My Guest today is Michael Møller, known to many of you listening as the Director-General of the United Nations Office at Geneva up until a year or so ago.

Well, you cannot keep a good and energetic man down! And he has re-emerged as one of the principal leaders of this new organisation that I mentioned which is called the Geneva Science and Diplomacy Anticipator Foundation. Quite a mouthful to say. And so, for short, they call themselves GESDA.

We are going to hear from Michael Møller himself why this organisation has been formed and what it is doing that will make a difference.

Here were some of the questions that we covered:

Science and Diplomacy? There is obviously a gap in the market or else the Governments of Geneva and the Swiss Confederation would not be putting public money into GESDA. Yet my first question is an obvious one. There are already about 700 – 800 NGOs in Geneva. Why another one? Why this particular “marriage”, I mean Science and Diplomacy?
What does this one do that is not already being done by other NGOs in Geneva?
What has your organisation set its sights on to achieve? GESDA is new. It did not exist before. So, I imagine someone – or a number of like-minded people – saw a need that by satisfying it would benefit Geneva, Switzerland and the wider world. Please explain the vision that created the idea that you have turned into a reality.
Explain why this selected list of priorities and issues that you have just told me about stands out to such a compelling extent that they were/are top of your list. Or was there a lot of competition to get on that list? I mean, did you have to discard many?
Can we go through GESDA’s priorities so that you can explain them to me more fully?

Corinne Momal-Vanian, Executive Director, the Kofi Annan Foundation

The McKay InterviewBy Michael McKayMay 03, 2021