Samuel Kobina Annim is the Government Statistician for Ghana and a Professor of Economics at the University of Cape Coast, Ghana. Following the completion of his doctoral studies, Samuel was engaged at the University of Manchester and University of Lancashire in the respective capacities of Research Associate and Post-doctoral Research Fellow. He has approximately 20 years of teaching experience in universities both in Ghana and abroad, and has more than 40 peer-reviewed journal articles, book chapters and technical reports. His publications are available in academic outlets such as World Development, Journal of Development Studies, Journal of International Development and the Oxford University Press. While at the University of Cape Coast, he contributed to a number of interventions including institutionalization of microfinance programmes, establishment of a data repository centre and the development of a host of policies that promote scholarship and research administration. He provides professional advice and oversight responsibility to Ghana’s National Development Planning Commission, Statistical Eco-System and several international bodies.

Dr. Samaychanh Boupha joined the Lao Statistics Bureau in 1983, was appointed Director General in 2001 and has served as the Vice Minister since 2012. He acted as a leader in both the 1985 and 1995 Population and Housing Censuses, as Director of the General Statistics Division in 1991 and as Deputy Director General from 1992 to 2002. Dr. Boupha helped lead the Lao-Swedish Cooperation Project in Statistics from 1992 to 2001, and served as Director General from 2002 to 2011. Additional achievements and contributions include organization of the fourth ASEAN Head of Statistics Meeting (ASHOM4) in Luang Prabang Province and significant involvement in the improvement of Lao statistical law and the design of the NSDS. Dr. Boupha holds a master's degree in statistics from the Institute of Statistics in Moscow, a PhD in economics from the Social Science Academy in Moscow and has been the Lao Delegation representative to several international statistics and development organizations since 2007.

Clara Bove-Ziemann is a Research Design Scientist at AXA as part of the Research and Advanced Machine Learning team. The mission of the team is to humanize Artificial Intelligence by making it more accountable, responsible and transparent. She works on the explanability of Machine Learning as well as on mechanisms to build trust in Artificial Intelligence. Clara graduated from L’Ecole de Design Nantes Atlantique and Nantes University with two master’s degrees in information design and business administration. She has extensive work experience in Experience Design in smart systems, gained in both the U.S. and France.

Augusto Chacón is the Executive Director of Jalisco Cómo Vamos. He holds a master’s degree in Twentieth Century Literature from the University of Guadalajara. From 2002 to 2013, he directed the ecological foundation Selva Negra, A.C. He co-broadcasts the radio show Imagen-Jalisco and collaborates regularly on Radio Metrópoli in Guadalajara, México.

Luisa joined TECHO in 2017 to incubate and strengthen partnerships across sectors to serve the more than one million volunteers already mobilized by the NGO, and the slum residents in 19 countries across Latin America and the Caribbean. Prior to TECHO, she served in rising career at InterAction in Washington DC. At this alliance of U.S.-based international NGOs doing development and humanitarian relief, she managed their Business Council and Private Sector Working Group, a training series for executives and a nascent portfolio on innovative finance for development. Prior to InterAction, Luisa coordinated the training vertical at The Performance Institute, a boutique consulting firm in Northern Virginia. Before coming to the United States, she played different roles in the ideation and implementation of private and public social programs. Luisa received her bachelor's degree in business administration from the Pontificia Universidad Javeriana in her hometown of Bogotá, Colombia, and her master’s degree in international and public affairs from the School of International Public Affairs (SIPA) at Columbia University in New York.

Andrew co-leads the Full Fact automated fact checking team and is focused on ensuring our automated fact checking technology is developing in line with the needs of fact checkers around the world. Andy was previously the Chief Publishing Officer of the Office for National Statistics, and prior to that spent a decade working in product and technology roles at the BBC.

Teresia is a project manager for international cooperation at Statistics Sweden in Stockholm. She manages bilateral projects with the statistical institute of Albania and co-manages Statistics Sweden's International Training Programme (ITP) in gender statistics. Teresia has also worked as a consultant for projects in Africa, Asia, the Balkans and in Latin America where Statistics Sweden works closely with partners to strengthen statistical capacity. Previously, Teresia worked as an external communication expert at Statistics Sweden. She is also a former journalist with 14 years of experience in various media and in digitalising the media sector of Sweden.

