Zavazava elected to top UN post

Zim Now Writer

Dr Cosmas Zavazava has been elected to the position of Director Telecommunications Development Bureau at the United Nations’ International Telecommunications Union elective conference held in Bucharest, Romania.

“I am elated that as a proud Zimbabwean, and a proud African we won this post which was heavily contested. For the past four years, Africa held no post among the top five elected officials at the International Telecommunication Union (ITU).” Dr Zavazava said.

He said this is an opportunity for Zimbabwe and Africa to gun for digital development parity with other countries in the world.

“The Telecommunication Development Bureau is the projects executing arm of the ITU. We have an opportunity to close the digital gap, skills gap, and accelerate digital transformation in Zimbabwe, Africa and all the regions of the world. We want information and communication technology to be a catalyst for the attainment of the Sustainable Development Goals by all countries.”

Zimbabwe presented the Dr. Cosmas Zavazava as a candidate for the post of Director of the Telecommunication Development Bureau (BDT) of ITU earlier in the year and gained African Union endorsement at the last Heads of State Summit in Addis Ababa.

He takes over from United States of America’s Mrs Doreen Bogdan-Martin who has also been elected Secretary-General of the UN specialised agency

Prior to his election to the new post Dr Zavazava was Chief of Department, Partnerships for Digital Development in the Telecommunication Development Bureau of the ITU.

He was responsible for strategic partnerships, resource mobilization, industry and private sector engagement, and execution of ITU development-oriented ICT projects.

Before that he was responsible for Statistics and Measuring the Information Society, Project Management, Capacity Building, Emergency Telecommunications, Climate Change, E-Waste Management, and support to Least Developed Countries, Landlocked Developing States, and Small Island Developing States.

Cosmas Zavazava has been passionately designing and implementing global ICT projects for both sustainable development and disaster management.

Dr Zavazava has a track record of being a high-level multilateral negotiator, undertaking successful resource mobilization, and publishing. He has written on the role of ICT in addressing the unique needs of least developed countries, landlocked developing countries, Small Island Developing States, and matters concerning developing countries in general. He has also written on disaster risk reduction and management, climate change adaptation and e-waste management.

He launched a ground breaking project on the use of big data to mitigate the impact of the Ebola disease, and epidemics in general. He also launched a project on the use of big data for official statistics.

He holds a Ph. D in multilateral trade (Switzerland), Master of Laws in Telecommunications and Information Technology Law (United Kingdom), Master’s in international Relations (USA), Master’s in Business Administration (Zimbabwe), Bachelor’s Degree in Business Administration, and Diplomas in Telecommunications and Systems Engineering (Romania and Japan).