IFAP Working Groups

Last update:12 April 2024

Member States nominate national experts to participate in the activities of the IFAP Working Groups. The Working Groups conduct their activities primarily through on-line exchanges under the guidance of a Working Group Chair.

Each Chairperson is responsible for:

  • initiating and organising activities by the Working Group;
  • developing a workplan of their Working Group based on the strategic plan and supporting its realization;
  • reporting to the Bureau and Council on the activities of their Working Group;
  • maintaining regular contact with members of their Working Group to ensure their ongoing engagement and participation in the implementation of the workplan;
  • supporting collaboration and exchange with other Working Group Chairs.

Members of the Working Group provide their professional expertise in one or more of the IFAP strategic priorities, to support the achievement of the Programme’s overarching goals.

The multi-stakeholder composition of Working Groups with representatives drawn from government, the private sector, networks of information professionals, researchers and other relevant parties, provides the interdisciplinary perspectives and expertise to address the challenge of information for all.

Given the international scope of their membership, Working Groups are expected to organize their activities primarily through online collaboration. They are however encouraged to take advantage of seminars, conferences, training events and other opportunities for face-to-face collaboration both amongst themselves and with other members of the IFAP network.

Members:

Information for Development Working Group

Chair: Wei Zhao (China)  

Other members: 

  • Fabiano Angélico – Researcher, Data availability and data use, Università della Svizzera Italiana (Switzerland)
  • Oksana Berezhna – Head of Innovation and Development, Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine, COST National Coordinator, Observer in the Program Committee 'European Innovation Council and European Innovation Ecosystems' of the European Union's Horizon Europe Framework Program for Research and Innovation (Ukraine)
  • Constance Bommelaer de Leusse – Executive Director, Project Liberty Institute, affiliated to Stanford, Sciences Po and Georgetown universities, Member of the Scientific Committee of the Digital Governance and Sovereignty Chair at Sciences Po (France)
  • Bouchaïb Bounabat
  • Eduardo Carillo – Co-director, Technology, Investigation and Community, NGO TEDIC (Paraguay)
  • Lucien Castex – Researcher, Université Sorbonne Nouvelle, Co-chair of the Internet Governance and Regulation Research Group, GDR 2091 CNRS (France)
  • Simon Ellis – SimAPoint (United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland)
  • Anriette Esterhuysen – Senior advisor global and regional internet governance, Association for Progressive Communications (South Africa)
  • Susana Finquelievich – Principal Researcher, National Council of Scientific and Technical Research (CONICET), Professor, University of Buenos Aires (Argentina)
  • Nashilongo Gervasius – Director & Founder NamTshuwe Digital Consultancy, Founder & Board of Director Member, Internet Society Namibia Chapter, Lecturer, Department of Communication and Language, Namibia University of Science and Technology (Namibia)
  • Grace Githaiga – Convenor/CEO, KICTANet (Kenya)
  • Matthias Kettemann – Head of Research Program, Leibniz Institute for Media Research, Hans-Bredow-Institut (HBI) (Germany)
  • Alain Kiyindou – Professor of Université Bordeaux Montaigne and UNESCO Chair in Emerging Practices in Technology and Communication for Development (PETCD) (France)
  • Marcien Mackaya – (Gabon)
  • Juliet N. Nanfuka – Digital Rights advocate, Collaboration on International ICT Policy for East and Southern Africa (CIPESA) (Uganda)
  • Olivier Sagna – Professor at the School of Librarians, Archivists and Documentalists (EBAD), Information science, Cheikh Anta Diop University, Dakar (Senegal)
  • Fabio Senne – ICT Project Coordinator at Regional Center for Studies on the Development of the Information Society (CETIC.br) / Brazilian Network Information Center (NIC.br) (Brazil)
  • David Souter – Managing Director, ICT Development Associates (United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland)
  • Asad Uzzaman
  • Mano Verabathran – Former Chair of IFAP Working Group on Information for Development, Undersecretary, International Division, Malaysian Ministry of Communications and Multimedia (Malaysia)
  • Jean-Patrick Villeneuve – Director of the Institute of Communication and Public Policy at USI and the Head of the GRIP, data availability and data use, Università della Svizzera Italiana (Switzerland)
  • Stephen Wyber – Manager, Policy and Advocacy, the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA) (France)
  • Bu Zhong – Professor and Head of Department of Interactive Media, Hong Kong Baptist University (China)

