Opening remarks
Gwi-Yeop Son Regional Director for Europe and Central Asia in United Nations Development Coordination Office (UNDCO). Gwi-Yeop Son began her career in Haiti, assisting HIV/AIDS patients with the non-governmental organization. She then worked with the Country Women’s Association of Nigeria, focusing on microfinance schemes. In 1994, Ms. Son was posted to Somalia as a Programme Officer with the United Nations (UN) Development Programme (UNDP), marking the beginning of an 18-year period with UNDP. After two years in Somalia, she worked in various other locations including Lao PDR, Timor-Leste during the pre-independence period, Indonesia during the first democratic elections and Tsunami 2004 period. She was also posted in New York to serve as a Programme Adviser on Afghanistan and as OCHA’s Director of Corporate Programmes. In OCHA, she was responsible for organizing the World Humanitarian Summit and provided direct oversight over work on communications, information services, policy development and humanitarian financing including the CERF and the country based pooled funds. Ms. Son took up her assignment as the United Nations Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator in August 2018 until August 2020. Subsequently, she assumed the Regional Director for Europe and Central Asia with the Development Coordination Office.
Jaroslaw K. Ponder, Head of the Office for Europe at the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) (Geneva, Switzerland), representing ITU in Europe and directing actions, projects, initiatives and experts groups targeting 46 countries of the Europe Region. His portfolio includes set of Regional Initiatives for Europe, designed by the European Member States and focusing on the ICT Infrastructure, Digitization, Digital Inclusion, Accessibility, Innovation and Cybersecurity. Along the professional career, Mr. Ponder held official positions in the public sector and was a contributor to the legislative projects having the impact on the public policy. Since 2014, Mr. Ponder has been working for ITU holding diverse positions in the General Secretariat, Telecommunication Development Bureau, and Regional Presence, addressing complexity of information society development and digital transformation at national, regional and international levels, including the United Nations level. For several years he has managed ITU's work on the United Nations World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) process, leading towards the establishment of the annual WSIS Forum, WSIS Prizes, WSIS Stocktaking, others.
Afshan Khan is the UNICEF Regional Director for Europe and Central Asia, and the Special Coordinator for the Refuge and Migrant Response in Europe. She is based in Geneva.Ms. Khan has been an international public servant for over 30 years. Previously she was the Director of Emergency Programmes for UNICEF, and she has also held other senior positions including Director of Public-Sector Alliances and Resource Mobilization; Associate Regional Director for Eastern and Southern Africa; and the UNICEF Representative in Jamaica. Ms. Khan has extensive field experience including assignments in Kenya; Mozambique; Democratic Republic of Congo; and Colombia. She also has broad United Nations-wide expertise stemming from assignments with the Inter-Agency Standing Committee for Humanitarian Affairs (IASC) in Geneva; the Executive Office of the Secretary- General; and the United Nations Development Group. From 2012 to 2014 Ms. Khan took leave from the United Nations to become the CEO of Women for Women International. In that role, she was responsible for setting the strategic vision and mobilizing the necessary resources for women rebuilding their lives after war. Ms. Khan was born in Hyderabad, India, and grew up in Montreal, Canada. She has a Master's degree in Public Policy from the Johns Hopkins School for Advanced International Studies, and a Bachelor's degree in Political Science from McGill University.
Status of Connectivity in Education: Findings from the joint ITU-UNICEF report
Sarah Delporte, Project Officer in charge of UN Affairs and UN Partnerships at ITU Office for Europe. Prior to joining the ITU, she had several experiences in the communication and marketing sectors. She holds a double master's degree in Public Policy and Human Development from the UNU-MERIT, specialized in social entrepreneurship and public policy, as well as a bachelor's degree in communication and marketing. She has also followed journalism training. She is passionate about applying innovative and integrative solutions to create a sustainable and inclusive future for all.
Sarah Fuller is an education consultant who currently works with the UNICEF Regional Office for Europe and Central Asia as the project manager for the regional digital learning initiative LearnIn. Her work spans both research and programming and focuses on integrated approaches to educational development, particularly evidence generation, mental health and well-being in education, formative assessment, and teacher professional development. She has worked with the UNICEF Office of Research – Innocenti and UNESCO on education sector analyses, gender equality and education, and data mapping in South-East Europe. Sarah conducts research and trauma-informed professional development for early childhood educators in Rwanda. She has a Master's in International Educational Development from Teachers College, Columbia University and is an alumna of Harvard Medical School's global mental health program in refugee trauma and recovery.
