Mr. Mehdi TAZI, General Vice President of CGEM 

Born in Casablanca, Morocco, Mr. Mehdi TAZI graduated from the engineering and management school Télécom Paris Sud in 1999 and received an MBA from the European Institute of Business Administration (INSEAD) in 2004.  

He began his professional career in KPMG Consulting France in 1999. In 2005, he joined Saham Group as Development Director. In 2008, he was appointed Managing Director of Isaaf Mondial Assistance, a subsidiary of the group, after serving as Deputy Managing Director for 14 months. In 2014, he became the CEO of Saham Assurance after spending 3 years as Managing Director. Between 2010 and 2017, he was a board member of several insurance companies of the Group: Saham Insurance Morocco, Niger, Rwanda, and Angola, as well as Taslif and CAT Morocco. He also held the position of CEO of GA Angola Seguros from 2013 to 2014. In 2017, Mr. TAZI acquired the firm Beassur and sold, two years later, a minority share to Marsh, the world leader in insurance brokerage and risk management. 

Mr. TAZI was distinguished by the Jeune Afrique Group, in 2013, among the 25 young African leaders and, in 2020, among the top 50 disruptors. He was chosen to be amongst the Top 10 economic leaders of the continent by the prestigious Choiseul Institute for three consecutive years from 2014 to 2016. 

In terms of his civic engagement, Mehdi TAZI was Vice-President of the Moroccan Federation of Insurance and Reinsurance Companies (FMSAR) from 2010 to 2017. He also spent four years from 2010 to 2014 as the President of the Royal Moroccan Federation of Sports for All (FRMSPT).  

Within CGEM, he served as Vice-President in charge of the New Growth Drivers before being elected by his peers on the 22nd of January 2020, as General Vice-President of the Confederation and reelected on the 16th of May 2023.

Position: Director of the Observatory of Living Conditions of the Population at the High Commission for Planning in Morocco

M. Khalid SOUDI, Director of the Observatory of Living Conditions of the Population at the High Commission for Planning in Morocco, is a Statistician-Demographer and Statistician-Economist with a specialization in the processing and analysis of socio-economic data. He has authored numerous analyses and research studies on gender equality in Morocco, living standards, social development, and their measurement. Throughout his professional career, he has developed expertise in analyzing human development issues, particularly well-being, social inequality, especially gender inequality, and human progress. He has also conducted empirical research on the conception and analysis of multidimensional measures of poverty, inequality, and social fairness.

Position: President of Alamana Microfinance and the National Federation of Microcredit Associations.

• Professor Emeritus of Higher Education at Mohammed V University, Faculty of Legal, Economic, and Social Sciences in Rabat/Agdal.
• Former Chief of Staff to the Minister of Human Rights (1993-1995) and later to the Minister of Justice (1997-1998).
• Secretary General of the Ministry of Justice (1998-2002).
• President of the High Authority for Audiovisual Communication (HACA) (2002-2012).
• Member of the Superior Council of the Judiciary (CSPJ), appointed by His Majesty King Mohammed VI in 2017 and reappointed in 2021.

Current President of Alamana Microfinance and the National Federation of Microcredit Associations.

Mrs. Nadia Fettah Alaoui was born in 1971 in Rabat. She was appointed by His Majesty KingMohammed VI, May God Assist Him, on October 7th, 2021, as the first female Minister of Economy and Finance.

She was also the first female Minister of Tourism, Handicraft, Air Transport and Social Economy between 2019 and 2021. Having graduated from international business school HEC Paris in 1994, Mrs. Nadia Fettah began her career as a consultant at Arthur Andersen before founding her firm “Maroc Investment” and running it for five years. 

She became a successful CEO of several entities and was Well-known for her work in Africa. She won the prestigious CEO of the Year Award in Abidjan in 2018.

As a community life advocate, Mrs. Fettah is a founding member of the Club des Femmes Administrateurs au Maroc (Club of Women Business Administrators) and a member of the “Women Corporate Directors” international network. Mrs. Nadia Fettah is married and mother of two children.

Position/Quality: General Director / CEO – CDG Invest

Position: the Manager of Operations at Qarrah Daycare.

“Maha Alsoor is the Manager of Operations at Qarrah Daycare, a subsidiary of Takamol Holding Company ( a government company) In her role, Maha oversees the operation of nearly 20 daycare centers in Riyadh, embodying the core vision of Qarrah Daycare to revolutionize the childhood sector with cutting-edge practices, providing a ‘state-of-the-art’ daycare experience tailored for working women at their workplaces. 

Maha’s academic background includes a master’s degree in Educational Administration and a bachelor’s degree in Kindergarten and Preschool Education. With 15 years of experience in education and child care, Maha previously served as the General Director of the Child Care Association, a private charity dedicated to improving child care standards and community awareness while fostering national partnerships for childhood development support. Before her role at the association, Maha excelled as the Director of the Thinking Skills Department at Princess Noura Abdul Rahman University in Riyadh.”

Position: the Director of Care at the Ministry of Equality and Equity of Colombia.

Natalia Moreno is an economist with a master’s degree in Gender from the National University of Colombia. Applied in the field of feminist economics; she has carried out research on care economics and tax policies with a gender focus. She was one of the spokespeople for the #TaxFreeMenstruation campaign that managed to eliminate VAT on menstrual hygiene products in the country.

She has been a professor at the National University of Colombia, worked at DANE in the production of statistics with a gender focus, was an advisor at the congress at the Women’s Equity Commission, former director of the Care System at the District Women’s Secretariat of Bogotá, former Manager of the National Care Policy in the Vice Presidency of the Republic and is currently the Director of Care at the Ministry of Equality and Equity of Colombia.

Position : the Director of International Cooperation and Partnership at the Ministry of Economic Inclusion, Small Business, Employment, and Skills

Biography : Nour Elamarti is the Director of International Cooperation and Partnership at the Ministry of Economic Inclusion, Small Business, Employment, and Skills. Before her current role, Ms. Elamarti served as the Deputy Director of Digital at the MEDI1 group (MEDI1TV and MEDI1Radio) from 2010 to 2022. And before that she held marketing positions within mobile operators in France and Morocco. 

Nour Elamarti has a Master of science in Management from Ecole de Management de Lyon. 

She is also very active in the community, being a founding member of several social and networking associations.

Naima Sabri is a distinguished professional with 23 years in the field of vocational training and technical education, and a robust academic background. She holds a PhD in Molecular Biology from Paul Sabatier University in Toulouse/France, following her initial studies at Mohammed Ben Abdellah University in Fes/Morocco.