Information Literacy Working Group

Chair: Rakotondrasoava Andrianirina Mamimbahoaka Fetraniaina (Madagascar) 

Other members: 

  • Tom Calma – Social justice campaigner, Academic, Civil Servant, Diplomat, Chancellor of the University of Canberra, awarded an Order of Australia; Officer of the General Division (AO) for distinguished service to the Indigenous community (Australia)
  • Marcus East – Technical Director, Office of the CTO at Google (United States of America)
  • Divina Frau Meigs – Chair, NGO Savoir*Devenir, Reception and use of information and communication technologies (France)
  • Dorothy K. Gordon – Former Chair of IFAP Working Group on Information Literacy, founding Director General of the Ghana-India Kofi Annan Centre of Excellence in ICT (AITI-KACE) (Ghana)
  • John Hawker – Connectivity and Broadband Specialist, Senior Vice-President, Kacific Satellite, PNG, Micronesia and Pacific (Australia)
  • Viktoriia Khomenko – Assistant Professor at Department of Private International Law of Institute of International Relations of Taras Shevchenko University of Kyiv (Ukraine)
  • Ibrahim Kushchu – Associate Professor Founding Director, Mobile Government Consortium International, and mobileGov (United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland)
  • Mary-Ruth Mendel – Co-Founder and Co-Chair, The Australian Literacy & Numeracy Foundation; Owner and Senior Speech Language Pathologist, Speech Language and Literacy Centre (Australia)
  •  Roxana Morduchowicz – UNESCO Consultant, Professor in Communication in the University of Buenos Aires (Argentina)
  • Tatiana Murovana – Programme Specialist at UNESCO Institute for Information Technologies in Education (Russian Federation)
  • Daniel Pimienta – Responsible, Linguistic diversity on the Internet, Observatory for Linguistic and Cultural Diversity on the Internet (France/Dominican Republic)
  • Paul Alain Zibi Fama – Project coordinator, Media Education; African Digital and Cyberspace Law, EDUK-MEDIA (Cameroon)

Information Preservation Working Group

Chair: Salih Abdullah (Libya) 

Other members: 

  • Hellen Amunga – Lecturer, Department of Library & Information Science, University of Nairobi (Kenya)
  • Kevin Bradley – (Australia)
  • Guenther Cyranek – (Germany)
  • Chris Fisher – Professor of Anthropology, Colorado State University, founder of The Earth Project (United States of America)
  • Felix Gross – (Germany)
  • Sarah B. Kaddu – Programme Lecturer Makerere University (Uganda)
  • Laszlo Z. Karvalics – Former Chair of IFAP Working Group on Information Preservation, Founding director, BME-UNESCO Information Society and Trend Research Institute, associate professor, former Head, Department of Cultural Heritage and Human Information Science, Faculty of Arts, University of Szeged (Hungary)
  • Stephen Leisz – Professor of Anthropology, Colorado State University (United States of America)
  • Larysa Levchenko – Senior Researcher at the Institute of Ukrainian Archaeography and Source Studies named after M. S. Hrushevsky of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine (Ukraine)
  • Claire McGuire – Policy and Research Officer, the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA)
  • Matsekiso Moshoeshoe-Chadzingwa – Associate Professor National University of Lesotho, Professor, Library & Information Studies (Faculty of Humanities) (Lesotho)
  • Liliia Oleksiuk – Member of the Ukrainian side of the EU-Ukraine Civil Society Platform and Head of the NGO All-Ukrainian Association "Information Security and Information Technology" (Ukraine)
  • Dietrich Schüller – Founder and former Chairman of the International Association of Sound and Audiovisual Archives Technical Committee (Austria)
  • Shunya Yoshimi – Professor of Sociology, Media and Cultural Studies, University of Tokyo; Chairman of the Board, University of Tokyo Press (Japan)

