Helen Clark & Chatham House on the path ahead for Russia’s war on Ukraine
The Helen Clark Foundation in conversation with Chatham House
As a member of the Helen Clark Foundation board, it is an honour to share with you this upcoming members-only event and urge you to consider joining as a member. The work of the Helen Clark Foundation is crucial in our times.
The Foundation’s patron, Rt. Hon. Helen Clark, was Prime Minister of New Zealand from 1999-2008 before becoming the Administrator of the United Nations Development Program in April 2009 and the Chair of the United Nations Development Group. She was the first woman to hold these positions.
During this time, I met Helen in New York and served as the still photographer for Gaylene Preston’s documentary, My Year With Helen (2017), which was powerful exposition of the importance of women leaders in addressing global crises. Indeed, that year Helen was named the world's third most influential woman.
In 2019, Dr Peter Davis and Helen Clark co-founded the Helen Clark Foundation - a non-profit, non-partisan public policy think tank committed to generating and promoting policy research in New Zealand. Its headquarters are located at the Auckland University of Technology. The Board is Chaired by Peter Davis, and its members are Māori psychiatrist Dr. Hinemoa Elder, Samoan academic researcher of criminology Dr Tamasailau Suaalii-Sauni, Member of Parliament Rajen Prasad, asset and trusts manager Geoff Pownall, litigation lawyer Simon Mitchell and myself.
The Foundation's mission is to publish research that contributes to a more just, sustainable and peaceful society. The Foundation aims at diagnosing problems our society faces and proposing new solutions. Its core values are inclusion, fairness, and sustainability.
Why become a member?
Membership to the Helen Clark Foundation costs as little as $4 per month, and every cent goes towards furthering these goals.
Members and donors of the Helen Clark Foundation have supported 15 major reports including research into green energy, loneliness and social connection in Aotearoa New Zealand, drug law reform, housing policy, effective social media regulation, and more.
On their Publications & Media page, you can browse all the articles by type, topic, author and partner. It is a brilliant repository of rigorous yet accessible research for everyone.
Members and donors have also supported 29 events (both public and exclusive to members) such as this upcoming not-to-be-missed discussion with Chatham House, covering the path ahead for Russia’s war on Ukraine.
Online event for members: Tuesday 2nd August 2022, 7pm-8pm
This webinar, co-hosted by the Helen Clark Foundation and Chatham House, will see the Right Honourable Helen Clark in conversation with James Nixey, Director of the Russia and Eurasia Programme at Chatham House, and Orysia Lutsevych, research fellow and manager of the Ukraine Forum in the Russia and Eurasia Programme at Chatham House.
The panel will be introduced by Executive Director of the Helen Clark Foundation Kathy Errington, and will discuss how the war is perceived in Russia and elsewhere in the former Soviet states, the impact on Ukraine and its prospects, and how events might unfold in the remaining months of this year. It will reflect on the range of reactions across the international community, and whether there is scope for diplomacy to play a role, and if so by whom and when the entry points could be.
Click here for the event details and information on how to register.
Follow Helen Clark’s weekly global engagements
If you’re like me and eager to see what issues Helen Clark is thinking and speaking about each week, she posts frequently about international developments on her Twitter, and daily life on Instagram. Helen also provides an overview of her week at a glance on her website.
From last week’s edition of Helen’s diary:
13 July: Helen moderated a panel hosted by PMNCH, of which she has been confirmed as Chair for another three years. The panel was on "Choice, Voice, and Autonomy: Women's Political Leadership for health in a fragile world." Watch it here.
13 July: Helen published an op ed titled “Pacific nations must be friends to all but beholden to none” in The Sydney Morning Herald and an interview with ABC Radio National.
“This week’s summit of Pacific Islands Forum Leaders in Suva comes not a moment too soon.” Helen writes. “Rising sea levels and evermore intense weather events pose threats to coastal villages, agriculture, infrastructure and whole economies. The pandemic has devastated the tourism-dependent economies. Now spillover impacts from the war in Ukraine have driven food and fuel costs sky-high, added to the already heavy burden of import costs in the Pacific.”
12 July: Helen spoke in the European Parliament's Socialists & Democrats GPF webinar, a discussion on the current issues of peace, security and the arms race. Click to watch “The new world order and the global arms race.”
12 July: Helen took part in a hybrid dialogue on sustainable development with the MBRGI 2022 High Level Political Forum. “I was pleased to be asked to be part of this discussion on sustainable development goals housed by UAE Mission in New York. The SDG’s have been put on the back burner in international discourse with all the crises the world has, and I think it is important to see that countries committed to seeing SDGs succeed keep highlighting their importance.” [Helen Clark, excerpt from the recording]. Listen to the whole discussion here.
Helen’s commitment to actioning what she advocates is plain to see. This is a commitment to a well-functioning democracy, and the future of effective public policy in New Zealand as well as globally. If you share this commitment and would like to support the Helen Clark Foundation to continue its transformative work, you can become a member here. The annual cost is $65 if you are waged or $35 if you are unwaged - or if you prefer a monthly cost, $8 or $4 per month respectively.
I hope you can join me for the upcoming event on the path ahead for Russia’s war on Ukraine. As always, I love to hear from you so please do send me your thoughts.
Have a great week,
Helen