Reacting to the announcement of the appointment of Ms. Gabriela Ramos to the post of Assistant Director-General for Social and Human Sciences at UNESCO, OECD Secretary-General Angel Gurría said: “The OECD has been privileged to count on the leadership, drive, and commitment of Gabriela Ramos. She has been a pillar for the transformation of the Organisation into an inclusive and impactful institution. Although she will be deeply missed, we are proud about her appointment at UNESCO. On behalf of the Secretariat, I thank her personally for her service, wish her well in the new stage of her career, and am sure she will continue to do good for the international co-operation agenda”.
Ms Ramos will join UNESCO on July 1. She has served the Organisation for more than twenty years, first as Director of the OECD Centre for Latin America in Mexico City since 1999, as Deputy Chief of Staff since 2006, and since November 2008 as Chief of Staff, a role that since June 2009 she combined with that of Sherpa to the Group of Twenty (G20) and the Group of Seven (G7). In these roles, Ms Ramos supported the Secretary-General in developing the Organisation’s strategic vision to carry out its mandate and enhance its impact, relevance and effectiveness. Ms Ramos played a central role in driving forward a number of global agendas, including the agreements at leader level on gender equality, on tax transparency and on artificial intelligence. She is the Dean of the Sherpas in the G20. In recognition of her contributions to the global governance agenda, Ms Ramos was awarded the National Order of Merit in 2014 by the President of the French Republic François Hollande.
Ms Ramos oversaw the launch and operation of the OECD’s Inclusive Growth Initiative, which helped place people’s well-being at the heart of public policies and to tackle inequalities. In 2019, she contributed to the establishment of the Business Coalition for Inclusive Growth (B4IG), an initiative which, endorsed by the French Presidency of the G7, brings together 40 multinational companies in the fight against inequality. Most recently, she launched a new OECD project on children’s well-being. In 2009, she also helped launch the New Approaches to Economic Challenges (NAEC) initiative, as a post-Global Financial Crisis reflection to rethink economic analysis, modelling and techniques to better reflect the complexity and interconnectedness of our economies and societies. She has led the Organisation’s global agenda, working with 100 countries, and overseeing the opening of the OECD to 11 new members.
She is a gender champion and recognised internationally in that role. She helped establish the W20, she is a member of the Lancet Commission to end violence against women and launched the “Niñas STEM Pueden” initiative. Her work has won her two awards, in 2017 and 2018, by Forbes magazine, and she has been listed for two consecutive years (in 2018 and 2019) among the 100 most influential people on gender issues established by the Apolitical global learning platform for governments. She has also been a member of the Paris Peace Forum orientation council since 2019, and a member of the Economic Diplomacy Initiative that gathers together several academic institutions, including Sciences Po, UCSD, HEC Montreal, and Seoul University.
Working with over 100 countries, the OECD is a global policy forum that promotes policies to improve the economic and social well-being of people around the world.
