Agenda

Dr Cosmas Luckyson Zavazava took office as Director of the Telecommunication Development Bureau (BDT) at the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) on 1 January 2023.

With more than 30 years in telecommunications, including over 20 years in ITU's Development Sector, Dr Zavazava has promoted and implemented impactful information and communication technology projects around the world.

Prior to his election as BDT Director, he served as ITU's Chief of Partnerships for Digital Development, overseeing development-related projects, strategic partnerships, and resource mobilization between 2019 and 2022, while launching new initiatives that have boosted the engagement of industry, private-sector and academia members in ITU's work.

Ms. Nonkqubela Thathakahle Jordan-Dyani currently serves as the Director-General of the Department of Communications and Digital Technologies in South Africa. Prior to her appointment in August 2023, she held the role of Deputy Director-General: International Relations and Trade and served as Acting Director-General for two years.

With over 20 years of experience in the public sector, Ms Jordan-Dyani is a highly respected civil servant and policy leader. She has held various senior management roles, demonstrating a strong track record in international relations, digital policy, and institutional governance.

Ms. Jordan-Dyani has represented South Africa on numerous national and international platforms. She has served as Co-Chair of the Universal Postal Union (UPU) Congress Committee on Strategy, Chair of the African Telecommunications Union (ATU), and Council Member and Alternate Representative on the Intergovernmental Assembly (IGA) of the NEPAD ICT Programme. She currently serves as Chairperson of the Women’s Forum and Deputy Chairperson of South African Women in ICT, championing gender inclusion in the digital economy.

Mr. Stephen Motari Isaboke EBS is a former technology media, oil & gas, and renewable energy consultant in Kenya and the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

He is an experienced and multi-disciplinary business executive with over twenty-five years’ leadership in senior management and executive levels. He has previously served as the Group Executive Director of Regulatory and Government Affairs for the Africa Region at MultiChoice Africa Holdings, based in Dubai, UAE.

He has previously held senior leadership positions responsible for Kenya and East Africa for MultiChoice Group, Kenya Shell (Royal Dutch Shell PLC) Sara Lee and Unilever.

He has also held non-executive directorships in various companies and served in the management board of the national football team, Harambee Stars.

Mr. Isaboke holds a Bachelor of Commerce B.Com (Hons) degree in Business Administration from the University of Nairobi, a Post-graduate Diploma in Marketing from the Chartered Institute of Marketing (CIM), United Kingdom, and a Master of Business Administration (MBA) degree in strategic management from the University of Nairobi.

He is a fellow of the Chartered Institute of Marketing FCIM (UK) and a Member of the Institute of Directors (IoD) Kenya.

As Principal Secretary, Isaboke is the administrative head and accounting officer of the State Department for Broadcasting and Telecommunications where his role includes the development of Telecommunications Policy, Broadcasting Policy, Coordination of National Government Advertising services, Public Communications, Postal and Courier Services, Policy on Development of Local Content, Telecommunications, Postal services, Electronic Commerce and Government Telecommunications Services.

Mr. YU Xiaohui, male, President of China Academy of Information and Communications Technology (CAICT), member of the 14th National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC). He also serves as Vice President and Secretary General of the Internet Society of China (ISC), Chairman of the Governing Council of the Alliance of Industrial Internet (AII), and Secretary General of the Artificial Intelligence Industry Alliance (AIIA). 

Mr. YU has long been engaged in the research work on telecommunications, Internet, digital technologies, digital transformation, digital economy, and digital governance, promoted the policy study, industry development, application innovation, and infrastructure construction in related fields, and led multiple research cooperation programs with think tanks and research institutions in Europe and United States.

Mr. John OMO is the Secretary-General of the African Telecommunications Union (ATU), the African Union’s specialized agency for telecommunications and ICTs’ development in Africa. He has held the position since January 2019 and was re-elected for a second 4-year term at the ATU Conference of Plenipotentiaries held in Algiers, Algeria in July 2022. He leads the continental body entrusted with building consensus within African countries in the development of ICT policies, systems and services, and also in coordinating African participation in international ICT fora.

Mr. Omo has 33 years of experience as a lawyer and has contributed immensely to the development of local and international policies, legislation, agreements, and treaties in all areas of public service life but mainly in the area of ICTs. 

Prior to his election as the Secretary General of the Union, he worked with the Communications Authority of Kenya, Kenya's ICT regulator, where he provided leadership over the Authority’s legal matters and strategies. Before that, he worked in the public/civil service. Before his stint with the Kenyan ICT regulator, Mr. Omo worked at the Attorney-General’s Chambers, rising to the position of Senior State Counsel.

He holds a Master of Law degree in International and Commercial law from the University of Sheffield - UK, a Bachelor of Law from the University of Nairobi - Kenya, and a Diploma in Human Rights Law from the UN Human Rights Centre, Geneva, and ILO Centre Turin among other professional courses.

