Sonia N. Jorge

An expert in the confluence of development and communications policy, Sonia has over 25 years of diverse international experience in a career spanning both the private and not-for-profit sectors. As an expert consultant, Sonia leads numerous digital developmentprojects in several countries and international organizations, such as the World Bank, UNDP and UN Women, and for private sector companies, from mobile operators to industry associations.

Her work has included ICT policy and regulatory advice and analysis, strategic industryplanning, national ICT/broadband policy development, and the creation of new policy and regulatory frameworks to address issues around competition, cost-based pricing, spectrum management, and infrastructure development and sharing. Sonia is an avid advocate ofgender equality in development, and has worked extensively to promote gender analysisand awareness in the ICT planning process, as well as an understanding of the importanceof universal access and digital inclusion for development.

Sonia is a frequent speaker at international, regional and national events, including at the World Economic Forum, Stockholm Internet Forum, Transform Africa, Mobile World Congress, Internet Governance Forums, the Latin American Telecommunications Congress, several ITU and EU-Commission events, among others. She also serves/ed as a member and expert in a number of Committees, including DFID’s Digital Access Panel for Africa, the ITU-UN Women EQUALS Partnership, The World Economic Forum’s Future of the Internet Initiative, the Broadband Commission Working Group on the Gender Digital Divide, the Advisory Committee on International Communications and Information Policy (ACICIP) Subcommittee of the US State Department on ICT4D, the IEEE Connectivity Coalition Steering Committee, and the EU-AU Digital Economy Task Force.

Sonia has worked in over 40 countries around the globe, and assumed her current role on 1 July 2013, having previously been Director of Research & Consulting at Pyramid Research. She is fluent in Portuguese, Spanish and English, and holds both a Masters in Public Policyfrom Tufts University and a BA/BS in Economics and Business Finance from the University of Massachusetts.