Mr. Change The World
Alfredo Sfeir-Younisis is currently President and Founder of The World Spiritual Assembly for the Peaceful Protection of Our Planet (WOSA-PPP) and Zambuling Institute for Human Transformation (ZIHT). He had a twenty-nine year career at the World Bank where he was hired as the World Bank’s first environmental economist in 1976 and later was appointed Director of the World Bank Office in Geneva, Switzerland. He served as Special Representative to the United Nations and the World Trade Organization from 1996 to 1999. In both institutions he worked in the general fields of human rights, peace, and social justice; within this broader context he initiated and promoted policy in such areas as poverty eradication, international trade and finance, financing of development, gender and women’s issues, trade and development, role of indigenous peoples, sustainable management of forestry and fisheries, water management and irrigation, desertification, biodiversity, culture and spirituality in sustainable development, and alternative medicine. He is a spiritual activist, international public speaker and communicator, peace ambassador, economist and environmental activist.
He has received numerous awards from international organizations, including the Lifetime Ambassador of Peace (2001), Peace and Tolerance Award (2002), World Healer Award (2002), Messenger of Peace (2002), Peace, Mercy and Tolerance Award (2003), Supreme Advisor of the Buddhist Spiritual Forum Award, World Peace Mercy and Tolerance Award (2004), Diamond Peace Award (2005), and Peace Ambassador Award (2006).
Spiritual Activist. Alfredo has been recognized as a World Healer and a spiritual authority by many great masters from different spiritual traditions. His spiritual name is Cho Tab Khen Zambuling. He has also been recognized as a Mayan Priest (Kamalbe). He has worked with North and South American Elders and he has increased his metaphysical knowledge under their influence. He follows a unique spiritual path with commitment, dedication, discipline and very high standards that synthesizes the essence of different religious and spiritual traditions. He has practiced meditation and other forms of healing for more than 30 years. He has recently published two books: “Another Meaning of Enlightenment” and “Ten Spiritual Laws to Heal the World”.
International Public Speaker and Communicator. Alfredo has been speaking for sometime now at niumerous international conferences and fora on Globalization, Economics and Business, Alternative Medicine, Environment, Peace, Spirituality and Interfaith Dialogues, in several countries (Switzerland, Italy, Brazil, Chile, Hungary, Venezuela, Thailand, China, Mongolia, Spain, Sri Lanka). He has also authored more than 100 papers, chapters, articles, World Bank and United Nations statements in such areas as poverty eradication, human rights, international trade and finance, spiritual economics, financing of development, gender and women, trade and development, role of indigenous peoples, the right to development, peace and conflict, forestry, fisheries, water management and irrigation, desertification, biodiversity, culture and spirituality in sustainable development, alternative medicine, and many other important topics.
Peace Ambassador. Alfredo is an advocate of inner and world peace. He has written many articles on how to reach peace and making peace with the environment and with ourselves in magazines, newspapers and international fora. He has also delivered speeches at the United Nations, World Conferences in Europe and in Spiritual and Religious Institutions. He has been teaching meditation to many persons, giving them an opportunity to experience inner peace. He has received several international awards; Lifetime ambassador of Peace (2001), World Healer Award (2002), The Messenger of Peace (2002), The Peace, Mercy and Tolerance Award (2003), The Supreme Advisor of the Buddhist Spiritual Forum Award, the World Peace Mercy and Tolerance Award (2004), Diamond Peace Award (2005), Graz, Austria, Peace Ambassador Award (2006), Doctorate in Science, International Free University For Alternative Medicine. Since 2006, he is dedicated to offering Silent Meditations for World Peace. The first one was carried out in Bombarral, Portugal.