Dr. Sabri’s career in vocational training began in the Technical and Vocational Training Department since 2001, where she quickly advanced from Head of Service to Head of Division. Her expertise in training in the professional field, skills-based engineering training, vocational training planning, and public-private partnerships allowed her to contribute greatly in the reform of vocational training programs Her work involved close collaboration with professional organizations and NGOs, enhancing the alignment between training programs and the needs of the labour market.

In her subsequent role as a Manager at the MCA Agency since 2018, Dr. Sabri dedicated five years to leading projects aimed at reforming vocational training (legal, financial, private sector, gender, evaluation, quality, … areas of TVET) 

On February 29th, 2024, Dr. Sabri was appointed Director in the Technical and Vocational Training Department. In this capacity, she continues to drive innovation and improvements in vocational training, leveraging her deep understanding of the professional training landscape and her strategic planning skills.

Mister Abdelouahab Belmadani is the Director of Planning and Financial Resources at the Ministry of Health and Social Protection in Morocco, since 2018, and the Acting Director of the Equipment and Maintenance Directorate. 

Previously, he held key roles at the Ministry of Economy and Finance, contributing to the Organic Finance Law and major public financing projects.

Mr. Belmadani played a crucial role in managing the COVID-19 crisis in Morocco, overseeing health investments, financing, and international cooperation. He co-chairs the health group with WHO for the UNDAF and the Cooperation Framework for Sustainable Development. He is also the focal point for health cooperation with the African Union. He organized the African Conference on Health Risks in Marrakech and coordinated with the EU under the Health Sector Support Program.  

Mr. Belmadani holds an engineering degree in Agro-Economics and a master’s in Banking and Financial Markets from François Rabelais University in France.

Position: President of the Aba Technology group

Biography : An industrial engineer with a master’s degree in strategy and finance, Mohamed BEN OUDA is President of the Aba Technology group. A group specializing in connected and advanced health, smart cities and Industry X.0.

Mohamed BEN OUDA is a serial entrepreneur in the industrial, technological and life science fields and recognized for his ability to deliver complex projects with a strong sovereignty impact. It was able to build with a purpose of preventing the health, environment and security of citizens through the fusion of technologies and the implementation of services with high added value for nations. The group employs 750 people and operates in 13 countries in the EMEA region.

Before founding the ABA Technology group, Mohamed Ben Ouda held several general management positions in several sectors of activity with in-depth knowledge of the challenges of the public and private sector (SNTL, Palmeraie Développement, KLB Group, SNCF, Lafarge Ciments) and is an expert in accelerating business model transformation programs with large global groups and deploying sustainable, resilient and connected organizations.

Elected President of the General Confederation of Moroccan Enterprises in January 2020 for a 3-year term and re-elected in May 2023, Chakib ALJ is a Moroccan industrial and business leader.   

He is the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Cap Holding, a group that employs more than 3500 people and has diversified activities in agri-food, poultry industry, plastics industry, tourism, distribution, among others. 

After studying in the United States at Columbia University, Mr. ALJ began his career in Morocco in 1987 by managing the “Société Nouvelle des Moulins du Maghreb”, a century-old leading company in the flour milling sector. He developed this activity by launching

 “Le Moulin de Berrechid”, “Moony”, “Matahine Bab Mansour” and “GSB”.     

Chakib ALJ has also founded “Multisacs”, a company operating in plastics industry and packaging, “Alf Mabrouk – Cicavi” in poultry farming, “ACTL” in transport and logistics and “Adiwatt Morocco” in renewable energy.        

As part of his civic activities, Mr. ALJ also chaired the National Federation of Flour Milling (FNM), the Interprofessional Federation

 of Cereal Activities (FIAC) and the Federation of Retail Distribution of Consumer Goods (TIJARA 2020).

Mr. Al Amine Nejjar is the Chairman of the Management Board of Al Barid Bank since January 1, 2023, Mr. Nejjar holds a post-graduate diploma (DESUP) in business management in developing countries from the University Paris Dauphine.  

Prior to his appointment at Al Barid Bank, Mr. Nejjar held senior positions within moroccan banking groups, notably at CIH as Deputy Managing Director in charge of retail banking and real estate, and Chairman of the Management Board of Wafa Immobilier, a subsidiary of the Attijariwafa Bank group.

He also held the position of Special Advisor to the Minister of Industry and Trade.

Quiterie Pincent is the Country Director for the French Development Agency in Morocco. A graduate of Sciences Po Paris, she has more than 20 years’ experience in development, particularly in fragile contexts. She worked on civil society issues for the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs and developed AFD’s CSO support system. She went on to specialise in the MENA region as deputy director of AFD’s Mediterranean desk, and more recently headed AFD’s agency in Cuba.

Quiterie Pincent is the Country Director for the French Development Agency in Morocco. A graduate of Sciences Po Paris, she has more than 20 years’ experience in development, particularly in fragile contexts. She worked on civil society issues for the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs and developed AFD’s CSO support system. She went on to specialise in the MENA region as deputy director of AFD’s Mediterranean desk, and more recently headed AFD’s agency in Cuba.

Dr. Khalid LAHLOU was appointed Director General of the National Health Insurance Agency (ANAM) on October 4, 2018.

Born on March 23, 1966, Dr. Khalid LAHLOU holds a Doctorate in Medicine from the Faculty of Medicine and Pharmacy of Rabat and an Executive MBA in Health Management and Governance from the International University of Health Sciences Abulcasis (UIASS) in Rabat. He also holds a Master’s in Health Management and Governance from the EM Strasbourg Business School, a certificate in health systems policy analysis and strengthening from the Institute of Tropical Medicine in Antwerp, and a certificate in the training of senior officials of General Inspections of Ministries from the National School of Public Health in Nice.

Dr. Khalid LAHLOU served as a public health physician in various positions between 1991 and 2000 before joining the General Inspectorate of the Ministry of Health (2000-2002). He then held positions as a study officer in the Minister of State’s Cabinet (2002-2007) and as an advisor in charge of the health sector and medical coverage with the Prime Minister (2007-2009), before being appointed Director of Population at the Ministry of Health in 2009, a position he held until 2018

Dr. Khalid LAHLOU is married and has one child.

