Parliamentary Reception for Commonwealth Scholars 2024

Programme

13:15    Scholar registration- CSC staff

14:00    Welcome- Dr Alastair Niven LVO OBE, Chair of the CSFP Support Group and Former Trustee of the CEC 

              Sarah Dickson OBE, Chief Executive of the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association UK (CPA UK)

14:15    CSC Address- Professor Kevin Ibeh FCIM FRSA, Professor of Marketing and International Business and Pro Vice Chancellor (International) at Birkbeck, University of London, and CSC Commissioner 

14:25   Lords guest speaker- The Rt Hon. the Baroness D’Souza CMG

14:40  Q&A

15:05  Speaker on the work of the House of Commons- Mark Robinson

15:15    Tea reception

16:30    Group tours of the Palace of Westminster

17:15    Conclusion of the programme

Dr Alastair Niven LVO OBE  

Dr Niven is a former Trustee of the Council for Education in the Commonwealth and chairs the Support Group for the Commonwealth Scholarship and Fellowship Plan. He is an English literary scholar and author. He has been Director General of The Africa Centre, Director of Literature at the Arts Council of Great Britain and of the British Council, the Principal of Cumberland Lodge, and President of English PEN. He was a Commonwealth Scholar for two years at the University of Ghana where he undertook research in the field of African literature, receiving his Master’s degree and lecturing in English literature. He next lectured in English literature at the University of Leeds, where he received his Doctorate, and then taught English Studies at Stirling University, where he was given charge of Commonwealth literature. 

Sarah Dickson OBE 

The Executive Committee of the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association UK (CPA UK) welcomed a new Chief Executive this year: Sarah Dickson OBE.  

Sarah joined CPA UK from the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO). Sarah’s most recent overseas posting was as British High Commissioner to The Bahamas, until July 2022. She has served in the British Diplomatic Service for more than 20 years. Her previous diplomatic appointment was as Ambassador to Guatemala and Honduras. Sarah has also served in Spain, Argentina and the former Yugoslavia; as well as various appointments in the Foreign and Commonwealth Office in London.

Professor Kevin Ibeh

Professor Kevin Ibeh, PhD, FCIM, FRSA, is Professor of Marketing and International Business and Pro Vice-Chancellor (International) at Birkbeck, University of London. He is also Commissioner of the Commonwealth Scholarship Commission, UK, and Member of the British Council Higher Education Sector Group. An expert consultant/adviser to the World Bank, OECD, UNCTAD, African Union among others, Professor Ibeh currently serves as UK Representative to the Board of the European International Business Academy, Member of the Advisory Board of Warwick Africa Hub and Oakland College Corporation, UK, and Lead Series Editor of the Palgrave Series on Entrepreneurship in Africa. He previously chaired the Universities UK sub-Saharan African policy network, led UK academic departments, hosted major international scholarly conferences and guest-edited several influential journals. Professor Ibeh’s research has mainly focused on advancing knowledge about firm internationalisation, international entrepreneurship, and Africa’s emerging multinationals, and his output encompass over 100 scholarly articles and four books. Professor Ibeh has served and continues to serve organisations across Africa, Asia, Australasia, the Caribbean, Europe, and North America in various capacities, including visiting professor, keynote speaker, expert adviser, panellist, external examiner, external assessor, and editorial board member. He contributes to the annual African Development Dynamics Report collaboratively produced by the African Union Commission and OECD.  

The Rt Hon. the Baroness D’Souza CMG 

Frances Gertrude Claire D’Souza, Baroness D’Souza, CMG, PC is a British scientist and current member of the House of Lords. She held the office of Lord Speaker from 1 September 2011 to 31 August 2016. She worked for the Nuffield Institute of Brain Chemistry and Human Nutrition from 1973 to 1977, Oxford Polytechnic (now Oxford Brookes University) from 1977 to 1980, and was an independent research consultant for the United Nations from 1985 to 1988. From 1989 to 2002, she was the director of the human rights organization Article 19. D’Souza was created a Lord Temporal as Baroness D’Souza, of Wychwood in the County of Oxfordshire, on 1 July 2004. She sat as a crossbencher in the House of Lords, where she was the Convenor of the Crossbench Peers from 2007 to 2011. 

Mark Robinson 

Mark Robinson is a former Conservative Party politician. He was elected Conservative Member of Parliament for the seat of Newport West in 1983. Owing to his background at the UN and the Commonwealth he was appointed to the Foreign Affairs Select Committee, a position he held until in 1985 when he was appointed Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Welsh Office, by Margaret Thatcher. He was MP for Somerton and Frome and left the Commons on 1 May 1997. Robinson spent six years at the United Nations: at the UN Relief Operation to Bangladesh; in the Office of the Under-Secretary General; and in the Office of the Secretary General, Kurt Waldheim. From 1977 to 1983 he was assistant director in the Office of the Commonwealth Secretary-General, who was then Sir Shridath Ramphal. 

He is currently Chairman of the Commonwealth Organisations’ Committee on Zimbabwe; the UK Chairman of the Commonwealth Consortium for Education; a Council Member of the Winston Churchill Memorial Trust; Hon. Treasurer of the Commonwealth Round Table: the Commonwealth Journal of International Affairs; and a Trustee of Concordia UK.