The Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission of UNESCO (IOC/UNESCO) was established by resolution 2.31 adopted by the General Conference of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). It first met in Paris at UNESCO Headquarters from 19 to 27 October 1961. Initially, 40 States became members of the commission. The IOC assists governments to address their individual and collective ocean and coastal management needs, through the sharing of knowledge, information and technology as well as through the co-ordination of programs and building capacity in ocean and coastal research, observations and services.
Calestous Juma was a Kenyan scientist and academic, specializing in sustainable development. He was named one of the most influential 100 Africans in 2012, 2013 and 2014 by the New African magazine. He was Professor of the Practice of International Development and Faculty Chair of the Innovation for Economic Development Executive Program at Harvard Kennedy School. Juma was Director of the School's Science, Technology and Globalization Project at Harvard Kennedy School as well as the Agricultural Innovation in Africa Project funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
The UN Environment Programme World Conservation Monitoring Centre (UNEP-WCMC) is the specialist biodiversity centre of UN Environment Programme, based in Cambridge in the United Kingdom. UNEP-WCMC has been part of UN Environment Programme since 2000 and has responsibility for biodiversity assessment and support to policy development and implementation. The "World Conservation Monitoring Centre" was previously an independent organisation jointly managed by IUCN, UN Environment Programme and WWF established in 1988. Before that, the centre was a part of the IUCN Secretariat.
Safaricom PLC is a listed Kenyan mobile network operator headquartered at Safaricom House in Nairobi, Kenya. It is the largest telecommunications provider in Kenya, and one of the most profitable companies in the East and Central Africa region. The company offers mobile telephony, mobile money transfer, consumer electronics, ecommerce, cloud computing, data, music streaming, and fibre optic services. It is most renowned as the home of M-PESA, a mobile banking SMS-based service.
Beth Simone Noveck is a professor at Northeastern University and the 1st Chief AI Strategist for the State of New Jersey. She previously served as founding Chief Innovation Officer of New Jersey. At Northeastern, she directs the Burnes Center for Social Change and its partner project, The Governance Lab. She is also affiliated faculty with the Institute for Experiential AI. She is the author of Solving Public Problems: How to Fix our Government and Change Our World, Smart Citizens, Smarter State: The Technologies of Expertise and the Future of Government, Wiki Government: How Technology Can Make Government Better, Democracy Stronger, and Citizens More Powerful, and co-editor of the State of Play: Law and Virtual Worlds.
Juliana Rotich is a Kenyan information technology professional, who has developed web tools for crowdsourcing crisis information and coverage of topics related to the environment. She is the co-founder of iHub, a collective tech space in Nairobi, Kenya, and of Ushahidi, open-source software for collecting and mapping information. She is a TED Senior Fellow.
The Nairobi Convention is a partnership between governments, civil society and the private sector, working towards a prosperous Western Indian Ocean Region with healthy rivers, coasts and oceans. It pursues this vision by providing a mechanism for regional cooperation, coordination and collaborative actions; it enables the Contracting Parties to harness resources and expertise from a wide range of stakeholders and interest groups; and in this way it helps solve inter-linked problems of the region's coastal and marine environment.
AfriLabs is a pan-African innovation-focused organisation that works with over 400 innovation hubs in 53 countries and other stakeholders to raise successful startups and entrepreneurs that are developing and deploying innovative solutions to African problems through the adoption of technologies.
Mark Surman is a Canadian open internet activist and the president and executive director of the Mozilla Foundation. He is a leading advocate for trustworthy AI, digital privacy, and the open internet. Before joining the Mozilla Foundation, Mark spent more than 15 years leading organizations and projects promoting the use of the internet and open source for social empowerment in many countries around the world.
Nick Sinai is a venture capitalist, adjunct faculty at Harvard Kennedy School, author, and a former senior official in the Obama Administration.
Dorothy Wanja Nyingi is a Kenyan ichthyologist and recipient of the Ordre des Palmes académiques for her work on Fish Biodiversity and Aquatic Ecology. She is the head of the Ichthyology Department at the National Museums of Kenya. She is the author of the first guide to fresh water fish in Kenya, Guide to the Common Freshwater Fishes of Kenya. She is a Kenyan freshwater ecologist focusing on community driven conservation
African Centre for Technology Studies (ACTS) is an intergovernmental non-profit organization, founded in 1988 by Calestous Juma in Nairobi, Kenya, promoting policy-oriented research on science and technology in development that is sustainable in terms of the economy, society, and the environment. It was the first African non-profit organization to combine policy research, science and technology.
Ola Abu Al Ghaib or Ola Abualghaib is a Palestinian disability rights advocate. In August 2019, she was appointed Manager of the Technical Secretariat of the United Nations Partnership on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNPRPD).
Wanjiru Kamau-Rutenberg is an Executive in Residence at Schmidt Futures. Before that she was Director of African Women in Agricultural Research and Development (AWARD). Wanjiru is also the Founder and past Executive Director of Akili Dada, a leadership incubator for African girls and young women and a former Assistant Professor of Politics at the University of San Francisco.
Kathy Pham is a Vietnamese American computer scientist and product management executive. She has held roles in leadership, engineering, product management, and data science at Google, IBM, the Georgia Tech Research Institute, Harris Healthcare, and served as a founding product and engineering member of the United States Digital Service (USDS) in the Executive Office of the President of the United States at The White House. Pham was the Deputy Chief Technology Officer for Product and Engineering at the Federal Trade Commission, and the inaugural Executive Director of the National AI Advisory Committee.
Nanjira Sambuli is a Kenyan researcher, writer, policy analyst and strategist interested in and working on understanding the unfolding, gendered impacts of ICT adoption on governance, media, entrepreneurship and culture.
Nyagarama, formally known as John Obiero Nyagarama, was a Kenyan politician. He was the first Governor of Nyamira County, deputised by Amos Nyaribo. He was a member of the Orange Democratic Movement and was elected in March 2013, subsequently retaining his seat for a second term beginning August 2017.
Sanda Ojiambo, is a Kenyan administrator who serves as the as assistant secretary-general of the United Nations Global Compact, effective April 2022. Before that, from 17 June 2020 until 22 April 2022, she served as executive director of the United Nations Global Compact, succeeding Lise Kingo of Denmark.
Sustainable Development Goal 17 is about "partnerships for the goals." One of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals established by the United Nations in 2015, the official wording is: "Strengthen the means of implementation and revitalize the global partnership for sustainable development". SDG 17 refers to the need for the nonhegemonic and fair cross sector and cross country collaborations in pursuit of all the goals by the year 2030. It is a call for countries to align policies.
Wanjuhi Njoroge is a Kenyan entrepreneur and activist, who campaigns against climate change. She calls for improvements to digital access and gender rights. She is a member of the African Women Leader's Network (AWLN).