Roshan Kishore is the Data & Political Economy Editor at Hindustan Times. His work primarily involves data-driven commentary on the intersection of economy and polity in India. Over the course of his career in journalism, he has written extensively on demonetisation, agrarian crisis and the current slowdown in the Indian economy. His writings have also tried to explain political developments both at the regional and national level while contextualising them in the broader political economy framework. He holds an M.Phil degree in economics from Jawaharlal Nehru University, where his dissertation examined food security in post-reform India. He has worked in research and on trade and food security related issues, and he has published and presented his work in journals and at conferences.

Adnen Lassoued is the Director General of the Tunisian National Statistics Institute since February 2019. Previously, he was an economist at the IMF Resident Representative office in Tunisia. Prior to joining the Fund, he was at the Centre for Social Research and Studies (CRES) leading the team in charge of the evaluation of social assistance programs in Tunisia. He began his career in the Tunisian statistical office, where he spent ten years at the Observatory of Economic Trends. He holds a master’s degree in mathematical economics and econometrics, and an engineer’s degree in statistics and information analysis. He is also the Secretary-General of the Tunisian Association of Statistical Engineers.

Dr. Norah Madaya is an expert in statistical coordination, management, strategic planning, gender statistics and leadership development. She has a vast knowledge of national statistical system (NSS) development, development of National Strategies for the Development of Statistics (NSDS), evaluation and peer reviews of NSS. She is the former Director of Statistical Coordination Services at the Uganda Bureau of Statistics (UBOS) responsible for the NSDS design and implementation, coordination of statistical programs, gender statistics, monitoring and evaluation and statistics quality assurance. Currently, she is engaged in developing methodological guidelines for collecting citizen generated data (CGD) for monitoring and reporting SDG 5 and other gender-related SDG indicators, as well as supporting the evaluation and design of the third Ugandan NSDS. Dr. Madaya has contributed to the development of guidelines for mainstreaming gender in statistical production with UN Women and guidelines for Statistical Plans for Agriculture and Rural Statistics (SPARS) with FAO.  She has supported NSDS design in Uganda, Mozambique, and Tanzania, Zimbabwe.  On behalf of Paris21, she participated in evaluations of NSDS in Liberia, Sudan, Nigeria, and Malawi.

José Antonio Mejía Guerra

Inter-American Development Bank

Lead Specialist

José Antonio Mejía Guerra works as the Modernization of the State Lead Specialist at the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), where he specializes in the strengthening of statistical capacity and data on citizen security and violence against women. He holds a master´s degree in public policy form Georgetown University and a master´s degree in economics from George Washington University. He served as vice president of the first Governing Board of Mexico´s National Statistics and Geography Institute (INEGI) between 2008 and 2012. Before that, he worked at the IDB where he coordinated the MECOVI Program.

Marco Mira d'Ercole is Head of the Division for Household Statistics and Progress Measurement in the Statistics Directorate of the OECD. He has worked on measures of well-being, income distribution and various aspects of social policies. He has been one of the “rapporteurs” of the Commission on the Measurement of Economic Performance and Social Progress established by President Sarkozy in early 2008. Since joining the OECD, he has worked in the Directorate for Employment, Labour and Social Affairs, in the Economics Department and in the Private Office of the OECD Secretary General, as well as spending two years at the International Monetary Fund. He holds a degree in economics from the University of Modena and a M.Phil in economics from Oxford University.

Mam Siga Ndiaye Dia of Toubacouta, Senegal is the current Head of the Programming, Statistical Coordination and International Cooperation (CPCCI) unit at the National Agency of Statistics and Demographics (ANSD). She is responsible for the coordination of the national statistical system in Senegal and has piloted two national statistical development strategies for 2014-2019 and 2019-3023. Mam Siga also coordinated the statistics project for results capacity facility (SFR) between 2014 and 2019 with innovative achievements, such as the construction cost index and the service price index in particular. In 1991, Mam Siga joined the Directorate of Forecasting and Statistics and worked in the national accounting team until 2006 with various responsibilities in preparation of the nation's accounts. Since then, she has worked in the CPCCI. Mam Siga is a statistical engineer with a degree in sustainable development, and has completed courses in macroeconomic management, public administration, operational planning and monitoring and project management.

Since 2003, Iván has held various functions in the public sector from administrative, executive and managerial, having been chief of staff, member of the board of regulators, auditor of public institutions and computer of expenses as maximum responsible in other institutions. He has a degree in business administration from the National University of Asunción and in governance, political management and public management from George Washington University in the U.S.

