Agenda

Robert Opp is currently the Chief Digital Officer of UNDP, the United Nations' global sustainable development organization working across 170 countries globally with more than 17,000 staff.  He leads the agency’s digital transformation, an organization-wide effort, to harness the power of new technology to improve the lives of those furthest behind.

Prior to this role, Robert served as Director of the Innovation and Change Management Division within the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) where he established an in-house ‘Zero Hunger’ innovation accelerator and created an award-winning crowdfunding smartphone app, ShareTheMeal.  

Sarah Lister is UNDP’s Head of Governance and oversees policy and programme support to its governance portfolio globally, which includes electoral cycle support, parliamentary development, anti-corruption, legal identity, youth empowerment and disability inclusion. She has more than 25 years’ experience working on democratic governance, including civic engagement, media and communication, social accountability, public administration reform and governance measurement. From 2015-2019 she was the Director of UNDP’s Oslo Governance Centre where she led the team bridging research, policy and practice on governance and peacebuilding in transitional contexts, with a particular focus on SDG16.  Among other positions, she has also worked for BBC Media Action, the Afghanistan Research and Evaluation Unit in Kabul and the Institute of Development Studies, UK. She has lived and worked in Asia, Africa, Latin America and Europe. Sarah holds a PhD and MSc in Social Policy from the London School of Economics, and a BA in History from Cambridge University, UK.

Mr. Forhad Zahid Shaikh is Chief e-Governance Strategist of a2i, ICT Division of the Ministry of Posts, Telecommunications and ICT of Bangladesh, where he advises Ministries and government agencies on e-Government designing & planning support to public service digitalisation. Several e-Service innovations and significant initiatives in ICT made his 24 years of ICT career remarkable, placing him as one of the front-line leaders in establishing Digital Bangladesh. Within this tenure, he had been playing the "ICT Manager" role in the a2i Prime Minister's Office of Bangladesh for more than 10 years. Since 2008, he has been working with a2i, ICT Division, and has contributed immensely to e-Service innovations, service process engineering, digital system design, integrated architecture, policy intervention, and strategic planning.

Jean-Yves Art is Senior Director in charge of Strategic Partnerships at Microsoft, based in Geneva, Switzerland. In that capacity, he engages with International Organizations in EMEA on policy issues that are raised or impacted by digital technologies, including human-centered connectivity, cybersecurity, digital safety and digital governance. Prior to taking this role in 2016, Jean-Yves was based in Brussels where he represented Microsoft in regulatory proceedings across the EMEA region. Jean-Yves also pursued academic activities until he came to Geneva, teaching at both the College of Europe, Bruges and Sciences Po, Paris. He is a regular speaker at conferences on technology governance themes.

Teona Tomashvili is an International Relations specialist with 7 years experience of working at the intersection of data, tech, and politics. Teona currently is leads a civic tech project that aims to create the largest online public database in Georgia. She is a co-founder of ForSet and co-organizer of DataFest Tbilisi.