Information Ethics Working Group

Chair: Viktoriia Romaniuk (Ukraine)

Other members:

  • Hassan Al Mulla – Counsellor, Permanent Delegation of the State of Qatar to UNESCO, Expert on Information and Communication, Research Scientist in Information Law and Ethics (Qatar)
  • Coetzee Bester – Professor, Director of the African Centre of Excellence for Information Ethics, University of Pretoria (South Africa)
  • Noémi Bontridder – Vice-coordinator: Researcher at CRIDS/NaDI, University of Namur (Belgium)
  • Changfeng Chen – Professor, Executive Dean, School of Journalism and Communication, Tsinghua University (China)
  • Nathalie De Marcellis-Warin – Professor, President of CIRANO Research Center, Polytechnique University Montréal (Canada)
  • Siddharth Peter De Souza – Post-Doctoral Researcher, Tilburg University (Netherlands)
  • Cordel Green – Executive Director, Broadcasting Commission of Jamaica, Vice-Chairman of International Centre for Information Ethics (Jamaica)
  • Christoph Lütge – Professor, Director of the Technical University of Munich Institute for Ethics in AI (Germany)
  • Merel Noorman – Tilburg University (Netherlands)
  • Yves Poullet – Former Chair of IFAP Working Group on Information Ethics, Emeritus Professor at the University of Namur, Honorary Rector of UNamur and Associate Professor at UC Lille, member of the Royal Academy of Belgium and member of the Litigation Chamber of the Belgian authority of Data protection (Belgium)
  • Fatima Roumate – Professor, President of the International Institute of Scientific Research, Mohamed V University, Rabat (Morocco)
  • R. Siva Prasad – Former Honorary Professor, CDLTR, and Professor and Head, Department of Anthropology University of Hyderabad (India)
  • Syun Tutiya – Professor, National Institution for Academic Degrees and Quality Enhancement of Higher Education – NIAD-QE (Japan)
  • Stefaan Verhulst – Professor, Co-Founder and Chief Research and Development Officer of the Governance Laboratory (The GovLab), Editor-in-Chief of Data & Policy, New York University – NYU (Belgium)
  • Fang Xingdong – Qiushi Distinguished Professor, Zhejing University and the Director, Wuzhen Institute for Digital Civilization (China)

Information Accessibility Working Group

Chair: Cordel Green (Jamaica) 

Other members: 