Mr. Ouedraogo, a statistician and economic engineer, is Director General of the National Institute of Statistics and Demography (INSD) of Burkina Faso since July 2018. He has held various positions of responsibility within the national statistical system of Burkina Faso such as Regional Director of INSD 2005 to 2009, Director General of Information and Health Statistics from 2009 to 2013 and Director of IT Services and Telehealth from 2013 to 2015. He was also an Expert in Health Information System from 2017 to 2018 on behalf of the West African Health Organization (WAHO), and carried out numerous technical assistance missions in several African countries. During his assignments, Mr. Ouedraogo worked primarily on the implementation, management and strategic development of statistical systems. He also participated in the design and implementation of large-scale statistical operations such as the Fifth General Population and Housing Census of Burkina Faso, of which he is the general coordinator.

Juan Daniel is an economist at Rosario University in Colombia and a doctor in economy at the University of Toulouse in France, from which he also obtained master’s degrees in econometrics and mathematic economy. He has previous experience at Rosario University as a professor and director of Institutional Planning and Effectivity and the Doctoral Economy School. He served as an external advisor to the Superintendent of Ports and Transport, National Television Authority, Superintendent of Familiar Subsidy, Commission of Communications Regulation and the ICTs Ministry.

John Pullinger is President of the International Association for Official Statistics and member of the Board of the Global Partnership for Sustainable Development Data. John was previously UK National Statistician, President of the Royal Statistical Society, Chair of the Getstats campaign for Statistical Literacy and Chair of the United Nations Statistical Commission. He is a Chartered Statistician. He was also Librarian and Director General for Information Services at the UK House of Commons. He was made a Companion of the Order of the Bath (CB) in 2014 for services to Parliament and the Community. He is a graduate of the University of Exeter and of Harvard Business School. He has been awarded honorary doctorates by the universities of Exeter, Essex and the West of England. He is a Visiting Professor at Imperial College and Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences.

Santiago Puyol is a graduate in political science from the Faculty of Social Sciences of the University of the Republic of Uruguay (Udelar). Since 2015, he has been working at the National Observatory on Public Policies on Gender, Sexual and Reproductive Health at Mujer y Salud en Uruguay (MYSU), and has been responsible for the area since 2018. The Observatory monitors and follows up on the implementation of public policies on sexual and reproductive health in Uruguay, as well as the fulfilment of regional and international commitments the Uruguayan State has assumed before the United Nations System. He is currently in the final year of his master's degree program in political science at Udelar.

Michael Rahija has been working for the past 10 years in the field of statistics for international organizations. Currently, he leads activities related to open data, database user consultations and microdata dissemination in the Office of the Chief Statistician at FAO.

Faed Rayyan is a Palestinian external sector statistics professional, and he holds a master’s degree in economics. In 1999, he joined the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics (PCBS) to work as the Director of Finance and the Government Statistics Department. During his career in the PCBS, he has worked on developing and improving External Sector Statistics, Government Finance Statistics and Financial Intermediation Statistics for Palestine. He has also worked to transfer this expertise to his colleagues and staff through capacity-building. Rayyan was a Board Member of the Palestinian Economists Association (PEA) from 2010 to 2017. He also was a Board Member of the Japanese International Cooperation Agency (JICA) Alumni Association between 2007 and 2009. In 2018, Rayyan became a member of the General Union of Arab Experts. Now, as a senior professional at PCBS, Rayyan is improving Palestinian Statistical System by ensuring cooperation with PCBS' partners and users of statistical services.

Sophia Rosenfeld is a Walter H. Annenberg Professor of History at the University of Pennsylvania, where she teaches European and American intellectual history and the history of democracy. She is the author of many articles and books, including most recently Common Sense: A Political History (2011), and Truth and Democracy: A Short History (2019). She is currently Vice President of the American Historical Association’s Research Division. She was previously a professor of history at the University of Virginia and at Yale University. This upcoming spring she will be a visiting professor at the Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales in Paris.  She also writes frequently for “The Nation,” among other media.

François Roubaud, PhD, is an economist and statistician, a senior research fellow at the French Institute of Research for Sustainable Development (IRD), a member of the DIAL research unit in Paris and former head. In statistics, he initiated the mixed surveys approach to measure the informal economy -- in particular the 1-2-3 survey -- and developed the governance, peace and security modules grafted on official household surveys now used to monitor SDG 16. He is a founding member of the AUC GPS-SHaSA initiative. In development economics, he wrote extensively on these two issues, as well as on policy evaluation and the political economy of economic reforms in developing countries. His latest book will be published in 2020 by Cambridge University Press under the title L’énigme et le paradoxe : Economie politique de Madagascar. He has been posted in national institutions in Mexico, Madagascar and Vietnam for long-term assignments.

