Giovanni Di Cola

Resume

Giovanni has a wide experience within the United Nations System, having served in various UN agencies (UNESCO, UNFPA, UNICEF, and ILO) with assignments at the UN Staff College and UN Secretariat, on matters related to the UN reform, Youth leadership and Sport for Development and Peace.

His field experience started in West Africa (Senegal and Niger) from 1983 to 1986 working in national (UNICEF), sub-regional (ILO) and regional offices (UNESCO); in Peru regional office for Latin America and Caribbean (ILO) between 1994 and 1998 and in Trinidad and Tobago (ILO sub-regional office and Decent work team for the Caribbean) between 2009-2015.  Officer in Charge of the ILO Ankara Turkey office between March and July 2023 he dealt with a team of 70 staff in a period of emergency and early recovery from the earthquake.    

Field assignments were completed by HQs duties related to strategic-programming, development cooperation, partnerships and donors’ relations, employment, gender, youth and skills and senior management and governance.

He was member of the ILO DG mission to the Araba Occupied Territories between 2004 and 2006 reporting to the International Labour Conference. He undertook missions as UN resource person to the UNCTs of Albania, Cameroun, Cape Verde, Eritrea, Jordan/Iraq, Tajikistan. 

In Geneva he contributed to establish a network of 150 universities, on local economic development as coordinator of a large ILO inter-regional, inter-agency programme (Universitas) between 2001 and 2008. 

During his career, he created and/ or contributed to university master programmes on: (a) labour diplomacy with West Indies University (Trinidad and Tobago), (b) skills development through sport with Kennesaw State University (USA) and Lille University (France), (c) disaster management and prevention with Ancona (Italy) and Sri Lanka Universities, and (d) industrial and labour relations with Cornell University (USA); e) human rights and sport management with UNIL Lausanne (Switzerland). He lectured institutional and economic coordination, international organization and global agendas, human rights and sustainability.   

Between 2009 and 2015, as Director of the ILO Decent Work Team and Office for the Caribbean he established a permanent Labour Minister’s Forum of 22 Caribbean countries and Territories. He reinforced the partnerships with the Caribbean region (CARICOM), with the Association of Caribbean States (ACS) and with the Small Islands Developing States (SIDS).

He was a member of the ILO delegation to the Samoa UN Summit on Small Islands Developing States (SIDS) in September 2014 and to the ACS Head of States Summit in Merida (Mexico) in April 2014 

The above work included projecting skills requirements for the Caribbean tourism sector through triangular and south-south cooperation. 

In 2015, he was appointed Special Adviser to the Deputy Director General for Field Operations and Partnerships at the ILO in Geneva dealing with UN reform, Sustainable Development Goals, global partnerships, and Mega Sporting Events and human and labour rights.

In this regard, he was instrumental in co-leading the multistakeholder initiative on sport and human right to establish itself as a Centre for Sport and Human Rights to which he brought the ILO as founding member and permanent observer.

He published on decent work agenda in sport, skills in and through sport, sport and tourism, human rights, and local economic development in sport. He acted as ILO Focal Person and contributed to the Report by the UN Secretary General on Sport for Development and Peace. In that capacity he assisted the UN Special Adviser (and former President of the Swiss Confederation) on Sport for Development and Peace. 

He was ILO expert of the Global Forum on decent work in the world of sport, January 2020, which led to the adoption of ILO Points of Consensus setting the ILO agenda in sport.

He contributed to various sport and development networks including the Geneva based one (UN and sport entities). 

He served as Board Member and Chair of reform committees of international sport federations (Softball and Taekwondo) in 2004-06 and in 2016-19.

He provided advice on sustainability to the IOC for their Strategy adopted in 2017 and was Chair of the Sustainability Committee of World Taekwondo between 2018 and 2021.

He organized two Inka Trail marathons while in Peru in 1996 and 1997.  

Swimmer and water polo player, he is marathon and triathlon finisher in NY and Lausanne. He cycled the Tour of Tobago (4 stages) and in the Round the Island (270 km) in Trinidad and Tobago between 2009 and 2015.    

He is fluent in French, English, Spanish and Italian (mother tongue).