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Liv Tørres

  • Non-Resident Fellow

Liv Tørres is a Non-Resident Fellow at New York University’s Center on International Cooperation (CIC) and currently the International Secretary of the Norwegian Confederation of Labour – LO Norway.

Tørres was formerly the Director of the Pathfinders for Peaceful, Just and Inclusive Societies program. The Pathfinders is a group of UN member states, international organizations, global partnerships, civil society, and the private sector working to accelerate the delivery of the Sustainable Development Goals’ targets for peace, justice and inclusion (SDG16+). She has worked on international humanitarian, peace, and development issues, as both a scholar and practitioner, for three decades. Before joining Pathfinders, she was the executive director of the Nobel Peace Center. She previously served as the secretary general of Norwegian People’s Aid, a humanitarian, development, and disarmament organization operating in over 40 countries, after several years of leading its International Department.

She has also worked for many years on labour issues, as a political advisor for Norway’s Minister of Labour and Social Inclusion, the manager of the first National Labour Force Survey in South Africa, and with several publications on trade unionism, labour relations and labour market issues. She was also a member of the Norwegian Labour Party´s International Committee for nearly 10 years.

Her academic background includes positions such as senior advisor leading development research at the Research Council of Norway, and associate professor at the University of Oslo. In the 1990s, she established and managed Fafo South Africa, an international policy research center, where she also served as managing director for several years. More recently, since 2017, she has served as a visiting professor at Wits University in Johannesburg. She is currently the chair of the portfolio board on Global Development and International Relations research at the Research Council of Norway.

Tørres holds a PhD in political science from the University of Oslo. She is an active commentator whose expertise is in demand in fields including peacebuilding, conflict resolution, justice and equality, inclusive societies, development policy, labour issues, and democratization.

  • Publication: Report November 15, 2021 Inequality and Exclusion

    A Civil or Uncivil Civil Society?

    Civil society is part and parcel of the institutional architecture that will be crucial to help us out of our current crisis of staggering inequality, pandemic trauma and required recovery. Yet, civil society is large, complex, fragmented, and polarized. This paper discusses how with current pressures on civic space and the right to organize, efforts to build democratic organizations face massive challenges.

  • Publication: Analysis September 20, 2021 Humanitarian Crises

    Our Common Agenda: A Quick Scan

    On Friday, September 10, 2021, Secretary-General António Guterres presented Our Common Agenda, his response to the request made by UN member states for recommendations in the 75th anniversary declaration adopted in 2020. In this analysis, the teams at NYU’s Center on International Cooperation and Pathfinders share their initial observations and impressions on how Our Common Agenda links to ongoing and planned efforts on peace, justice, inclusion, preventing humanitarian crises, and supporting peacebuilding and multilateralism.

  • Publication: Report September 17, 2021 Inequality and Exclusion

    From Rhetoric to Action: Delivering Equality & Inclusion

    The flagship report of the Pathfinders Grand Challenge on Inequality and Exclusion is about the solutions that will deliver equality and inclusion. It is the culmination of several years of research and mobilization undertaken by a unique partnership of ten countries, the United Nations, the World Bank, the OECD, Oxfam, and CIVICUS, along with numerous partners and international experts. The report constructs a bridge between the rhetoric of “build back better” and action: a bridge between promise and progress.

  • Publication: Policy Brief July 6, 2021 Pathfinders

    Social Dialogue as a Tool to Fight Inequality & Recover After a Pandemic

    Si vis pacem, cole justitiam” – “If you desire peace, cultivate justice,” is the motto enshrined in the foundations of the International Labour Organization’s (ILO) building in Geneva, established in 1919. World War I, the Russian Revolution, and the fear of communism that followed, had convinced world leaders that, “universal and lasting peace can be established only if it is based upon social justice,” as they stated in the 1919 Versailles Treaty. Widespread injustice, inequalities, and exclusion were the enemies of peace. Many would argue they are no less relevant today.

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