Evelyn Ruppert is a professor of sociology at Goldsmiths, University of London. She studies how digital technologies and the data they generate can powerfully shape and impact how people are known, governed and how they understand themselves as political subjects – that is, citizens with rights to data. Evelyn is PI of an ERC-funded project, Peopling Europe: How data make a people. She is Founder and Editor-in-Chief of the SAGE open access journal, Big Data & Society. Recent books are Being Digital Citizens (co-authored with Engin Isin) (2015), Modes of Knowing (co-edited with John Law) (2016) and Data Politics (co-edited with Didier Bigo and Engin Isin) (2019).

Philipp Schönrock is the director of Cepei, an independent think-tank founded in 2003. During the last 16 years, he has provided policy solutions and insights in critical strategic areas to optimize engagement on governance, finance and data for sustainable development. He has been part of numerous initiatives: he was co-chair of Beyond 2015, and currently serves as a board member of Together 2030 and the Partnership in Statistics for Development in the 21st Century. He is also a member of the Technical Advisory Group of the Global Partnership on Sustainable Development Data, the Programme Committee of the UN World Data Forum and the SDSN Thematic Research Network on Data and Statistics (SDSN TReNDS). In 2018, he was a visiting fellow at the German Institute for International Security and Affairs (SWP).

Mr. Ludger Schuknecht took up his duties as Deputy Secretary-General in September 2018. He employs his extensive experience in international economic policy and decision-making to promote the OECD’s efforts on sustainable development, growth and “better policies for better lives”. He is responsible for the strategic oversight of the OECD’s work on Statistics and Data, Tax Policy and Administration, for the OECD’s work on Education and Skills as well as the OECD engagement with the G20 Compact with Africa initiative. Previously, Mr. Schuknecht worked at the German Federal Ministry of Finance as Chief Economist and as the German G20 Finance Deputy. In this position, he was responsible for coordinating the finance track during the German G20 Presidency and played a key role in launching the G20 work on digital taxation and the G20 Compact with Africa. His career in international organisations also includes the European Central Bank, the World Trade Organisation and the International Monetary Fund.

Dr. Rajeswari Sengupta is an assistant professor of economics at the Indira Gandhi Institute of Development Research (IGIDR) in Mumbai, India. In the past, she has held research positions at the Institute for Financial Management and Research (IFMR) in Chennai, the Reserve Bank of India, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank in Washington D.C. She was a member of the research secretariat for the Bankruptcy Law Reforms Committee (BLRC) that recommended the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code for India. Her research focuses on policy-relevant, macro-financial issues of emerging market economies in general and India, particularly in the fields of international finance, open economy macroeconomics, monetary policy and banking, national income accounts and financial markets and regulations. Dr. Sengupta completed her master’s degree and PhD in economics from the University of California, Santa Cruz. She holds two previous degrees in economics from India, a bachelor’s degree from Presidency College, Calcutta and a master’s degree from Delhi School of Economics.

Louise Shaxson is the Head of the Digital Societies programme at the London-based think-tank ODI.  She has over 25 years’ experience in the UK and internationally as a researcher, research manager, policy advisor and management consultant, focusing on evidence-informed decision-making.  Her expertise is in helping people working in government to use all forms of evidence more systematically and more strategically to make decisions. She is particularly interested in understanding the political economy of evidence and how this influences policy decision-making with and about digital technologies.

Joseph Tedou of Yaoundé, Cameroon, is a graduate of the Sub-Regional Institute of Statistics and Applied Economics (ISSEA), the CESD / ENSAE of Paris with a degree in statistical and economic engineering and of the University of Paris I - Sorbonne with a degree in Etudes Approfondies (DEA), concentrating on economic policy analysis.

He joined the Cameroonian administration in 2005 and held several positions including Director of Statistics and National Accounting and Director General of the National Institute of Statistics (INS).

At the international level, he has been involved with setting up the Economic and Statistical Observatory for Sub-Saharan Africa (AFRISTAT) and was Chairman of the Management Committee from 1996 to 1998. He has also been on the Executive Committee of PARIS21 since 2012. He served as a Rapporteur to the United Nations Statistical Commission for the 44th, 45th, and 46th sessions held in New York. Joseph Tedou is an Officer of the National Order of the Value of Cameroon, and Knight of the Order of Merit of Niger on an exceptional basis.

