Berkley Center

Mario Giro has served as under-secretary for foreign affairs in Italy since May 2013, after a stint as advisor to the minister for international cooperation and integration in 2012. He previously was director for international affairs for the Community of Sant'Egidio. In this role Giro was involved in all Community-backed peace negotiations. In 2005, he spearheaded efforts to bring rebel leaders in Darfur to Rome for discussions in advance of negotiations with the Government of Sudan. Giro has also been involved in the peace talks between Sudan and Congo to meet rebel leaders of the Lord's Resistance Army in Northern Uganda. He has also recently worked in Guinea, Niger, and Côte d’Ivoire. During the 1990s he facilitated negotiations related to the conflicts in Algeria, Kosovo and Albania, Liberia, and Burundi. Giro was awarded the 2010 Jacques Chirac Foundation Prize for Conflict Prevention.