Dr Ghafar Lakanwal
Dr. Lakanwal was born and raised in Afghanistan where he studied agricultural science at the Kabul University. After finishing his Ph.D. in agricultural science at the Institute of Rural Sociology and applied psychology at the University of Hohenheim in Germany, he worked for the German International Development Agency until 1978. In August of that year, Dr. Lakanwal returned to his country to be part of the social and economic changes that were introduced by the new government. In December of 1979, the Soviets invaded Afghanistan.
Dr. Lakanwal still wanted to be part of the process of change. He worked as a Deputy Minister of Agriculture and was elected President and CEO of the first “Afghan Farmers Cooperatives Union”. In March of 1982, he was appointed to the Minister of Agriculture. Because of his opposition to government policies, he was released from all his government held positions in 1986. The political changes in the former Soviet Union also brought changes in Dr. Lakanwal’s life. From March to December of 1988, Dr. Lakanwal was Deputy Foreign Minister of Afghanistan. He traveled to New York as head of the Afghan Delegation to the United Nations General Assembly. While in New York, he asked the U.S government for political asylum. In February 1996, he became a citizen of the United States of America.
In October 1991, Dr. Lakanwal founded the MultiCultural Development Center (MCDC). He developed and has nurtured the “Sharing Diversity”™ concept for MCDC since its founding. He was the Executive Director since the inception of the Center until the end of 2009. He is a diversity practitioner, event coordinator, and a speaker in the area of cultural understanding and inclusion. He has traveled to over 30 countries and speaks English, German, Russian, Persian, and his native language, Pashtu.