Ms. Sone is Deputy Head of the Lao Statistics Bureau Ministry of Planning and Investment, holding two master’s degrees in economics, specializing in statistics and public policy. She has more than 28 years of experiences in the production of official statistics. Starting her career in 1992, Ms. Sone has been involved in statistically sound methodologies and strategic planning for the bureau. From 2014-2017, she served as Director General of the Department of Administration. From 2017, she became a supervisor for economic statistics and national accounts, managing of censuses and surveys, and contributed to the country’s national statistical system. Currently, she is Deputy Head of the Secretariat to the National Steering Committee for the Implementation of SDGs in Lao PDR, a member of the National Human Resources Development Committee and a Task Team Member for PARIS21 on Capacity Development 4.0 and NSDS 2021-2025.

Carmen is head of EDEO at the INE of Bolivia since 2018, working on the modernisation and strengthening of statistical capacity of Bolivia’s NSS. She has experience in strategic planning, monitoring and evaluation (M&E) systems, development of indicators, and facilitating regional training workshops for producers of official statistics in the LAC region. She also has experience in microdata management tools, statistical quality standards and in the implementation of the NADA Catalog project. She is an economist, specializing in Quantitative Methods for Economic Analysis and Higher Education with a master's degree in business administration and management.

Silvina Viazzi is the National Director of Dissemination and Communication at the Argentine National Institute of Statistics and Censuses (INDEC). She joined INDEC’s full renovation team in December 2015, and began to redesign the operation of the Directorate by emphasising progressive capacity strengthening. She runs the Institute's publication strategy and provides guidance on dissemination policy development to the bodies of the national statistical system. She is responsible for the first edition of INDEC's style manual and for an initial standard adoption for dissemination and communication of official statistics in Argentina. Viazzi holds a bachelor's degree in journalism and social communication from the National University of La Plata and a master's degree in public policy from the postgraduate school Escuela de Posgrado Ciudad Argentina. Previously, she headed institutional communications at several public bodies, such as the National Chamber of Deputies and the national news agency TELAM. Viazzi has also worked as academic director of the NGO Movimiento Productivo Argentino and as content director for digital platforms in both public and private sectors in Argentina.

Samantha is a Senior Research Associate in survey methodology and statistics at Flowminder, a Visiting Academic at the University of Southampton, and an Honorary Research Fellow at the Centre for Women’s Development Studies in Delhi. She holds a PhD in social statistics from the Social Research and the Political Economy Institute at the University of Manchester. Her research at Flowminder centres on the integration and synthesis of traditional design-based survey research with novel “digital data” approaches, emphasising national statistics, policy applications and potential for innovations in programme monitoring and evaluation. Samantha also leads the Foundation’s research ethics division. Samantha has expertise in the fields of complex survey and sample design, hidden/rare population sampling, survey weighting and advanced statistical methods. Substantively, her research has focused on the political economy of development, labour and migration with a focus on South- and South-East Asia, where she has lived and worked for many years. This substantive research agenda is pursued alongside work on theory of social change and method in social inquiry.

Albrecht Wirthmann holds a degree in physical geography, specialising in geographic information systems and remote sensing. Since 1999, he has been working at Eurostat where he contributed to preparing the INSPIRE directive that established a digital infrastructure for geographic information in the European Union. From 2007 onwards, he was responsible for further developing information society statistics. In September 2013, he was involved in drafting the Scheveningen Memorandum that marked the start of big data activities at the ESS level. As member of the task force "Big Data" at Eurostat, he worked on implementing the Big Data Action Plan and Roadmap at the levels of the European Statistical System and the European Commission. Currently, he is deputy head of the unit methodology and innovation in official statistics at Eurostat where he is focusing on developing and implementing the concept of Trusted Smart Statistics.

Murangwa Yusuf is the Director General of the National Institute of Statistics of Rwanda (NISR).  He is a professional statistician and operational researcher with more than 15 years of experience in statistics development. He has worked on a wide scope of statistics including labour, education, economics, agriculture, population, censuses and poverty statistics. As the Director General since 2009, he focuses on building the capacity of the national statistics system in Rwanda and advocating for the use of evidence in policy and decision-making. His focus going forward is to develop administrative data systems, use of technology in statistics production to improve quality, timeliness and efficiency and establishing an enabling environment for big data and the data revolution in Rwanda.

Khuslen Zorigt is a specialist in areas of governance and public policy of statistics, and the NSOM recognizes the importance of her profession and values her as an integral member of the organization. Khuslen has been working in the government sector for over 14 years and for the National Statistical System for over 10 years. She has multi-tasking skills and demonstrates strong abilities to plan and produce quality outputs. Khuslen is a goal-oriented person and has a team attitude, which brings strong advantages for building external and internal relationships and for networking.