Rovani Sigamoney is a chemical/environmental engineer from South Africa who started in the platinum refinery/mining sector and then moved on to researching bioenergy systems and biofuels for Africa.

She joined UNESCO HQ in Paris, France in 2007 as part of the Young Professionals Programme, in the Natural Sciences Sector and later ran the Chemistry programme and International Year of Chemistry 2011. She thereafter took over the UNESCO Engineering programme, working with international partners and program experts to strengthen engineering education through curricula development, hands-on training and capacity building. In line with UNESCO’s global priorities on Africa and Gender Equality, it focuses on women and Africa. Rovani is passionate about women in engineering and encouraging more youth to pursue careers in engineering.

Now, as part of the ED team in Harare, Rovani is excited to be continuing with girls in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) and also adding to her portfolio by working on Higher Education, TVET, Disaster Risk Reduction Education and Early Childhood Development. She has contributed to published articles on Life-cycle assessment, Engineering Education and Girls in STEM. Rovani coordinated the 2nd engineering report, one of UNESCO’s flagship publications, entitled “Engineering for Sustainable Development”, printed 10 years after the first one, which was published on World Engineering Day in 2021.

Rovani previously worked in Brazil, USA and Ireland. Before joining UNESCO, she worked at the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), Paris on a biofuels strategy and then at the Wuppertal Institute of Climate Change in Germany on a policy document for the European Parliament on the security of energy supply.2021.