Lobna Jeribi

🔦 Our members are constantly generating evidence, leading with expertise, and driving change. This is why we are happy to introduce ✨Members Spotlight✨, our new monthly round-up of the most exciting actions from across our network. In this new feature that celebrates their achievements and shares key updates, you can expect to see takeaways from new research, upcoming events, network updates, and opportunities for turning research into influence from the Global South. For this inaugural edition, we highlight: 💡 The participation of @LobnaJeribi, president of @Solidartn, in the @wef in Davos, Switzerland 💡 Javier Gonzalez, founding-director of @summa_edu, speaking about educational reform at the Latin America and the Caribbean Parliament in Panama 💡 Pakistani Senator @drzarqa Dr. Zarqa Suharwardy Taimur's proposal for 2026 amendment to the Elections Act 2017 based on @SDPIPakistan's work, connected to our Challenge Fund initiative 🗓️ Three members selected by Southern Voice will participate in the On Think Tanks Summer School: @EthioEconAssoc's Abule Mehare Warkagegnehu, @NISEROfficial's Director-General Antonia Taiye Simbine, and @theokwelians Director of Partnerships Thierry Roland 📕 @SDPIPakistan's Fareeha Armughan participated in the new World Economic Forum white paper "Transforming Capital for the Next Era: Gender Parity and the Expansion of the Investable Frontier." It discusses the great wealth transfer of $83 trillion set to pass within and between generations, and position women to control an unprecedented share of global financial wealth. Link to read here: bit.ly/4qZ2aAn 📕 @PolicyCenterNS released the new report "Beyond Global Polarization: New Cooperation Wanted," analyzing five key areas for cooperation, aiming at a more inclusive and resilient international order: global governance, security, the economy and development, energy and climate, and new technologies and the digital transition. Link to read here: bit.ly/3Ol6gEc We hope you enjoyed these highlights, and invite you to connect with our members to receive updates and see what they are up to! Stay tuned in our social media channels for next month's edition 😉

🗞️ The real question is not whether Artificial Intelligence (AI) will replace humans, but whether it will help us decide better and live better together. If AI is governed with responsibility, it can amplify these strengths, but only if it is built on data that reflects the full society, including its regions and its invisible work. In a new article, @LobnaJeribi argues that inclusive, rights-based data ecosystems can ensure that AI serves what matters most: participation, dignity, and shared prosperity. Read her piece analyzing how to govern data for inclusive AI in the Global South! ➡️ bit.ly/3YXEIqO

🗞️ There is a simple truth often missed in Artificial Intelligence (AI) debates: AI is only as good as the data it learns from. Where data is scarce, outdated, biased, or concentrated in a few capital cities and large institutions, AI will reproduce the same blind spots, and sometimes amplify them. This is why the data question is also an inclusion question. Read @LobnaJeribi's article about how to govern data for inclusive AI in the Global South. She discusses the intersections of this technology with women, civic space, and the risks of automated exclusion. ➡️ bit.ly/3YXEIqO @Solidartn

🆕🗞️ NEW ARTICLE: How can the Global South build data ecosystems that make AI work for everyone, including women and individuals from marginalized regions? Dr. @LobnaJeribi, president of @Solidartn, writes about how Artificial intelligence (AI) is changing our lives faster than most societies can adapt. It brings real promise, but also real fear: loss of control, deeper inequality, and a world in which data becomes the new currency. For the Global South, AI is not a threat by nature, she argues. It can be a historic opportunity to accelerate inclusion, strengthen social justice, and expand women’s leadership. Read her piece now about governing data for inclusive AI in the Global South, and what this means when such opportunity unfolds at a fragile moment for democracy and participation: ➡️ bit.ly/3YXEIqO

🌍 At the World Economic Forum 2026 in Davos, conversations on power, technology, and global governance are shifting. As noted by @LobnaJeribi, president of our member think tank @Solidartn, the Global South is no longer just present in these spaces, it is also shaping agendas. It is moving toward a role as a co-author of global rules and innovation pathways. The presence of Global South think tank leaders in spaces like Davos matters, especially as global rules on emerging technologies continue to take shape. We are proud to see leaders from our network contributing to these critical conversations.