Spiritual Grass Roots. Alfredo has participated in spiritual pilgrimages to many holy places like the Golden Temple and Punjab Amritzar in India, Mayan Sacred sites in Guatemala and Salvador, in Central America, Inca Sacred sites in Peru, Indigenous sites in Chiapas, Mexico, Mapuche special lands in Argentina and Chile, and many Buddhist sacred sites in Tibet, China, Mongolia, Indonesia, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Thailand. During these pilgrimages he uplifts and blesses the poor, the children, the monks and nuns and the common people he encounters. He has also provided material support to schools, temples, medical dispensaries and scholarships. At his retirement party from the World Bank, Alfredo chose to share his ultimate moments with the homeless and colleagues from work at a homeless shelter in Washington DC (Central Union Mission) where he volunteered for 10 years.
Human Rights, Economic Development and Public
Policies. Alfredo held the position of the Institutional Focal Point on human rights at the World Bank. He was the principal spokesperson for the World Bank at the UN and WTO and other international forums, including civil society organizations on the subject. For at least two decades, Alfredo has developed many new and innovative insights about the need to embrace human rights in socioeconomic development as well as the importance of human values and spirituality. His statements at international economic meetings and in academic circles have earned him recognition as an expert in the topic. Alfredo undoubtedly influenced many organizations like the World Bank, World Trade Organization, many Committees at the United Nations such as the Values Caucus, Spiritual Caucus, URI-UN and the NGO Committee on Spirituality, Values and Global Concerns, other Development Banks such as CAF (Andean Development Corporation) and government agencies siuch as the Andean Parliament, Governments of Guatemala, Butan, Ecuador and Chile. He was the recipient of the Social Corporate Responsibility Award (2003) and the Person of the Year, World Association of Retired Person, NYC (2004). In 2005, the Inter-american Development Bank in Washington DC invited him to give a presentation on “Economics and Human Rights: Human Rights as Capital”.
Spiritual Economics, Business and Entrepreneurship. Alfredo’s interests go far beyond traditional economics. During 29 years at the World Bank, he has developed a new paradigm based on the linkages between spirituality and economics, and on the role that human values play in the decision-making process both nationally and globally and the elements that enliven the soul of business. Some of his public statements at the UN and other conferences include: peace and economic development, human security, education, spiritual dimensions of the globalization process, and the relations between the material and the non-material aspects of development and progress including moral and ethical dimensions. He played a key role in the organizations of a world meeting on Ethics, Moral and Spiritual Values for Sustainable Development. He has given many seminars on the relationship between spirituality and economic development. He has published several articles and made numerous public statements on the subject. He is advisor to the First World Moral Forum, Thailand.
Indigenous Knowledge & Cultural Diversity. Alfredo has made significant contributions to improve the understanding of the role that indigenous people and their knowledge play in sustainability and economic development. He has become increasingly involved in learning about the holistic views of the Mapuche, Maya, Kuna and Lakota peoples. He has prepared a proposal to create a Bank for Indigenous Peoples and his interest continues to focus on developing appropriate recognition of indigenous peoples wisdom and provide them with educational systems appropriate to their cultures.
Environmental Activist. Alfredo was the first environmental economist (natural resource economist) hired by the World Bank in 1976. He actively engaged into creating a framework and the corresponding implementation instruments and practices to promote sustainable development in developing countries, specifically in the areas of fisheries, forestry, land management, sustainability, desertification and biodiversity as an example. He organized a world conference on Innovative Forms of Financing for Sustainable Development. He prepared and disseminated a number of proceedings on matters related to financing. More recently he has given public presentations on the economic diseases and the environment as well as issues related to making peace with the environment.
Economist. Alfredo Sfeir-Younis is an economist graduate from the University of Chile, with a Master and Doctorate from the University of Wisconsin and University of Rhode Island, USA. He recently retired from the World Bank where he held various key positions for nearly 29 years. His last position was Senior Advisor to the managing directors of the World Bank and the Institutional Focal Point on human rights. Previous to this position, from 1999 to 2003, he was the Director of the World Bank Office in Geneva, Switzerland, and The Special Representative to the United Nations and the World Trade Organization and, from 1996 to 1999, he was the World Bank Special Representative at the United Nations in New York. He regularly participated at the Commission of Human Rights as well as many international meetings on issues related to trade, globalization, indigenous rights, poverty, women and justice both in New York and Geneva.