Jan Joost Teunissen is director of the Forum on Debt and Development
(FONDAD). He started his career in 1973 as a social scientist and freelance
journalist in Chile. Seeing his plan to work in Chile's agrarian reform and
rural development aborted by the coup d'état of 11 September 1973, he
engaged himself in activities aimed at the return of democracy in Chile. He
focused on economic boycott as a political instrument to bring about regime
change in Chile and other dictatorships. In his work on international
economic and political issues he forged links with academics, politicians,
journalists and high-level policymakers in various parts of the world. In
the Netherlands he stimulated discussions on the origins and solutions to
the international debt crisis. Supported by economists like Jan Tinbergen,
Robert Triffin, Johannes Witteveen and Jan Pronk he established FONDAD in
1987. He has co-authored books and articles on finance and development
issues.
