Valeria Pesce

I work as partnerships facilitator and digital innovation adviser at the Global Forum on Agricultural Research and Innovation (GFAR), and I'm an ambassador of the Global Open Data for Agriculture and Nutrition (GODAN) initiative and co-chair of the RDA Community of Practice "Improving Global Agricultural Data" (IGAD).

Currently, I'm facilitating a global Collective Action on Inclusive Digital Transformation of Agriculture.
Previously, I worked as project manager at GFAR and as data scientist in the Statistics Division of FAO of the UN, collaborated with CTA and the World Bank on agricultural data policy research and with the Land Portal on resource mobilization, was a liaison between GFAR and global initiatives on agricultural data (CIARD, GODAN, RDA IGAD), represented FAO and GFAR in EC-funded projects on data infrastructures (agINFRA, Big Data Europe) and managed open data platforms in coordination with other global and regional actors.
I've also worked as an expert for the European Commission as evaluator of Horizon Europe proposals.

My areas of expertise in the past 17 years have been knowledge management, information systems, data sharing, data standardization. In the last 5 years I've worked more on partnership building, stakeholder engagement, innovation, data policies and data rights / digital inclusion issues, especially in the agri-food sector.
I've managed a few projects and project components since 2012 and I'm an ECQA certified EU Project Manager. All projects in which I've worked involved outreach, partner engagement and advocacy activities.