Golda El-Khoury has more than twenty years of senior-level experience in leading social and community development initiatives, connecting stakeholders to advance inclusive and sustainable development and promote rights-based and gender sensitive policies and programmes. She is currently the Director and Representative of UNESCO Cluster office for the Maghreb region. Previously she held the position of the Chief of the Section for Inclusion and Rights in the Social and Human Sciences Sector at UNESCO Headquarters in Paris (France), coordinating UNESCO’s programme on social inclusion and human rights, covering themes including gender equality, migration, fighting discrimination, poverty eradication and intercultural dialogue. She acts as the Secretary of the International Coalition of Inclusive and Sustainable Cities – ICCAR and the UNESCO-Madanjeet Singh Prize for the Promotion of Tolerance and Non-Violence, and UNESCO focal point for the UN Interagency Global Migration Group. Prior to that, she was the Chief of the Section for Youth, Sport and Physical Education. Before joining UNESCO, she was the first UNICEF Regional Advisor on Youth for the Middle East and North Africa Region, and held the position of Country Director for Save the Children in Indonesia, Jordan and Northern Iraq.

I'm a researcher at the Africa Institute of South Africa within the Human Sciences Research Council (South Africa).

I am the Director for Multilateral Cooperation at the Department of Science and Technology (DST) in South Africaa. I am a former senior science and technology representative of the DST in Tokyo, Japan for more than five years. I am also the former head for the DST Official Development Assistance (ODA) Directorate, now called Development Partnerships. I have been working in the public sector for more than ten years and before then I consulted for the public and private sector.

I was a Director of the Garden Route Biosphere Reserve and prepared the submission to UNESCO for its declaration. I have worked for 30 years in various environmental and community development capacities, including animal husbandry and rehabilitation, environmental education, project development, fundraising, implementation and management. In 2011 I did a Masters in Business Administration (MBA) in order to enhance my abilities to understand, interface and engage with corporate entities. My research focused on the relevance of social capital in the success of cooperatives in small communities.