Regional Gender Statistics Specialist, East and Southern Africa Region, UN Women.

Isabella Schmidt, is currently the UN Women regional gender statistics specialist for the East and Southern Africa Region and has more than 30 years’ experience in international development and statistics. Currently she is mainly responsible for the regional coordination and provision of technical support to UN Women’s gender data and statistics flagship project, Women Count. Prior to joining the UNWomen East and Southern Africa Regional Office in 2019, Dr. Schmidt was the Chief Director, Social Statistics, at Statistics South Africa where she was responsible for overseeing the production and promoting the use of Social Statistics in the country. Her portfolio included gender, marginalized groups, education, governance, public safety and justice, housing & service delivery, tourism, transport statistics. Before joining Statistics South Africa in 2008, she worked as an international consultant specializing in research and monitoring and evaluation of development projects across Africa.