Jana El Baba is currently the Programme Specialist for Social and Human Sciences at the UNESCO Regional Office in Cairo. She is responsible for regional and national programmes in bioethics and the ethics of science and technology, youth civic engagement and capacity-development, inter-cultural dialogue, prevention of violent extremism, inclusive urban development, gender empowerment, and sport for sustainable development.

Her recent achievements include:

• Coordinating the elaboration of an Arab Charter of Ethics of Science and Technology;
• Launching a regional initiative for promoting urban inclusion in Arab cities;
• Supporting the launch of the 1st L’Oréal-UNESCO “For Women in Science” national program in Egypt;
• Implementing field projects on youth civic engagement and empowerment to prevent violent extremism.

Prior to joining UNESCO, Jana held several positions with the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (ESCWA), where she was involved in Arab regional preparations for the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development; Arab regional preparations for the Rio+20 conference; and Promoting Food and Water Security in the Arab Region.

Jana contributed to numerous United Nations publications, the most prominent being: The Arab Sustainable Development Report (2015); and Arab Integration: A 21st Century Development Imperative (2013). Her most recent paper (co-author) is entitled “Indicator-based assessments of progress towards the SDGs: a case study from the Arab region” Sustainability Science (2017).

Jana holds two Master degrees, one in engineering management and a second in sustainable development. She is tri-lingual, being fluent in Arabic, English and French.