Marielza Oliveira is the Director of the UNESCO Communications and Information Sector's Division for Digital Inclusion, Policies and Transformation, where she leads the support to Member States to strengthen capacities for access to information, digital inclusion, digital transformation, and protection of documentary heritage. Ms. Oliveira is also Secretary of the intergovernmental UNESCO Information for All Programme; and the UNESCO Observer in the Internet Governance Forum Multistakeholder Advisory Group (MAG) and Policy Networks on Internet Fragmentation, on AI, and on Meaningful Access; in ICANN; in the Internet & Jurisdiction Policy Network; and in the European Commission’s High-Level group on Internet Governance. Ms. Oliveira is also the UNESCO representative to the ITU/UNESCO Broadband Commission for Sustainable Development’s Membership Committee.

Prior to her current position, she was Director of the UNESCO office covering the East Asian subregion, in charge of all areas of UNESCO’s mandate in China, Democratic People's Republic of Korea, Japan, Mongolia, and the Republic of Korea. Her experiences before UNESCO include leading the United Nations Development Programme’s global data analytics and results management at the Executive Office of the Administrator; Associate Director for Governance at UNITAR; oversight and support to multiple UNDP offices and programmes in Latin America; democratic governance programme officer in UNDP Brazil overseeing the fiscal modernization of 7 state Secretariats of Finance, the capital markets regulatory entity, and others; and UNDP Brazil’s campaign manager for the UN Millennium Development Goals. She was also Systems Engineer at the US Army Construction Engineering Research Lab (USACERL), where she developed award-winning decision support and expert systems for the US Department of Defense; senior consultant at Fundacao Dom Cabral in Brazil, advising global corporations on marketing and financial strategy; and Director of Executive Education at Brazil’s Ibmec Business School, in charge of 800+ MBA students across 12 Executive MBA programmes.

She holds a Master of Science in Finance and a Ph.D. in Business Administration with a minor in Cognitive Science from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, USA. Her professional honors include, among others, the 2007 Human Development Awards Special Recognition for Innovation in Human Development Measurement Tool; the 2005 UNDP Administrator’s Award for Innovation and Commitment; the J.M. Jones Award in Business Administration; the selection by Guia da Boa Governança Corporativa Exame as one of the 15 most important corporate governance specialists in the Brazil; and the Commendation Letter for her nomination as the USACERL Researcher of the Year Award.