Aurelia SEGATTI is ILO Focal Point in Morocco, where she has been based since 2020, and ILO Labour Migration Specialist for North Africa and the Horn of Africa (Decent Work Team in Cairo). From 2020 to 2023, she held the position of ILO Regional Project Manager for the THAMM Programme (Towards a Holistic Approach to Labour Migration Governance and Mobility in North Africa). She was previously a labour migration expert at the ILO office in Pretoria covering Southern Africa and the Indian Ocean. A political scientist by training and a graduate of the Ecole Normale Supérieure (Cachan), she wrote her doctoral thesis on the reform of South Africa’s post-apartheid migration policy (Science Po Bordeaux) and held various responsibilities in the coordination of international social science research in Southern Africa (Research Director: French Institute of South Africa; Associate Professor, University of the Witwatersrand). She is the author of several peer-reviewed articles and has edited various books on migration policy.

Dr. Edward A. Christow is a British, Bulgarian and Polish citizen and he took up his assignment as United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Resident Representative for the Kingdom of Morocco on 1 May 2019 (Presented his credentials on July 17, 2019).

Prior to this appointment, Edward was Resident Representative a.i. in UNDP Kuwait between November 2018 and May 2019. Prior to this, he served with the Regional Bureau of Arab States in Amman, Jordan, as the Deputy Hub Director and Team Leader between 2016 and 2018. Edward served with UNDP Yemen as first as Governance Team Leader and then as Head of Programme between 2012-2016. Prior to joining UNDP, Edward worked in the private sector as a Partner for KPMG Consultancy Firm between 2003-2012 covering 38 countries across Africa, Asia, Europe and the Middle East, in the field of strategic management consultancy to Public Sector institutions. Prior to that, Edward worked for a number of Non-Government Organizations, including Relationships Foundation International, International Committee of the Red Cross and others.

Edward holds a PhD in International Relations from Cambridge University. He also holds MPhil in International Relations from Cambridge University and BA in Business Administration and Accounting from Addis Ababa University. He speaks Amharic, Bulgarian, Czech, English, French, Polish, Russian, Serbian and Spanish.

Prior to his appointment as a General Director for North Africa, Regional Development & Business Delivery office at the African Development Bank, in charge of 6 countries (Algeria, Egypt, Morocco, Mauritania, Libya and Tunisia).
Mr. Mohamed El Azizi served, for (3) years, as a Director of Water and Sanitation Department and the African Water Facility (AWF) at the African Development Bank, and served for (6) years, as Manager and Director in the Corporate and General Services and Procurement Department.
Mr. Mohamed El Azizi worked for six (6) years, as Principal water and sanitation expert in different sectorial departments at the AfDB. He participated in the definition and implementation of: (i) the Rural Water Supply and Sanitation Initiative; (ii) the African Water Facility, and (iii) the short-term action plan of the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD).
Prior to joining the AfDB, he worked for (8) years, in various technical and managerial positions within private sector, in both the construction and consultancy firms, in charge of water and irrigation projects.
Mr. Mohamed El Azizi has a broad education and trainings with four High Graduate Degrees in Agricultural Engineering, Water and Forestry Engineering, Rural Engineering and a Master of Business Administration (MBA).

Position: the Assistant Director-General for the Social and Human Sciences of UNESCO

Biography:

Gabriela Ramos is the Assistant Director-General for the Social and Human Sciences of UNESCO, where she oversees the institution’s contributions to building inclusive societies. Her mandate includes tackling economic inequalities of income and opportunity, and promoting social inclusion and gender equality. She also oversees the youth support agenda, promotion of values through sport, fight against racism and discrimination, and ethics of science, including of neurotechnology and the internet of things. She has overseen the development and adoption of the first global instrument to promote the ethics of artificial intelligence, adopted by acclamation in 2021 by UNESCO’s General Conference.  

She also launched the Global Forum against Racism, to catalyse the political support that member countries have given to this cause. On gender, she has advanced several initiatives, particularly to combat gender stereotypes and biases, including in new technologies. She also leads the Management of Social Transformations (MOST) Programme to help UNESCO Member States strengthen the connection between research and policy and between knowledge and action. She has overseen the publication on “Inclusive and resilient societies: equality, sustainability and efficiency”. She is currently leading UNESCO and international policy-makers and experts’ call to establish a global governance of the ethics of neurotechnology. 

1.Director of the National Institute for Social Action (INAS)Tangiers

2.University Professor 

3.Phd in management of innovation at Mohamed V university Rabat 

4.Phd in social protection at Faculty of law Mohamed V university Rabat

5.Phd in  marketing at the university of Rennes France

Dr Awad Mataria is Director of Universal Health Coverage/Health Systems at the WHO Regional Office for the Eastern Mediterranean. Dr Mataria has more than 15 years experience in health system strengthening, health economics and health financing.

For the last 10 years, he has been supporting countries of the Eastern Mediterranean Region to reform their health financing systems to move towards universal health coverage.

Dr Mataria has a PhD in Health Economics and a Masters degree in Health System Analysis, following his undergraduate degree in Pharmacy. His areas of expertise are: universal health coverage; health systems financing and organization; social health insurance; using economics in health care priority setting; measuring the benefits of health care using stated preferences techniques; economic evaluation of health care interventions; and national health accounts.

Dr Mataria has had several publications in high-impact journals, including Journal of Health Economics, Health Economics and The Lancet, and has presented at many international and regional conferences.

Aziz Ajbilou is a Full Professor at the Faculty of Governance, Economics, and Social Sciences at Mohammed VI Polytechnique University, where he also serves as the Director of the Master’s program in Economic Analysis and Public Policy. 

Throughout his career, Aziz has held various positions in government and academia. He was Secretary General of the Ministry of General Affairs and Governance between 2013 and 2022. From 2006 to 2012, he was Director of Studies, Cooperation, and Legislation for Social Economy at the Ministry of Tourism, Crafts, and Social Economy and the Ministry of Economic Affairs and General Affairs. From 2002 to 2006, he was Director of the Center for Demographic Studies and Research at the High Commission for Planning. He has also held teaching positions at the National Institute of Statistics and Applied Economics and the University Mohamed V of Economic and Legal Sciences.

Aziz holds a degree in Economic Statistics from the National Institute of Statistics and Applied Economics, a Diploma in Demography from the Catholic University of Louvain, a master’s degree in Demography from the Catholic University of Louvain, and a Ph.D. in Demography from the Catholic University of Louvain. He has also completed certificates in leadership and management from Leadership Management International and the United Nations.

