
Roberta Maio
Digital rights and inclusion officer
What brought you to a career in technology at the United Nations?
I have been working in the field since my early career at the European institutions and in the private sector. I was persuaded of applying my skills to the work the UN does, for a very simple reason. The UN serves countries and people most in need, while private business choices are driven financial interests. I wished to use all the competences gained to serve those that are left behind in countries where means and resources are scarce and hence, suffer of unequal development and opportunities
What has been your favorite technology project or initiative at the United Nations and why? What was your contribution?
When I worked in UNDP, I worked on a capacity building initiative targeting senior public officials in the Arab states. Together with partners UNDP organized thematic trainings and seminars on digitalization opportunities in the public sector, digitalization of services, platform interoperability and capacitation. The project has opened further opportunities later on as most of those countries asked for UNDP support in guiding towards their digital transformation. Capacity building is a key component of the UN work and, in addition, in the digital space it is of utmost importance to change traditional way of working and mindsets. This starts with changing leadersメ view on digitalization and by creating the political will, ensure the process can be successful. Specifically for this project, I found it very important since digitalization is very scatter in the Arab region with some countries (mostly affected by conflicts or other challenges) being unable to harness the benefits of technologies. As the project was carried out during COVID19, the impact was even higher
What advice would you give women interested in pursuing a field in technology?
While 50% of the world population is online, the remaining is disconnected. The values are even lower when we look at the gender digital divide and the consequences of having low percentages of women benefiting for learning, jobs and connections of the cyberspace. Additionally, women is one of the vulnerable categories in the cyber space - advocating for data privacy and sensible standards to protect them online as offline is needed. Being women, we can completely understand the implication of such risks hence empowering us to change the way digitalization happens and make it more equal, fair and women-sensitive. We need more women working in this field that understand technologies and support advocating for women rights to access and benefit from digital economy, learning and so on. Join us!