Press and Speaker Kit

Shahzad Asghar is Head of Data and Digital Solutions at UNESCWA (United Nations), known for deploying AI systems that served 700,000+ refugees across five countries.

Shahzad Asghar is Head of Data and Digital Solutions at UNESCWA, the UN Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia. Over 20 years across UNESCWA, UNHCR, UNICEF, UNOCHA, and CIDA, he has built AI and data systems for humanitarian operations, including UNHCR's first global IVR appointment system, which served 700,000+ refugees. He created the Last-Mile AI Framework.

Shahzad Asghar is Head of Data and Digital Solutions at UNESCWA, the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia in Beirut, a role he has held since 2024. He leads teams across data engineering, web delivery, infrastructure, and cybersecurity, with a focus on AI governance and practical AI adoption in regulated institutional environments. Before UNESCWA, he led the Data Analysis Group at UNHCR Jordan from 2018 to 2024, where he built UNHCR's first global IVR appointment system, serving 700,000+ refugees, cut registration service time by 83 percent, and recovered 63,000 missing refugee contacts through data integrity analysis. His solutions were replicated across five country operations. His platform DigitalAAP, an AI-driven refugee feedback system, was selected for the UN Global Pulse Accelerator. Earlier roles span UNICEF in South Sudan and Kenya, UNOCHA in Pakistan, and CIDA. He created the Last-Mile AI Framework, a delivery approach for building AI that works where infrastructure fails, and teaches free public courses on agentic AI and large language models.