His areas of expertise include socio-economic and demographic research, with a focus on poverty, human development, youth, aging, social economy, population issues, gender, population policy, migration, social protection, and policy evaluation. He has authored several scientific works on these topics and has served on the scientific committees of various studies and books.

Position: Gender Team Leader  

Guillermina Martin is the Gender Team Leader for UNDP – Latin America and the Caribbean since 2020. She is an Anthropologist from the University of Buenos Aires with a Master’s degree in Gender, Society and Politics and a Diploma in Social Sciences with a specialization in Gender and Public Policy from Flacso Argentina. 

She has over 17 years of experience in the development and coordination of policies, programs and projects on human development, human rights, gender equality and women’s rights, decent work, social protection, care and poverty reduction in more than 16 countries in Latin America and the Caribbean. 

She has a long experience in state and institutional transformation for gender equality, through the co-creation of the Gender Equality Seal in Public Institutions and in the Private Sector, which has since then expanded to become UNDP’s global flagship initiatives. She has participated in the development of more than 20 public policies on gender equality, such as comprehensive care systems, policies to eradicate violence against women and girls among others. Guillermina has published and participated in more than 20 national, regional and global reports on gender equality and women’s empowerment in the Latin America and Caribbean region. 

Priyanka Kanth is an Economist with the Health, Nutrition and Population practice of the World Bank, working in the Middle East and North Africa region. At the World Bank, Priyanka has worked in the health and social protection sectors. Before joining the Bank, Priyanka completed research assignments at Stanford University and the Jameel Poverty Action Lab. She holds postgraduate degrees in Health Policy jointly from LSE and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and in Economics from Yale University where she was also a Fulbright Scholar.

Priyanka Kanth – Health Economist

Mr. Taoufik LAHRACH is the Deputy General Director of Tamwilcom (SNGFE) since 2021. He held the position of Secretary General of the Institution since 2014, then referred to as “Caisse Centrale de Garantie”.

A graduate in management science from the IAE of Metz, France in 1986 and in business law from the University of Perpignan, France in 2003, Mr LAHRACH holds a Master’s degree in management science from the University of Rabat, Morocco 2018.

He is Chairman of the supervisory committee of seed and venture capital funds, founding member of the seed commission of the Moroccan Association of Capital Investors, he is also a speaker on the themes of financial inclusion and the financing of VSME.

Mr LAHRACH leads many strategic projects including the renewal of the Moroccan institutional guarantee system for SMEs as well as the development of the startup ecosystem in Morocco.

Touhami ABDELKHALEK is a full professor at the FGSES of UM6P since September 2021. He is also Director of the Master’s program in Quantitative Economics and the Ph.D. program in Economics. He was a full professor at the National Institute of Statistics and Applied Economics (INSEA) for more than 30 years. He received his Ph.D. from the Department of Economics at the Université de Montréal in Canada. He has a double specialization in Development and Growth and in Econometrics. He has been, for several years, a visiting professor to teach at the Université de Montréal, the Université Paris-Dauphine and the Université de Paris I.

In addition to being a researcher affiliated with AIRESS, Prof. ABDELKHALEK is a research associate at several institutes and research centers around the world (ERF, FEMISE, CRDE, CIREQ, API-Kuwait, etc.). He has been published in several international scientific journals such as Applied Economic, the Review of Economics and Statistics and the Annals of Economics and Statistics. He has served on the editorial boards of three international economic journals. His research focuses on applied econometrics, modeling and impact analysis of economic policies and statistical analysis of poverty. 

Prof. ABDELKHALEK has been a consultant for several organizations in Morocco and for several Arab and Francophone African countries (ONDH, World Bank, UNDP, UNICEF, etc.).

Khadija Khartit is the founder of Fujn, an integrated app that fuses access to income opportunities including remote, flexible jobs, freelance, and entrepreneurship with skills necessary for these opportunities, focusing on digital skills and personal resilience. Fujn fuses income, work, skilling, and life in an app that aims to give women more dignity and fulfillment in their lives, and by the same token, increases the GDP of countries via the significant inclusion of women in the economic fabric. 

Fujn is a platform designed, founded, and funded by women, executed by women, and managed by women. Fujn has a community of 200,000 women in 35 countries with higher traction in MEA, SEA, and LATAM. It lists jobs from 88 countries. 

Khadija is an educator of entrepreneurship and fintech at Cornell University and Brandeis University. She is a review board member at Investopedia.

Maryam Bigdeli, a dedicated pharmacist, earned her PhD in public health sciences from the Université Libre de Bruxelles. Her unwavering commitment primarily focuses on health financing, health systems governance, and access to essential medicines.

Before being appointed WHO Representative in Morocco, she worked at WHO Headquarters in Geneva in the Department of Governance and Health Systems Financing, where she dealt with normative aspects of governance. while supporting many countries in the region, such as Morocco, Jordan, and Pakistan.

With diverse expertise, Maryam Bigdeli has made significant, impactful contributions. At the Alliance for Health Policy and Systems Research, she managed a multi-country research project on access to medicines. Her experience also extends to health economics and Pharmacoeconomics, where she worked for the European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer and the Department of Health Economics at the University’s School of Public Health in Brussels.

She began her career with Médecins Sans Frontière in Guinea, where she managed a medicine purchasing center in the N’Zérékoré region.

Complete Name: Raquel Coello Cremades, 

Position: Macroeconomics Policy Advisor and Global Care Economy Officer, UN Women, Headquarters

 Raquel Coello Cremades holds a PhD in international economics and development and a master’s degree in gender and development. 

Between August 2017 and April 2024, she worked as Regional Policy Specialist on Economic Empowerment at UN Women’s Regional Office for the Americas and the Caribbean. Previously, she worked for the Organization as Regional Coordinator of the UN Women/Unifem Latin American Gender Budgeting Program and Program Specialist on Economic and Social Rights. 

She has over 23 years’ experience as a consultant, researcher and trainer in the field of women’s economic empowerment and gender-sensitive economic policies and budgets in more than 20 countries in Latin America, Africa, the Arab States and Europe.

In the academic field, she has coordinated PRIGEPP’s specialized course in gender-sensitive fiscal policy and budgeting for FLACSO-Argentina, and has taught several post-graduate courses.

Dr. Speciose Hakizimana joined the UNICEF Morocco Office on November 22, 2021. Before her role in Morocco, she led UNICEF programs as Deputy Representative in Mongolia, the Central African Republic, and the sub-regional office for Gabon, Equatorial Guinea, and Sao Tome and Principe.

