Walden Bello

Who is Walden Bello?

Walden Bello is a Filipino author, academic, and political analyst. He is a professor of sociology and public administration at the University of the Philippines Diliman, as well as executive director of Focus on the Global South. Born in Manila, Philippines, he became a political activist following the declaration of Martial Law by then-President Ferdinand Marcos on September 21, 1972. Bello currently sits as a member of Congress in the Philippines' House of Representatives where he serves as the political party Akbayan's second nominee.

Walden Bello is the founding director of Focus on the Global South, a policy research institute based in Bangkok, Thailand. Prior to that he was executive director of the Institute for Food and Development Policy in Oakland, California. Educated at Princeton University, where he did his PhD in sociology in 1975, he subsequently taught at the University of California, Berkeley, where he was a research associate with the Center for South East Asian Studies. He is also a guest professor at Binghamton University, where his lectures focus predominantly on issues of globalization.

In 2003, Bello was awarded the Right Livelihood Award, whose website describes him as "one of the leading critics of the current model of economic globalization, combining the roles of intellectual and activist." Bello is also a fellow of the Transnational Institute, and is a columnist for Foreign Policy in Focus. In March 2008 he was named Outstanding Public Scholar for 2008 by the International Studies Association.