Norine MacDonald is the president and founder
of ICOS (International Council On Security and Development), a policy think
tank working to combine grassroots research and policy innovation at the
intersections of security, development, counter-narcotics and public health.
Since 2005
Ms MacDonald has travelled extensively in Afghanistan and witnessed at first
hand the terrible effects of the country's 30-year conflict. Her field research
has helped to direct ICOS' investigation into the relationship between
counter-narcotics, military, and development policies and their consequences on
Afghanistan's reconstruction efforts. The Council's reports and video footage
provide a unique insight into the deteriorating development and security
situations on the ground, especially in southern Afghanistan, and make policy
recommendations to a broad audience of senior policy-makers and experts in NATO
countries.
Since 2007, ICOS has broadened the scope of its work, and Ms MacDonald's research for the
Council has also taken her to "War on Terror" hotspots in Iraq and Somalia.
Ms
MacDonald's international experience in law, academic research, policy,
advocacy and philanthropy, endows the Council with an exclusive perceptivity
into the synergies between development, security, public health and drug
policy. She has testified before the Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs and
International Development and Standing Committee on National Defence in Canada,
and the House of Commons' Defence Committee in the United Kingdom.
Ms MacDonald
is also a member of the International Advisory Council of the International
Crisis Group. In February 2007, she was awarded the First Class Medal of Merit
of the Italian Red Cross for outstanding contribution to international
humanitarian cooperation.
Ms
MacDonald's work has been featured in a long list of publications including the
Sunday Times, The Globe and Mail, The New York Times, The Washington Post and
The Daily Telegraph, while she has also appeared on CNN, BBC, CBC, CTV and Al
Jazeera International.
In 2008, Ms MacDonald co-edited "Philanthropy in Europe: A rich past, a promising future" with Mr Luc Tayart de Borms, Managing Director of the King Baudouin Foundation.
Ms MacDonald is also a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society with the Institute of
British Geographers, a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts and a Member of The
Frontline Club.
Before founding ICOS, Ms MacDonald was a partner in the law firm Bull, Housser and
Tupper. Ms MacDonald was appointed Queen's Counsel in 1997.