Her leadership enabled UNICEF to support national partners in prioritizing children’s rights at the national level and implementing necessary reforms to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals.

Dr. Hakizimana began her career in 1992 in her home country, Burundi in various position with MOH and WHO. In 2000, she undertook various technical missions with the WHO Regional Office for Africa, UNAIDS, UNDP and UNFPA. In 2002, she joined UNICEF, managing HIV/AIDS programs respectively in the Central African Republic and Cameroon until 2008.

Of Burundian nationality, Dr. Hakizimana speaks Kirundi, French, English, and Kiswahili.

Laura Addati is a senior care policy specialist and coordinates global policy research and technical assistance to governments, workers’ and employers’ organizations on care policies and gender equality at work at the Gender, Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Branch (GEDI), at the Conditions of Work and Equality Department, of the International Labour Organization (ILO) in Geneva. She is one of the key ILO experts of the General Discussion Committee on Decent work and the care economy at the 112th International Labour Conference (June 2024). Laura joined the ILO in 2004 and has co-authored a number of ILO reports and publications on the care economy, care leave, childcare services and work-life balance policies, including the ILO major reports “Care at Work: Investing in care leave and services for a more gender equal world of work” (2022) and “Care work and care jobs for the future of decent work” (2018). Recently, she has led the development of the “ILO Care policy investment simulator”, the largest care policy-modelling tool available online in English, French and Spanish). Laura has over 20 years of experience within the UN system, including the UNDP in the Comoros Union and the ILO in Central America, Geneva and New York. 

Houssine EL Rhilani, Directeur de l’ONUSIDA Maroc, compte plus de 20 années d’expérience au sein du système des Nations unies. Il a rejoint l’UNESCO/OSS en 2003 et l’ONUSIDA en 2005 en tant que Conseiller en Information Stratégique. 

Ingénieur de formation à l’Ecole Mohammedia d’Ingénieurs (Maroc), H. EL Rhilani a également poursuivi des études de maîtrise en administration des affaires et a obtenu un diplômé en finances internationales au Canada. Il est aussi titulaire d’un diplôme en santé publique (Suisse) et un Master en coopération internationale et aide humanitaire (Espagne). 

Au cours de sa carrière, H. EL Rhilani a occupé divers postes de responsabilités, notamment, chef de service, au sein du Ministère des Finances, Direction du Budget, en tant que Directeur du Département Informatique à la Caisse de Dépôt de Gestion/CNRA, et Conseiller Senior responsable de la recherche et développement au sein de groupes canadiens (SNC-Lavalin, IEG).

Ms. Susanne Mikhail is UN Women’s Regional Director for the Arab States.

Prior to joining UN Women, Susanne was Director of Humanitarian Aid at the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (SIDA).

With more than twenty years’ experience in the UN system, she was the first Head of Office and Resident Coordinator of the UNICEF program in Southern Sudan, as well as at the UNICEF Regional Office for South Asia. 

Prior to joining UNICEF, she was Regional Advisor for the Middle East and North Africa at ECPAT International. She also supported World Bank programs on community economic development in fragile contexts.

In 1999, Susanne began her international career at the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), first in New York, then in East Africa. A Swedish and Egyptian national, Susanne holds a Master’s degree in Political Science from Uppsala University in Sweden.

Position: lead economist and program leader for human development in the Maghreb, World Bank

Jorge Coarasa is a lead economist and program leader for human development in the Maghreb, based in Rabat.  Prior to moving to Rabat, he was a program leader for human development and task team leader in India, where he led projects supporting national and state governments in areas ranging from innovation in biopharmaceuticals to nutrition. He was based at the World Bank headquarters in Washington DC and Nairobi where he managed projects in Kenya, Nigeria and Tanzania. Prior to joining the Bank, Jorge was a government official in Mexico as Deputy Director General in the Ministry of Social Development, where he designed and evaluated policies and programs to increase access to health, education and social protection for the poor. Jorge holds degrees in Economics from ITAM, International Relations from the Universidad Complutense de Madrid and Public Administration from Harvard University.

Complete Name: Jemimah Njuki, 

Position: Chief, Economic Empowerment Section, UN Women, Headquarters

Jemimah Njuki is the Chief of the Economic Empowerment Section at UN Women. She is a recognized leader in the field of gender equality and women’s empowerment, having led global initiatives to promote women’s economic empowerment. Previously, Jemimah worked at the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) as Africa Director, where she collaborated with African governments to develop evidence for transformative policy change.

She also led the UN Summit’s Leverage for Change on Food Systems for Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment and was instrumental in the creation of the Coalition for Food Systems that Serve Women and Girls.

Using a representative panel of rural households in Pakistan, we track women from ages 7-12 into their adulthood ages 20 -30, we develop insights into the dynamics of female labor force participation, marriage and family formation. We see a society that is changing very rapidly within one generation. Educated women show distinctly better outcomes on these directions but they face many constraints as they negotiate their way into adulthood. The key constraints of female mobility outside the village and thinness of labor market opportunities are discussed and compared to the situation of men from the same villages and even in the same family.   A system level approach allows us to think of generalizing the findings to other contexts and designing interventions to alleviate the frictions.

Amanda Devercelli is the World Bank’s Global Lead for Early Childhood Development and founded the Early Learning Partnership, which has generated more than $3 billion in new funding and innovative evidence-based approaches to scale investments in early childhood.  She leads the World Bank’s Invest in Childcare initiative, which is currently supporting 70+ countries to scale access to quality, affordable childcare and support women’s economic empowerment.   She has worked for the World Bank for 15 years, leading operational and analytical work across countries, including Morocco, Jordan, Pakistan, Senegal, South Africa and Uzbekistan, and has published extensively on early childhood and childcare globally.  Prior to joining the World Bank, Amanda worked with community-based schools in Kenya and Peru. She has a master’s degree from the Harvard Graduate School of Education and was awarded the Reynolds Fellowship in Social Enterprise from the Harvard Kennedy School of Government.

Name: Osamah Alhenaki 

Position: Policy and Advocacy Director at King Khalid Foundation 

Bio: Osamah Alhenaki directs the Policy Design and Advocacy Program at the King Khalid Foundation leading the foundation’s efforts in public policy research, with a focus on fiscal and urban studies, the caee economy, sustainability, and socioeconomic priorities. Previously, Osamah worked as a diplomat for the Saudi Foreign Ministry covering European politics and bilateral relations. Mr. Alhenaki completed executive education at United Nations Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR) on multilateral engagements, at MIT on social impact evaluations, at LSE on environmental economics and qualitative research methods, and at Utrecht and Tartu universities on economic integration. During Saudi Arabia’s G20 Presidency, Osamah served as the International Financial Architecture Working Group Co-Chair at the C20 Saudi Arabia 2020. Osamah holds a Master’s degree in Political Science from the University of Nebraska, Omaha.

