Our Team – UNESCO Insitute for Statistics

The UIS is made up of a diverse, dedicated team working at the Institute’s offices in Montreal as well as in regional UNESCO offices in Bangkok, New Delhi, Dakar, Santiago and Beirut.

Dr Silvia Montoya, Director

Dr Silvia Montoya has been leading the international education community in building consensus around the standards, methodologies and indicators needed to measure progress towards Education 2030 and supporting regional partners and Member States in shaping the monitoring systems for SDG 4. She serves as the Chief Statistician for UNESCO and is leading the UIS to collect, compile and disseminate official statistics on education, science and technology, communication and culture.

Dr Montoya launched the Global Alliance to Monitor Learning and serves as the Co-Chair of the Technical Cooperation Group on the Indicators for SDG 4. These technical groups have been successful in delivering globally confirmed, clear methodologies and procedures for collecting, processing and reporting on SDG 4 indicators, including through strengthening various data sources such as administrative, household, expenditure and learning assessment data.

Prior to joining the UIS in 2015, Dr Montoya was the Director-General of Assessment and Evaluation of Education Quality at the Ministry of Education in Buenos Aires, Argentina. During her career at the Ministry, she introduced a series of institutional changes and capacity-building initiatives to strengthen independence and objectivity in producing education statistics and the measurement of learning outcomes. She also coordinated Argentina’s participation in several international assessment programmes.

In addition, Dr Montoya was professor and researcher at the Catholic University of Argentina. She holds a master’s degree and PhD in Policy Analysis from the Pardee RAND Graduate School and a master’s degree in Public Administration from the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University. She is the author of many publications on education, vocational training and labour market issues.