Dr. Howard Mann is a senior advisor to the Intergovernmental Forum on Mining, Minerals, and Sustainable Development (IGF) and the Senior International Law Advisor for IISD, where he specializes in international law relating to investment and sustainable development. From 1999 to 2009, Howard founded and managed IISD’s Investment and Sustainable Development Program. During and since this period, he has worked with colleagues to advise government officials from over 80 developing countries and multiple regional organizations on international investment law issues, investment treaty negotiations, investment contract negotiations in mining and agriculture, and the development of sound domestic investment laws and policies from a sustainable development perspective. Of particular importance to the globalized mining sectors, Howard brings unique expertise to the relationship between the different sources of international and domestic law to his work, including expertise in Canada’s international obligations to foreign investors. He also brings relevant human rights experience, including serving as an advisor to the United Nations on the work of Professor John Ruggie, which led to the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights.

Howard was a leading participant in the development and drafting of the Model Mining Development Agreement (MMDA), the first internationally recognized model contract on mining from a sustainable development perspective. In particular, his work drafting MMDA sections on local business development, employment, community development agreements, and infrastructure development and sharing have been utilized by IISD, Sustainable Development Strategies Group (SDSG) and others to improve mining legislation and mine development agreements around the world. Howard is a recognized leader in training for developing countries on mining law and contracts and best practices, having participated and led regional and national-level training programs in Africa and Asia.

Prior to joining IISD, he was a specialist in international and constitutional law relating to the environment as counsel with the federal Department of Justice. In that capacity, he was part of Canadian negotiation delegations on Climate Change, Biodiversity, Hazardous Waste and other international conventions. He also led the constitutional work on the development of Canadian implementation legislation for these agreements and on the drafting of the Canadian Environmental Assessment Act. Howard also led the federal side in developing a working group of federal and provincial lawyers working on environmental law to promote greater harmony in governmental approaches across the country during a critical time in the development of that field.