Rania has 20 years of international development experience in the Arab Region focused on socio-economic analysis, gender analysis and mainstreaming, policy advice and programme support, and capacity development to integrate gender dimensions into programmes. Prior to her current role as Gender Team Leader at UNDP Arab States, she worked with several international organizations including Oxfam GB, GIZ, the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and Empowerment of Women and the United Nations Development Program Jordan. She was also an independent consultant on research, project development, advisory support to project management and M&E. Rania has a master’s degree in inequalities and social sciences from the London School of Economics and Political Science, a master’s degree in urban management from Erasmus University Rotterdam.

Position: Regional Advisor & Gender Team Leader of UNDP RSCA. 

Cleopatra Phiri-Hurungo has over 16 years of experience in development work with a specialization in gender equality and women’s empowerment with extensive experience in policy development, analysis, institutional strengthening and results-based management. Before her tenure with UNDP, Cleopatra’s professional journey was marked by a diverse range of roles. She served as a Programme Specialist for Institutional Strengthening at UN Women Zimbabwe, providing policy advisory and programme support to the National Gender Machinery. Cleopatra also contributed significantly to the Government of Zimbabwe as a Principal Gender Officer in the Ministry of Gender, where she supported the formulation and implementation of national policies, strategies and programmes on gender equality and women empowerment. Her role as a Gender Specialist under the Project Management Unit of the Multi-Donor Zimbabwe Reconstruction Fund in the Ministry of Finance further demonstrated her versatility and commitment to gender mainstreaming in the country’s reconstruction, stabilisation, reform and development efforts.

She is currently the Gender Advisor and Team Leader at UNDP RSCA, where she mainly provides policy and programme support to the RBA region to ensure the UNDP strategic framework, policies, and programmes are translated into concrete gender-responsive transformative results. 

Mrs. Rouba Arja is an expert in mainstreaming gender in sustainable development policies, institutions and programmes. She currently serves as First Social Affairs Officer at UN Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (ESCWA). Her work focuses

on gender and development issues in the Arab region including mainstreaming gender equality in public institutions and women’s economic empowerment. She is leading ESCWA’s work on women’s economic empowerment and the care economy stream. Prior to joining ESCWA, she worked as Programme Manager with the European Union Delegation to Lebanon and served as Project Manager with UNDP.

Complete name:  May Abdulaziz AL-Ajaji

Position:  Director , Business sector,  social Development Bank ,KSA

biography :

With over 17 years of experience in the banking sector, I have specialized in commercial banking business management, retail banking, sales process management, and operations management.

My expertise extends to handling and managing wealth management and business development.

I have worked with the Social Development Bank, the largest social bank in the Middle East, located in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. My role involved overseeing various executive business lines focused on empowerment and development, social finance, freelancing finance, productive family finance, savings products, and facilities finance.

I hold an MBA master degree.

Position: Dare to Care Regional Program Manager, UN Women, Regional Office for the Arab States.  

Biography: Rodrigo Montero Cano works at UN Women’s Regional Office for the Arab States, based in Cairo, as Dare to Care Regional Program Manager. 

Previously, Rodrigo was a gender advisor/specialist in Cambodia for the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the German Development Cooperation (GIZ) and UNICEF. Previously, he worked in Spain for Red ACTIVAS (a feminist civil society organization promoting women’s rights in the South), Plan International, UNICEF, the private sector and the media. 

Rodrigo holds a postgraduate degree in gender and masculinity (Miguel Hernandez University), a postgraduate degree in gender-based violence (National University of Distance Education, Spain) and a bachelor’s degree in journalism with a diploma in international relations. He also holds a Master’s degree in Institutional and Business Communication (Universidad Complutense de Madrid).

Diplômée de l’Université de Santé Publique et communautaire – Ecole de Santé Publique de Nancy- France, en Information-Education, Communication de l’International Health-Université Santa CRUZ Californie, Médecin de Santé Publique et Spécialiste en dermatologie vénérologie, le Dr Nadia Bezad a assumé plusieurs fonctions au sein du Ministère de la santé :  elle a été Chef de service des maladies sexuellement transmissibles et Sida, et  Chef de Division de la Santé Scolaire et du contrôle médical à Ministère de L’Education  et conseillère du ministre de la santé.

Membre du groupe thématique Genre / Femme, et du dialogue sur la société Civile et la nouvelle constitution au Maroc, et coordinatrice du collectif de la défense et promotion des médicaments génériques, puis coordinatrice de la coalition civile pour la promotion de la Santé Reproductive

Dr N .Bezad a participé  à la rédaction du Rapport parallèle au sur  l’Elimination de toutes formes de discrimination à l’égard de la femme  volet   IST/Sida et la santé reproductive  sous la direction de l’Association  démocratique des Femmes du Maroc, CEDEW /Mai 2003, 2005 et 2007 2009.

Position:  the Director of the Global Social Service Workforce Alliance, UNICEF

Hugh, is the Director of the Global Social Service Workforce Alliance. He leads a range of initiatives implemented by the Alliance at global, regional and national level, focused on assessing and strengthening the social service workforce, making the case for more sustained investment in the workforce, and exploring and promoting the role of the workforce in a range of contexts. These include working in and linked with social protection, health, justice and education services, in preventing and responding to violence against children and gender-based violence, and playing a key role in disaster risk reduction and climate resilience.

Hugh was served as a volunteer both at home in England, and in the Middle East and Latin America, in the late 1980s and early 1990s and has now over 20 years of international experience in supporting and leading efforts to strengthen the social service workforce, and networks of volunteers, practitioners and civil society organisations. 

The Global Social Service Workforce Alliance has over 3,500 members worldwide. It is a non-profit network, hosted by the US-based Tides Center, and currently funded by USAID, UNICEF, as well as other foundations and private donors. https://www.socialserviceworkforce.org/

Complete name: Rémy Pigois

Position:Social Policy Manager for UNICEF in the Maghreb region

Rémy Pigois is the Social Policy Manager for UNICEF in the Maghreb region (Tunisia, Libya, Morocco, Algeria). He develops and supports the implementation of child-sensitive social protection systems, collaborating with international financial institutions to mobilize resources. His contributions are crucial in supporting and protecting vulnerable children in the region. He holds an Advanced Studies Diploma in Economics, Mathematics, and Econometrics from the University of Paris I Panthéon-Sorbonne. An expert in economic development, public finance, social safety nets, and poverty reduction, he has held several positions such as Head of Research, Evaluation, Policy, and Monitoring at UNICEF. As an actuary and economist, he has worked in the private sector and for the Ministries of Economy and Finance in Paris, Singapore, and Chad. For the past 15 years, he has supported UNICEF and has also collaborated with FAO and the World Bank.

