Agenda

Dr. Zavazava has been Director of the​ ITU Telecommunication Development Bureau (BDT) since 2023. Before that, he served as ITU's Chief of Partnerships for Digital Development and as Chief of Projects and Initiatives. Before joining ITU, he headed the Republic of Zimbabwe's Government Telecommunications Agency, served as a senio​r diplomat, and was part of the faculty at the UK's Nottingham Trent University. Throughout his career, he has focused on closing the digital and skills divide and accelerating digital transformation to achieve socio-economic development for all. 

Dr Zavazava holds a PhD in Multilateral Trade from Business School Lausanne (Switzerland), and a Master of Laws degree in Telecommunications and Information Technology from the University of Strathclyde (UK), as well as a Master's in International Relations from Webster University (US), and an MBA from the University of Zimbabwe. He also holds a Bachelor's in Business Administration and diplomas in Telecommunications and Systems Engineering.

Ms. Esperanza Magpantay is the Senior Statistician at the ICT Data and Analytics Division of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), where she has worked since 2000. She leads the collection, harmonization, and dissemination of global ICT statistics and coordinated the work of the ITU Expert Groups on ICT Indicators. She also represents ITU in major international forums, including the UN Statistical Commission, the UN World Data Forum, and the Partnership on Measuring ICT for Development.

Ms. Magpantay chairs the UN Committee of Experts on Big Data and Data Science for Official Statistics’ Task Team on Mobile Phone Data, bringing together over 50 experts from international and national statistical bodies to advance the use of mobile data for official statistics, and co-leads the ITU/World Bank project on using Mobile Phone Data to Work for Policy. She regularly delivers trainings and presentations at regional and global events.

Prior to joining ITU, she worked as a statistical officer at the International Labour Office (ILO) for seven years. She holds a Global Master in Business Analytics and Big Data from IE University, Madrid Spain and a BSc in Statistics from the University of the Philippines.

Deniz’s main work areas include digital government and preparation of the biannual UNDESA flagship publication ‘United Nations E-Government Survey'. As part of his current role, he also supports the Internet Governance Forum (IGF). His main research areas include e-government, open government, citizen engagement, internet governance, artificial intelligence and other frontier technologies and open government data. Deniz holds a Master Degree on International Political Economy and Development from Fordham University, New York, United States and a Computer Engineering degree from the Bosphorus University of Istanbul, Turkey.

Scarlett Fondeur is Economic Affairs Officer in the E-commerce and Digital Economy Branch, Division on Technology and Logistics, at UN Trade and Development (UNCTAD) since 2003. The Branch produces the flagship Digital Economy Report, which analyzes digital economy trends and their implications for developing countries and their participation in international trade. She contributes to the development of internationally comparable ICT statistics through the Partnership on Measuring ICT for Development. UNCTAD compiles data on the use of ICT by enterprises, on the ICT sector, on international trade in ICT goods, ICT services, and digitally-deliverable services; and is developing methodological guidance on measuring digital trade and e-commerce value.

Marco A. Llinás Vargas is an expert in competitiveness, industrial policies, and internationalization. He is currently Chief of the Division of Production, Productivity and Management at ECLAC. He has been Advisor to Colombia’s High Council on Foreign Trade, VP at the Bogota Chamber of Commerce, VP at Colombia’s Private Council for Competitiveness, Negotiator of the Free Trade Agreement with the US, among others.

He is the author of the book “Cluster Initiatives: a concrete and effective way to ‘move the needle’ of productivity”. He holds a degree in Industrial Engineering and a Master in Economics from Los Andes University, and a Master degree in Public Administration in International Development from Harvard University.

Michael Frosch joined the Statistical Standards and method unit at the Department of Statistics at ILO in 2016. He is the focal point for the implementation of the statistical standard on work relationships and is engaged in the work with developing statistics on digital platform work and employment. He was also responsible for the development of the new statistical standards on informal economy adopted at the 21st ICLS.  Prior to ILO, Michael Frosch worked at Statistics Denmark as Senior advisor responsible of the Danish LFS. Michael Frosch finished his masters in Economics and Political Science at the University of Lund in Sweden in respectively 2006 and 2005.