Agenda

Maria is an Employment and future of work specialist in the ILO’s Employment Policy Department. Her current work focuses mainly on the implementation of the ILO’s Youth Employment Action Plan 2020-30 as well as on the digital transformation in the context of national employment policies. Previously, Maria worked as a Specialist in the ILO’s Future of Work Initiative, where she provided technical support to the Global Commission on the Future of Work and to the work of the ILO on the subject. Maria has more than eighteen years of professional experience in the United Nations (ILO and UNDP) in positions that included thematic areas such as youth employment, local economic and social development, public-private partnerships for urban environment, small and micro enterprises, informal economy and infrastructure development. 

Nick Grisewood has worked in the wider social justice and international labour standards environment of the ILO and its stakeholders and partners since starting his career with the Global Union Federations in the early 1980s. He has worked in constituent organisations of the ILO, as a consultant with the ILO and in the ILO Itself for well over 30 years. The defining period of his career in respect of forced displacement and mixed migration movements came when managing an ILO child labour programme in Jordan from 2011 to 2013, just as the Syrian crisis was erupting and large refugee movements were ignited. As a result, he became involved in the emergency response, focusing on the links between economic insecurity among the Syrian refugee population, the challenge of labour market integration and the right to work for refugees. This sparked deep interest in the critical importance of the early engagement of the ILO in forced displacement situations and inspired and informed his work subsequently as a Crisis Migration Specialist with the Labour Migration Branch from 2015-2018 and then as the Global Programme Manager for the PROSPECTS Partnership Programme since end of 2018. The PROSPECTS programme, supported by the Government of the Netherlands, brings together the ILO, International Finance Corporation, UNHCR, UNICEF and the World Bank to operationalise joint activities across the humanitarian-development nexus in 8 countries in the MENA and East African regions.

Mashimbo Rose Nafisa is a 25-year-old refugee of Congolese origin, born and raised in Uganda. Rose lives with her family in Nakivale Refugee Settlement, where her father and mother have lived since 1994. Rose has dedicated much of her time in helping young refugee women to integrate in the digital world by offering various trainings in computer basics. Rose is also a mobilizer and works on sensitization of women and girls, grouping them into different Village Savings and Loan Associations (VSLA) groups to help them save money and secure small loans to start up small scale businesses to improve their livelihoods under a women’s association known as NOWEMPA, in Nakivale. She currently works with STAND FOR CHANGE AND UNITY, a refugee and youth led community base organization in Nakivale where she is a peace building and social cohesion trainer. She was trained as a trainer by the ILO in the Promoting Social Cohesion and Peaceful Coexistence in Fragile Contexts through TVET methodology under the PROSPECTS Programme. Rose is also trained as a trainer by the ILO in the ILO/UNICEF Integrated UPSHIFT social innovation programme. 

Hovig heads the Innovation Service for UNHCR (United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees). Since 2006 Hovig has served in Lebanon, DR Congo, Algeria, Mauritania, Iraq, Jordan and Tunisia; mostly overseeing UNHCR’s Humanitarian/Emergency response operations. Prior to his humanitarian career, Hovig served with various human rights and peace building organizations, coordinated a United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) funded Rule of Law programme in the MENA region and founded a newspaper in Costa Rica. Hovig is also a visiting professor at the UN University for Peace in Costa Rica.

Iva Gumnishka is the founder and CEO of Humans in the Loop, a social enterprise which provides digital remote work in the field of data annotation for AI. The workers at Humans in the Loop all come from conflict-affected and forcibly displaced communities in Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan, Lebanon, Yemen, Ukraine, Portugal, and the DRC. Iva is passionate about responsible AI practices and giving refugees access to the digital economy. She holds a degree in Human Rights from Columbia University and has been named Forbes 30 under 30 and European Young Leader under 40 and has won the Women Innovators Prize of the European Commission.