Cristina Castellanos Serrano holds a PhD in Economics (European mention), a Master in Feminist Theory and a Bachelor of Business Administration from the Complutense University of Madrid. She is Associate Professor in Applied Economics Department at the Spanish National University of Distance Education (UNED), where she works from 2018. She has been a senior researcher at Tavistock Institute of Human Relations (UK) between 2012 and 2018. She provides postgraduate teaching and training in universities and agencies on gender equality mainstreaming in public policies and budgets. She has collaborated with PPIINA (ppiina.org) and PLENT (equalandnontransferable.org) since 2010.

Judit Regős is a social policy expert, family counsellor and social entrepreneur. She is the founder of the Parents’ House movement in Hungary, the leader of Parents’ House Family Centres since 2007 and the President of the Parents’ House Public Benefit Foundation since 2015. 

The family support methodology she developed was awarded Best Practice by the European Union’s Eurofound Foundation in 2012 and included in the World Bank’s Good Practice in 2014. In 2022, the Foundation was granted consultative status with the United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC), and in 2023 her programme won the Social Innovation Award in Hungary.

Over the past 15 years, Parents’ House, under her leadership, has reached more than 100,000 families through the operation of six family centres and 20 family nurseries. The Foundation works with 20 children’s homes across Hungary to enhance the life prospects of 500 children and young people in care.

Complete name: Lamiae Derraji

Position : Principal Banker

Biography :

• Joined EBRD Casablanca Resident office in 2014. Currently a Principal Banker focusing on Financial Institutions and focal point for gender digital and capital markets département in the country.
• Prior to the EBRD, Lamiae started her career in Paris as a Junior Relationship Manager for Union de Banques Arabes et Françaises (“UBAF”) focusing on trade finance transactions in MENA region.
• She then joined Ernst & Young Casablanca as a senior consultant in Transaction Services department where she was involved in many valuations, due diligence and project finance transactions.
• Lamiae hold a Master’s degree in Corporate Finance from EDHEC Business School (Lille,

Ahmed Khalid Benomar is a public policy expert currently holding the position of Senior Adviser to the Minister of Economy and Finance in Morocco. Previously, he was responsible for economic policy and led the investment team in the Office of the Head of the Government, collaborating on transformative projects with a diverse array of stakeholders including the private sector, international organizations, NGOs, and academia.

Mr. Benomar also headed the Delivery Unit, charged with overseeing the implementation of the Government Program, including critical social reforms. He played a significant role in the strategic management of issues related to territorial development, economic and social reforms, education, and investment. 

His career spans several senior roles in both the public and private sectors.
He holds an MBA and a Master in Management from ESSEC Business School in Paris. Additionally, he earned a PhD in History from Sorbonne University and lectures on geopolitical and geoeconomic issues.

Ms Celine Peyron Bista is the Social Protection and Employment Policy Specialist at the ILO Social Protection Department. She has 25 years of professional experience in the field of social security and social protection, mainly with the ILO, but also the Asian Development Bank and NGOs. Among other topics, she has a specialization on extension of social protection to all forms of employment and unemployment protection. She worked and lived in Latin America, Asia and Africa.

Position:Technical Specialist, Health Services Sector, ILO 

Maren Hopfe is the technical specialist for the health services sector at the Sectoral Policies Department at the ILO. Her work focusses on promoting rights at work, encouraging decent employment opportunities, enhancing social protection and strengthening social dialogue in the health sector. She coordinates the ILO engagement in the joint ILO-OECD-WHO Working for Health programme, which aims to assist countries to expand and transform the health and social workforce to reach the SDGs 2030. Maren holds a PhD in Health Sciences and Health Policy and gained practical experiences in various fields of health systems including financing of start-up projects in the health technology industry, project management of and client relation in clinical trials, maintenance of international health classifications and standards at global level and their implementation in national health and reimbursement systems as well as impact assessment of rehabilitation services.

Valeria Esquivel works at the International Labour Office heading the Gender in Employment Group in the EMPLAB Branch of the Employment Policy Department, and supporting the implementation of gender-responsive employment policies. She coordinates from the ILO side the global UN Women-ILO Joint Program Promoting decent employment for women through inclusive growth policies and investments in care. She is a feminist economist, having published extensively on macroeconomic, labour and social policies. Her publications on care policies and care workers, including the co-authored reports Care work and care jobs for the future of decent work (ILO, 2018) and Global Employment Trends for Youth 2022: Investing in transforming futures for young people (ILO 2022) have been particularly influential. She has worked incessantly to support governments in responding to the COVID-19 crisis and in addressing the current economic challenges, focusing on creating decent employment opportunities for women, including through investments in care services.

Complete name: Said Mourabit   

 Be joining IsDB as Country Economist in 2012, Said MOURABIT worked for 17 years as Administrator at the Ministry of Economy and Finance and Magistrate then General Rapporteur at the Audit Court of Morocco.

He has PHD in Public Finance from University of Nantes and a Master’s degree in public management from the National School of Administration of Strasbourg.

Dr.Mervat Sabreen has 15 years of experience in the field of international cooperation and institutional development. She also had considerable experience in social policies and in evaluation. Her graduate studies in economic in Egypt complemented her practical experience in government and in international organizations. Social Protection and Development with a mandate to manage a number of files on top of the political state agenda including extending social security coverage, economic empowerment equity, gender mainstreaming.

Prior to her appointment as Assistant to the Minister of Social Solidarity for Social Protection in April 2021, she has worked as advisor to Minister of Social Solidarity for protection and social insurance with a mandate to manage the pension reform process with ILO &WB. Two years working for ILO and UNICEF enhanced her international experience on the social security framework and specifically on coverage issues.

Before joining MOSS, Mervat was the advisor to current Minister of Finance of Egypt. with a mandate to manage a number of files on top of the political state agenda including pension reform, universal health insurance, investment of pension funds, institutional development of social insurance organization.