Panel discussion - National and international perspectives towards strengthening connectivity in education
Marta Markowska is a Policy Officer for Digital Education in the Directorate-General for Education, Youth, Sport, and Culture at the European Commission in Brussels. Her previous policy work in the European Commission focused on social inclusion and equality, implementation of the European Strategic Framework for Education and Training as well as working as a Press Officer. Prior to joining the European Commission, Marta worked as a teacher, television story producer and public relations adviser in Canada, the US and South Korea. She completed her undergraduate honours degree at Queen's University in Kingston, Ontario and her post-graduate studies at Algonquin College in Ottawa. Born in Poland, and raised in Canada, she returned to Europe whereby she completed her Masters Degree in European Studies at the Jagiellonian University in Krakow, Poland after which she started her work with the European Commission. She currently lives in Brussels and is a mom to two little boys.
Romina Kostani holds the position of the Director of Innovation and e-Gov Sectorial IPA at the Albanian National Agency of Information Society. During the past couple of years, she has worked on the digitalization of public services, the development and promotion of the e-Albania e-Government Portal, interoperability of systems and open data, ICT innovation in public administration etc. She holds a MSc. and Bachelor Degree in “Information Systems/Business-Informatics" by the Faculty of Economy, a Master's degree in “EU Business Law" by the Faculty of Law, University of Tirana and has experience in university level teaching of information systems.
Rozalba Merdani is the Head of the Educational Policies and Strategies Unit at the Ministry of Education and Sports. The main task of this unit is to support the implementation of priority policies and strategies of the pre-university education sector. In this context, the unit has contributed to the drafting of the new Strategy for Education, where the digitalization of education is defined as one of the main priorities.
Biljana Trajkovska is a State Advisor on Strategic Planning in the Ministry of Education and Science, since 2013. As a State Advisor on Strategic Planning she is responsible for all materials and documents which contain proposals for general policies under the authority of the Ministry. In the period 2011-2013 she worked as a Chief of Staff of the Minister of Labor and Social Policy.
Meliha Kovačević is Head of Telecommunications licensing department at the Communications regulatory agency of Bosnia and Herzegovina (CRA). Since joining CRA in 2001, she has been dealing with various regulatory issues, including introduction of liberalization at the market, establishment of licensing regime, adoption and implementation of rules on consumer protection, as well as conduction of market analysis. Mrs. Kovacevic holds B.Sc. of Electrical engineering, from the University of Sarajevo.
Luka Radunović is a Bachelor of Economics who has been working for „m:tel“, the leading telecommunications operator in Montenegro, since 2017. Currently, he's working as a Digital services coordinator in the Strategy sector. His primary work focus are digital transformation and different types of projects that involve the application of new technologies in all spheres of life, business and society. Prior to m:tel, he was working as a Marketing Executive in Europe for the Mexican company "Punto 2012", which deals with internet domains in the hospitality industry. He also worked as a Key Account Manager in "Me-net" marketing agency, where he was working on marketing campaigns for many prestigious companies from Montenegro. He is the owner and founder of the first movie blog in Montenegro - kokice.me. From 2014 until 2017 he was the editor of digitalizuj.me, blog/web presentation of a digital community that seeks to help citizens and organizations in Montenegro understand and seize exciting new opportunities for social change and business in the digital environment.
Gulsanna Mamediieva is the Director General of Directorate for Eurointegration at Ministry of Digital Transformation of Ukraine
. She is in charge of eurointegration into Digital Single Market and online safety and protection. Gulsanna and her team have launched development and implementation of the Strategy of integration of Ukraine into European Digital Single Market. It consists of many components: electronic communications, trust and identification services, e-commerce, open data, digital skills, privacy, innovation, etc. Before working in the Ukrainian government, Gulsanna had been an lawyer in private IT sector. She holds a Master Degree in Information Technology Law, University of Tartu, Estonia and currently pursuing PhD at Kyiv Institute of International Relations. Gulsanna speaks Ukrainian, Crimean Tatar, Russian, English. Learning French.
Closing remarks
Malin Elisson is the Senior Advisor for Education at the UNICEF Regional Office for Europe and Central Asia. Malin Elisson has more than 25 years of experience from development cooperation in operation and policy and education in conflict and post-conflict countries. Working for the government of Sweden, Sida, she has held positions as senior advisor to World Bank, UN Reform, Development Effectiveness, Head of Policy Support Unit and Education Lead Specialist. Elisson also served at Ministry of Foreign Affairs as Senior Advisor in 2030-Agenda Negotiation Team in 2015. With a background in civil society organizations in areas of education in emergency, rights-based programming, democratic and peace leadership education; reconciliation and political transformation she has been focus on capacity development, institutional strengthening, and development of knowledge management. Elisson holds a master's degree in comparative education from Stockholm University.
