Perspectives on Educational Inclusion in the AI Era: Emerging Frameworks from Latin America and the Caribbean

Specialist in educational programmes at the UNESCO Regional Office in Santiago and in Coordination with the United Nations for Latin America and the Caribbean. She currently leads the Innovation and Digital Transformation and Lifelong Learning unit. 

Head of Education and Senior Specialist at the UNESCO Regional Office in Santiago. He currently coordinates actions in Latin America and the Caribbean aimed at strengthening education systems, in close collaboration with UNESCO offices and strategic partners. 

ICT Programme Specialist at the IIEP-UNESCO Latin America and the Caribbean Office. His main responsibilities include promoting and identifying trends in ICT and education policies at the regional level, providing advice for the development of ICT-related projects, and managing technological platforms and portals.

Alejandro Vera is an expert in educational policy and planning, with extensive experience at both national and international levels. He currently serves as a Programme Specialist at UNESCO's Regional Office in Santiago and as Chief of Education Policy, Planning, and Monitoring. In this role, he leads the regional monitoring of the SDG4/Education 2030 agenda, coordinating efforts with regional partners and stakeholders as well as global initiatives to produce and analyze education data and indicators. Previously, he has served as a Social Policy Specialist at UNICEF's Bolivia Office and as an Assistant Programme Specialist at the UNESCO Institute for Statistics.

Before joining the United Nations, Alejandro worked for almost a decade at the Ministry of Education in Argentina and also for the Presidential Unit on Education Evaluation and Planning. In addition to his work at government institutions, he worked for the Center for the Implementation of Public Policies for Equity and Growth (CIPPEC), where he developed research and analysis on education policies.

Social Communicator specialising in Educational Communication from the Pontifical Xavierian University (Colombia) and holder of a Master’s degree in Latin American Studies from the University of Chile. She has more than 15 years of experience in the education sector, working on inclusive education, educational innovation and knowledge management at institutions such as the Colombian Ministry of Education, the Bogotá Department of Education, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the British Council, the Saldarriaga Concha Foundation and the organisation Tu Clase Tu País, among others.

She currently works at UNESCO Santiago (Chile), where she coordinates the Ibero-American Network for Inclusive Education (RIINEE), which aims to develop inclusive education systems to improve educational opportunities and the well-being of students with disabilities, together with the Ministry of Education of Spain and AECID, across 19 countries in the region.
 

PhD in Economics from the University of Cambridge, specialising in development, inequality, education and innovation. For the past 20 years, he has focused on comparative research, the design and implementation of public policies, and institutional change. He is the Founding Director of SUMMA, the Laboratory for Research and Innovation in Education for Latin America and the Caribbean (created by the IDB in 2016), through which he advises and works with Ministries of Education in 16 countries across Latin America and the Caribbean, promoting research, educational reform and regulatory change to foster greater social justice.

In academia, he served as an Affiliated Lecturer at the University of Cambridge, where he taught courses on the Political Economy of Development. He has also worked as a senior adviser to the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), UNESCO, the World Bank, CAF, UK Research & Innovation, Oxford Policy Management and ASEAN. He has been a member of advisory boards for UNESCO’s GEM Report, the Brookings Institution and the OECD. He held senior positions in the Chilean government during the administrations of Lagos and Bachelet, including as an adviser on education and innovation policy in the office of the Minister of Finance, among other roles.

 

Electronic Engineer from the University of the Republic (Uruguay) and Master of Science from the University of Maryland (United States). She has held several roles at Ceibal since its creation in 2007: from 2010 she served as Operations Manager, from 2012 as Deputy General Manager, and from 2016 until March 2025 as General Manager.

Since 2001, she has been a lecturer at the Institute of Electrical Engineering within the Faculty of Engineering at the University of the Republic, in the field of digital systems, where she serves as Adjunct Professor.

She has worked professionally on projects in biomedical engineering, industrial control and electronic applications integration, and has published papers in conferences and specialised journals in these areas. She was also a member of the National System of Researchers between 2008 and 2012.

In 2021, she received the Ada Byron Award for Women in Technology in its first edition in Uruguay. In 2022, she joined the group of experts supporting and advising the Special Commission on the Future of the Uruguayan Parliament on the future of work and the work of the future. From 2025 onwards, she became President of Ceibal, becoming the first woman to hold this role within the organisation.