Lauren is the Social Protection and Gender Lead at UNICEF where she oversees a global portfolio strengthening gender-responsive social protection with colleagues across the more than 150 countries and territories UNICEF serves. Through social protection, her work entails systems strengthening, care and support, poverty reduction and economic empowerment, ending violence against women and children, and addressing the gendered impacts of humanitarian crises and climate. Prior to UNICEF, she was Chief Technical Specialist for the Generation Equality Action Coalitions at UN Women, and previously spent six years at BRAC, the world’s largest international NGO, where she led as the Director of Technical Assistance managing a team of 40+ global staff to design and deliver technical assistance, advisory services, and policy advocacy to governments and development partners globally. She has also worked with UNHCR, Asian Development Bank, Inter-American Development Bank, and various non-profit organizations in Asia, Africa, and Latin America.

Patricia Cossani Padilla is a political scientist with a master’s degree in public policy. She was assistant to the National Secretariat for Health Care in Uruguay. She is currently a consultant specializing in care and social protection at UN Women’s Regional Office for Latin America and the Caribbean in the field of economic empowerment.

Sabine is a Social Protection Specialist at the Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) and has over 15 years of experience working across GIZ partner countries to improve the delivery of health and social protection services to people in need. Her areas of expertise include policy advice and implementation support in health and social protection system development as well as gender equality. She has supported the introduction of community-based health insurance schemes in Cameroon, the development of a national health insurance programme for informal sector workers in India, has worked with the Cambodian Government on poverty measurement and the targeting approach IDPoor, and has advised the German Faederal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) on aspects of social protection and health. 

Sabine is currently leading the BMZ financed regional project “Social Protection for Women in the MENA region”, which aims at enhancing access of women to social security in Morocco, Tunisia, Egypt and Jordan. The project promotes regional collaboration to advance the access of women to social protection systems, with a specific focus on social insurance coverage for women working in the informal economy. It sensitizes state actors in the region to the need to design gender-equitable approaches in social protection, promotes regional exchange between cooperating countries to discuss challenges and jointly develop innovative ideas how to promote access to social protection for women; and enables intermediary organizations to educate women about their right to social protection and facilitate access to social protection programmes. 

Position: Program Analyst, Gender Area, UNDP Regional Hub in Panama

 In her current role, Marta provides technical assistance to LAC UNDP offices in relation to care policies and projects and collaborates in the production of knowledge on topics related to multidimensional poverty and gender social norms. Previously, she worked as Sustainable Development Analyst in the Inclusive Growth Team of the UNDP Regional Hub in Panama.

Prior to joining UNDP, she worked in the Areas of Elimination of Violence against Women, Peace and Security and Humanitarian Action of the UN Women Regional Bureau for the Americas and the Caribbean. In this position she participated in the development of various knowledge products, project design and provided technical assistance to country offices in the region, as well as being the focal point for the Secretary General’s Campaign “UNiTE to End Violence against Women”.

In addition, Marta worked at the Ombudsman of Catalonia in Spain. She holds a degree in Political Science and Administration from the University of Barcelona, completing an academic course at the Free University of Brussels. She also holds a Master’s degree in International Studies and Cooperation from the University of Barcelona.

Biography: Anette is a gender and women’s rights specialist. Since joining GIZ in 2002, she has been working in various positions in headquarters and abroad, focusing on empowerment of women and prevention of gender-based violence. She was responsible for projects on women’s political participation and the elimination of gender-based violence in Yemen and Bangladesh as well as a project on youth empowerment in Timor-Leste. Since May 2022, she is based in Egypt and heading the regional Project “Gender responsive and inclusive Politics and Economy in the MENA region, in short WoMENA. The project is funded by the German Ministry of Economic Cooperation and Development and implemented in partnership with the Arab Women Organisation, covering Egypt, Lebanon, Jordan, Morocco, Palestine, and Tunisia to promote equal voice, agency, economic, social, and political rights, and opportunities for women in the region. 

Gabriela Alvarez Minte, is the Regional Gender Advisor for UNFPA’s Regional Office for Eastern Europe and Central Asia. An international development practitioner that has worked extensively in the United Nations System at rational and country level. She specialises in gender and development and has more than 20 years of experience in the international cooperation system in Latin America, Eastern Europe and Central Asia and globally, working on women’s empowerment, gender norms and the promotion and protection of the rights of women and girls.  She has a PhD in development studies from Birkbeck, University of London, and she has been part of international academic seminars guest lecturer and has published academic papers. She holds and Social Anthropology degree from Universidad de Chile, a Masters degree in Sociology from the University of Oxford (Green Templeton College).

Mohamed AIT AAZIZI holds a postgraduate diploma in management from ISCAE and a master’s degree in public services management from ISCAE – ESSEC Paris.

He has taken on multiple responsibilities at various hierarchical levels in the Ministry of solidarity, social integration and family. He has extensive experience in public policies, cross-sector management, partnerships with civil society and resource mobilization.

This background has enabled him to develop expertise in the field of the promotion and protection of the rights of families, children, women, the elderly and persons with disabilities, the implementation of inclusive social services, and the monitoring of international normative frameworks.

Position: Sr. Social Protection Specialist in the SPJ Global Unit, World Bank 

Biography:

Andrey Tretyak is leading the work of regional focal points in SPJ for disability inclusion in line with World Bank commitments. He is working on disability and older persons social care agenda. Andrey has been working in the French social protection system for more than 20 years, with a focus on international cooperation projects supporting the expansion of social protection coverage. He led the Social Protection & Decent Work Unit in Expertise France since 2015, dealing with social security systems reforms: old age pensions, health insurance, disability, child benefits, social assistance and social care. Andrei has a Ph.D. in Economics axed on the impact of budgetary policies and speed of reforms on the economic growth and countries’ development.

Francisca Gallegos Jara is a sociologist with a master’s degree in sociology from Alberto Hurtado University. She has 15 years’ experience in directing research and implementing social policies in the public sector, multilateral organizations and private institutions in various Latin American countries (Chile, Paraguay and Mexico).

She has directed and managed poverty measurement and alleviation projects, as well as models of innovation and quality of public provision at the IDB (Inter-American Development Bank), UNDP, FOSIS, MDSyF and SENADIS, among others. Academic, university professor, doctoral student in sociology and doctoral researcher at the Observatory of Socio-Economic Transformations (Max Planck – ANID) and at the Alberto Hurtado University. She was formerly head of the Social Promotion and Protection Division at the Ministry of Social Development and the Family.