  • Sulyna Abdullah – Director of Public Policy for Southeast Asia, Netflix; former Chief of Corporate Strategy, Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) (Malaysia)
  • Samridhi Arora – Supreme Court Advocate (India)
  • Monica Desai – Global Head, Connectivity and Access Policy, Meta
  • Isabela Ferrari – Brazilian Federal Judge; Phd. Candidate at the University of the State of Rio de Janeiro; Visiting Researcher at Harvard Law School (2016/2017); Advisor for The Future Society at HKS; Academic Coordinator of the New Law Institute, International Speaker on matters related to Law and Technology (Brazil)
  • Rachel Fischer – Co-Chair, International Centre for Information Ethics
  • Sonia Gill – Former Secretary-General, Caribbean Broadcasting Union
  • Andrew J. Haire – Principal, AJH Communications; Vice-President, International Institute of Communications; Former Deputy Director-General, Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore (IDA) (Singapore)
  • Christine Meng Ji – Fellow of the Royal Anthropological Institute (F.R.A.I.)  and Associate Professor of Multilingual Translation and Inclusion, School of Languages and Cultures, the University of Sydney (Australia)
  • Erin Klazar – Co-founder and CEO, 3 Consulting (South Africa)
  • Andrea Millwood Hargrave – Director of Regulatory Fora, International Institute of Communications; Director, International Regulators Forum (IRF)
  • Soniya Mukhedkar – Manager, Strategic Policy and International Affairs, Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC)
  • Dariia Opryshko – Senior Fellow (International and European Media Law) in the Institut für Informations-, Telekommunikations- und Medienrecht, University of Münster (Münster, Germany), Philipp-Schwartz Fellow (Ukraine)
  • Dwight Peters – Founder and CEO, Saint International Agency
  • Edson Prestes – Member, UN High Level Panel on Digital Cooperation; Head, Robotics Research Group, Informatics Institute, Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil; Associate VP - IEEE Robotics and Automation Society (Brazil)
  • Trisha Ray – Fellow, Observer Research Foundation (ORF) (India)
  • Rainer Schnepfleitner – Head, Office for Communications (Liechtenstein)
  • Erica Simmons – Executive Director, Centre for Digital Innovation & Advanced Manufacturing, Caribbean Maritime University
  • David Soutar – Principal and Co-founder, Slashroots Foundation
  • Maria Dolores Souza – Director of Research - National Television Council of Chile (CNTV)
  • Livingston White – Director, Caribbean School of Media and Communication (CARIMAC)
  • Xuan Tang – Associate Professor at the Faculty of Journalism and Communication, Communication. University of China (CUC); Deputy Director of the International Journalism and Communication Department (China)

Multilingualism Working Group

Chair: Anastasia Parshakova (Russian Federation) 

Other members: 

  • Alexander Arefyev – Deputy Director for Research, Centre for Sociological Research, Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation (Russian Federation)
  • Sergey Bakeykin – Executive Director, Interregional Library Cooperation Centre & Vice-Chair, Russian IFAP Committee (Russian Federation)
  • Vicente Climent-Ferrando – Research Advisor, Pompeu Fabra University (Spain)
  • Marcel Diki-Kidiri – Retired Professor, Consultant, MAAYA (Central African Republic)
  • Mohamed El Guindy – Cybersecurity Expert, British University in Egypt; TV Presenter, Al Kahera Wal Nas TV Channel (Egypt)
  • Susana Finquelievich – Principal Researcher, National Council of Scientific and Technical Research (CONICET); Professor, University of Buenos Aires (Argentina)
  • Prabhakar Rao Jandhyala – Professor, University of Hyderabad (India)
  • Christine Meng Ji – Fellow of the Royal Anthropological Institute (F.R.A.I.)  and Associate Professor of Multilingual Translation and Inclusion, School of Languages and Cultures, the University of Sydney (Australia)
  • Anuradha Kanniganti – Lecturer, French National Institute of Oriental Languages (India)
  • Mykola Movchan – Deputy Permanent Delegate of Ukraine to UNESCO (Ukraine)
  • Gilvan Muller De Oliveira – Associate Professor, Federal University of Santa Catarina; Acting Executive Secretary of MAAYA – World Network for Linguistic Diversity; General Coordinator, UNESCO Chair Language Policies for Multilingualism (Brazil)
  • Tatiana Murovana – Programme Specialist, UNESCO Institute for Information Technologies in Education (Russian Federation)
  • Daniel Pimienta – Responsible, Linguistic diversity on the Internet, Observatory for Linguistic and Cultural Diversity on the Internet (France/Dominican Republic)
  • Louis Pouzin – СEO, Open-Root (France)
  • Daniel Prado – Consultant; Member of Executive Committee, MAAYA (Argentina)
  • Alfredo Ronchi – Professor, Politecnico di Milano; Secretary-General, MEDICI Framework (Italy)
  • Nestor Ruiz Vasquez – Lecturer and Researcher, Instituto Caro y Cuervo (Colombia)
  • Ramon Tuazon – President, Asian Institute of Journalism & Communication (Philippines)

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