With registrations closing soon, we are pleased to highlight several distinguished #WomenLeaders in attendance: @KajsaOllongren, @TMercep, @LobnaJeribi, Gloria Ann Thomas, and Zdenka Popović. You may still register your interest to join us in #Davos: forms.office.com/r/eHCpY4ZxE6

“A new level of open and deliberate defiance of international law, including of the privileges and immunities of the United Nations, by the State of Israel. Early this morning, Israeli forces stormed the UNRWA Headquarters, a United Nations site, in East Jerusalem. Bulldozers entered the compound and began demolishing buildings inside it under the watch of lawmakers and a member of the government. This constitutes an unprecedented attack against a United Nations agency and its premises. Like all UN Member States and countries committed to the international rule-based order, Israel is obliged to protect and respect the inviolability of UN premises. This comes in the wake of other steps taken by Israeli authorities to erase the Palestine Refugee identity. On January 14, Israeli forces stormed into an UNRWA health centre in East Jerusalem and ordered it to close. Water and power supplies to UNRWA facilities - including health and education buildings - are also scheduled to be cut in the coming weeks. This is a direct result of legislation passed by the Israeli parliament in December, which stepped up existing anti-UNRWA laws adopted in 2024. These actions, together with previous arson attacks and a large-scale disinformation campaign, fly in the face of the ruling in October by the International Court of Justice, which restated that Israel is obliged under international law to facilitate UNRWA’s operations, not hinder or prevent them. The court also stressed that Israel has no jurisdiction over East Jerusalem. There can be no exceptions. This must be a wake-up call. What happens today to UNRWA will happen tomorrow to any other international organisation or diplomatic mission, whether in the Occupied Palestinian Territory or anywhere around the world. International law has come under increasing attack for too long and is risking irrelevancy in the absence of response by Member States.” — @UNLazzarini

Eighty years. Zero women. The @UN's leadership has yet to reflect the world it serves, and meaningful reform depends on renewing both its leadership and the systems that underpin it. This matters especially at a moment when the legitimacy of multilateralism is being tested. More than 160 organisations and nearly 300 civil society leaders, academics, lawyers and UN experts from 80+ countries have signed the Open Letter urging governments to: ☑️ Support women candidates only ☑️ Ensure a transparent, inclusive selection process ☑️ Enable meaningful civil society participation At Southern Voice, we strongly echo this call. Communities across the Global South feel the consequences of global decisions more deeply, yet remain underrepresented. A credible Secretary-General selection must reflect: ☑️ The realities of the Global South ☑️ Gender equality ☑️ The voices of all 8 billion The UN can meet today’s global realities only with modern, inclusive, and transparent 21st-century practices. This moment matters. The legitimacy of the next Secretary-General, and the UN’s future effectiveness, depends on a process that is fair, open and truly representative. We invite you to: 🔗 Read the Open Letter and Join: docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAI… 🔁 Repost the letter 📨 Send the letter to your MFA #1for8Billion #GlobalSouth #MadamSecretaryGeneral #MadamSG #SGselection #NextSG @PlataformaCIPO @CIVICUSalliance @UNAUK @GqualCampaign @CIPPEC @SDPIPakistan @Solidartn @ESRFTZ

The last plenary of today was "Collective Action: From Ideas to Implementation" This session distils the conference’s main insights into concrete next steps for the Southern Voice network and its partners. Participants will identify what to influence and how to do so effectively. Speakers include: 💬 @denisforetia, Executive Chairman of @NkafuPolicyInst 💬 @KhansaNaeem2, researcher at @SDPIPakistan 💬 @LobnaJeribi, ED of @Solidartn 💬 @LucianaMSServo, ED of @ipeaonline #SVC2025 #SVConference

#TEDx #PublicPolicy #Leadership #Resonance #Governance #DataDriven #Innovation #Impact Building State Capability at Harvard University youtu.be/V7P4bk-AB3k

“It is absolutely horrific — even for those whose mission is to serve others,” says UNRWA Sam Rose to @CNN. “Our staff are collapsing in offices, fainting from hunger and thirst.” Survival in #Gaza now means searching for one meal a day — or going days on end without any food. Aid workers, meant to care for others, now struggle to stay alive themselves. This crisis is entirely preventable.

Over the weekend in Gaza, we saw yet more mass shootings & killings of people seeking @UN aid – an atrocious & inhumane act which I utterly condemn. We need an immediate ceasefire, the immediate release of all hostages & unimpeded humanitarian access.

Israel has written one of the darkest pages in the history of genocide.

Israël l'a laissée mourir de faim il y a deux jours. La nourriture était disponible. L'ONU l'avait payée. Elle l'avait livrée. Mais Israël ne l'a pas laissé passer. C'est systématique dans toute la bande de Gaza. Il existe un mot pour cela : le génocide.

I am shocked by the attack by the Israeli army on a medical and emergency convoy on 23 March resulting in the killing of 15 medical personnel and humanitarian workers in Gaza. Medical personnel and humanitarian and emergency workers must be protected by all at all times.

Processus de production de connaissance à partir des données #observatoire-politiques-publiques #knowledge-production #Tunisie

Data collection process, main pillar of #public-policy-observatory #Tunisia #OGP

Les valeurs d’Ouverture, de partage et de rigueur. #observatoire-politiques-publiques en Tunisie, lancement officiel maintenant

Despite the mass murder and destruction, despite all the horror and pain in #Gaza and all over #Palestine, the tide is turning, I told the @Plaid_Cymru annual conference. Link to full speech youtu.be/w-tnt3mLZz0?si…