Mr. Omo was awarded the Global Merit Leader Awards 2022 by Telecom Review during Telecom Review Leaders’ Summit in Dubai, UAE.

Commissioner at the UN Broadband Commission for Sustainable Development, Chair of ITU’s CRO/IAGDI, Member in the ITU’s Digital Innovation Board, and CEO of SAMENA Telecommunications Council, Bocar BA is a renowned industry advocate, and a proponent of sustainability in digital transformation, investment in digital infrastructure, unlocking access to capital, and addressing policy and regulatory challenges to accelerate progress on the global Sustainable Development Agenda while incentivizing the private sector across the ICT and space industries within the South Asia – Middle East – North Africa region. He is a sought-after speaker in international conferences and pan-regional industry knowledge-exchange platforms. 

BA's close collaboration and proactive engagement with policy makers, government representatives, investors, as well as leaders from various investment groups in addressing digital development issues and industry-wide challenges, have been instrumental in building new private-to-private, private-to-government, and government-to government relationships across Africa and the Middle East. 

Bocar BA has been active in collaborating with the Global Cyber Security Forum (GCF) on securing Cyberspace and addressing numerous cybersecurity challenges, including protection of children online. He has chaired consensus-building and contributed to the development of recommendations for ICT policy and private-sector leaders on 21st century funding and financing models, to help accelerate digital infrastructure development and digitalization through new funding mechanisms that engage ICT as well as financial sector stakeholders in innovative ways. In 2025, BA is proactively contributing to realizing new ideas on digital economy enablement under South Africa’s G20 Presidency. 

On the space and satellite front, BA is advising the UAE’s Mohammed Bin Rashid Space Center (MBRSC) on a space-sustainability industry initiative and on correlated matters pertaining to the digital economy and the space economy. BA is also a fellow at the Academy of Engineering and Technology of the Developing World (AETDEW), based in Malaysia. 
Bocar BA is based in Dubai, UAE. 

Dr. Li Tian is currently the Head of Standards Strategy of ZTE Corporation. He is actively involved in various global standardization organizations including ITU, 3GPP, CCSA, where he served as Vice President of China Association for Standardization and Board Member of ITU-D Innovation and Entrepreneurship Alliance for Digital Development. He also served as the rapporteur for several 5G related work items. His research interests are mainly in the field of ICT, and his team contributed significantly to advanced technologies like radio access, AI/ML, future networks, video coding, automobile electronics, network security, etc. He is the first author of a book and contributed to multiple book chapters, with over 50 academic papers published and over 100 granted patents globally. 

Moe Ba is head of Digital Innovation Service, BDT at the International Telecommunication Union - the UN specialized agency for ICT/Telecommunication - where he has worked for the past ten years. 

His role is to help strengthen ITU Member States’ capacity to innovate and integrate ICT innovation into their national development agenda. 

In his current role, his main intervention areas are a) building stakeholders’ capabilities in innovation and entrepreneurship; b) supporting the scale-up of entrepreneurship-driven digital innovation aligned to national development priorities; c) assisting countries in assessing and developing strategies that inform competitive national policies; and d) supporting the development of flagship initiatives that achieve impact and sustainability in key sectors. 

Since joining BDT in late 2014, he pioneered several key products and services for the BDT, including the country's innovation profiles, the Innovation and Entrepreneurship Alliance for Digital Development, foresight studies, the Expert Network, the Global Innovation Forum, the ITU Acceleration Centres, and the Digital Transformation Lab, among others. In his role, he has created the ITU Innovation Challenges and also supports other organizations in running their innovation challenges to scale up startups and entrepreneurs. This includes collaborations with the African Telecommunications Union, the UN Population Fund (UNFPA), and the UN Office for South-South and Triangular Cooperation (UNOSSC), among others.

He is the Secretary of the high-level Digital Innovation Board,  of the Innovation and Entrepreneurship Alliance for Digital Development as well as that of the newly launched Expert Network. 

His passion is to help communities unlock their potential through stakeholder empowerment and connecting opportunities to resources.

Prior to joining ITU, Mr. Ba spent 18 years in the private sector, working in Silicon Valley and internationally. He is an expert on digital innovation policies and strategies, developing technology platforms and solutions, and nurturing innovation communities to accelerate digital development. In his past role, he served as lead engineer, project manager, product manager, platform manager, business development manager, strategic marketing manager and client executive for the Silicon Valley firms. 

Moe holds an M.B.A. in entrepreneurship from Babson College, a M.S.  in Electrical Engineering from the University of Minnesota, and a dual B.S. in Manufacturing Engineering and Computer Science, all from the USA. 

Hosted and participated in multiple research and planning projects related to the ICT development, emergency communication, USO, broadband development, as well as international cooperation projects.

She served as the Vice-Chair of ITU-D SG2(2015-2018,2018-2022). She has been Vice-Chair of TDAG Representing Asia Pacific, the Board member of NOW (Network of Woman), Manager of the ITU CAICT Acceleration Center.