Nibal Idlbi

Dr. Idlbi is a senior expert in Digital Transformation, AI Governance, Emerging Technologies and Innovation Policy, Knowledge Society, and Digital and Open Government. She is currently working as an advisor/consultant for ARISPA, Arab ICT Organization (AICTO) and the UN. She is also a member of the advisory board of Global Knowledge Index Advisory Committee, 01Gov, Startup Syria and founding member of Women in STEM Network.

She has more than 20 years of experience with the United Nation Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (UN-ESCWA) from September 2004 to January 2025. She occupied several senior positions at UN-ESCWA. Her latest position was the Director of Statistics, Information Society, and Technology. Her work covered various sectors related to digital transformation, AI and Emerging Technologies, Digital and Open Government, ICT Policy, ICT Applications for Development.

She also led many regional initiatives related to cyber legislation for building a knowledge society, the regional profile of information society in the Arab region, digital Arabic content, and fostering open government for achieving the 2030 Development Agenda. Furthermore, she led for 5 years various activities related to Innovation policy for sustainable development and Innovation for promoting entrepreneurship among Arab youth and women.

Before joining ESCWA, from 2002 to 2004, she was Deputy Minister at the Ministry of Communications and Technology (MCT) in her home country Syria. During this period, she supervised Information and Communication Technology and International Cooperation activities. She also participated in the formulation of the National ICT Strategy for Social and Economic Development.

Dr. Idlebi worked at the Higher Institute of Applied Science & Technology (HIAST) in Damascus/Syria for more than 8 years as college professor, and she was the manager of cooperative projects between the European Union and HIAST. Moreover, she was a Board Member of the Syrian Computer Society (SCS) from 1997 to 2002 and she led the professional training programs at SCS and the national program for ICT training.

Dr. Nibal Idlebi has an engineering degree from “Ecole Supérieure d’Electricité (Supelec)”, a “Diplome d’Etudes Approfondies (DEA) from ENSIMAG and a Ph.D in computer science from Nancy 1 University in France with a specialization in Parallel Processing and Distributed Systems.