Roberto Bissio is executive director of the Instituto del Tercer Mundo (Third World Institute), an NGO in special consultative status with ECOSOC (the UN Economic and Social Council), based in Montevideo, Uruguay. He coordinates the international secretariat of Social Watch, a global network of citizen organisations from over 80 countries that reports every year on how governments and international organisations implement their commitments on poverty eradication and gender equity. Bissio is a member of Third World Network’s international committee and of the Civil Society Reflection Group on Sustainable Development. He was part of the civil society advisory group to the UNDP administrator, an advisor on accountability issues to ICANN and a member of the board of the Women’s Environment and Development Organisation (WEDO).