Minerva Novero

Minerva Novero-Belec is a Policy Specialist in the Governance and Peacebuilding (GP) Cluster of UNDP’s Bureau for Policy and Programme Support (BPPS) in New York. She serves as UNDP’s co-focal point for urbanization, with a focus on “smart cities” and smart approaches to sustainable and inclusive urban governance and development. Prior to this post, she served as Policy Specialist for ICT for Development, e-Governance and Access to Information, managing a portfolio that included focal-point for UNDP’s membership in the Broadband Commission; UNDP’s role as permanent vice-chair of the UN Group on Information Society (UNGIS); UNDP’s co-organization of the annual WSIS Forum; UNDP’s engagement in various multilateral efforts related to ICTD and e-governance such as the Open Government Partnership (OGP; serving as focal point for the Working Group on Access to Information); and coordination of ICTD and e-governance policy advisory and programming support to UNDP country programmes. Ms. Novero-Belec’s career straddles policy, communications and journalism. She holds a Degree in Mass Communications (major in Journalism) from the University of the Philippines and a Master’s Degree in International Affairs with a concentration on economic and political development from Columbia University in New York.