator in China (2003-2010); Director, Evaluation Office (1997-2003); and UN Representative in Uzbekistan (1993-1997). Earlier he worked as a senior economist and programme manager in Africa, Asia, the Caribbean, and on science and technology matters. Before joining the UN, Mr Malik taught and conducted research at the Pakistan Institute of Development Economics (1975) and at Pembroke College, Oxford (1974-75). He has been an invited speaker at the Club of Rome, the Boao Forum (Asia's Davos), and many other leading international forums on a range of topics, including China's growth, climate change and the environment, and global security. He co-hosted the annual International Finance Forum with one of China's leaders, Cheng Siwei, Vice Chairman of the 10th People's Congress. Mr Malik has written widely on development issues. He co-edited a review of the Lessons Learned in Crisis and Post-Conflict Situations (2002) and Capacity for Development: New Solutions to Old Problems (2002), and was the lead author of the 2004 UNDP Development Effectiveness Report. His latest book - Why China Has Grown So Fast for So Long - is to be published shortly. Mr Malik is on the Advisory Board of the Oxford Centre of China Studies and received an honorary doctorate from Nanchang University. In 2009, Mr Malik was selected by the government of China as one of ten "champions" - and the only foreigner - to be honoured for their contributions to the protection of the environment in China.