Effat El-Shooky is the  in Egypt", National Project Director of UNDP-MCIT Project "Empowering and Connecting the Community through ICT", and Director of the GDLC-Egypt (Global Development Learning Center) of the World Bank at RITSEC (Regional Information Technology & Software Engineering Center). Effat El Shooky was awarded by the President of Finland“ Knights Award, First Class “Lion of Finland,” based on her achievements in initiating, activating and coordinating the Finnish-Egyptian partnership initiatives, programs and projects in the area of information and communication technology (ICT), Mrs. Effat El Shooky has been very active and instrumental in the field of Information technology for more than 25 years. In 2005, she was the Advisor of International Cooperation at ITIDA (Information Technology Industry Development Agency). In 1992, she was the Executive Manager for RITSEC. By mid 80’s she was the Manager of International Coopertaion at IDSC (the Cabinet Information and Decision Support Center), at the Cabinet of Ministers. In the 70’s, she worked for IBM and the Arab League Industrial Development Information Center. During her professional career, Effat El Shooky  provided advisory and consultation  to a number of UN Agencies as UNDP, UNESCO, UNIDO, ECA, ESCWA, UNCTAD, ILO, UNICEF and the World Bank, DANIDA, JICA, CIDA, EU, WIPO, EFTCA (Egyptian Fund for Technical Cooperation with Africa-Egyptian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Arab League, and others. She has been greatly involved in developing regional projects and providing technical assistance in ICT and e-Learning programs for Arab countries as Kuwait, Lebanon, Jordan, Syria, Morroco, Tunisia and African countries as Cote D’Ivoire, South Africa, Mozambique, Namibia, Senegal, Nigeria. She also represented the Governement of Egypt in a number of global and regional initiatives for the Groups of G8, G15, G77 and CIS (Commonwealth of Independent States), NEPAD (New Partnership for the Development of Africa), and the UN ICT Task Force.