Mobilising civil society's engagement in disaster risk reduction.

Led UNOOSA's outreach activities, communication strategy, annual reporting and media relations.

Worked in the Economic Poverty and Development Section of ESCWA, conducting research on employment and poverty reduction. Worked on new statistical measures to capture multi-dimensional deprivation in middle-income and higher-income Arab countries, co-authoring the Arab Multidimensional Poverty Report. Advised policymakers in the Arab region on poverty reduction, trade and competition policy, innovation and economic competitiveness.

As an economist in the Industrialisation and Infrastructure section of the Regional Integration and Trade Division (RITD) of ECA, Ottavia provided technical advice to African governments on trade negotiations and industrialisation policies.

In the Private Sector Development division of the OECD, and as part of the Eurasia Competitiveness Programme, Ottavia helped the Kazakh region of Atyrau diversify and enhance its attractiveness for foreign investors, in particular in sectors other than oil and gas, and develop vocational education training to increase local employment.

Ottavia worked as researcher at the Europe Research Center of Harvard Business School, where she wrote a case study on Ilva, a steelmaking company in Italy, published in the HBS case collection and taught in the Harvard MBA 2013/14: http://www.hbs.edu/faculty/Pages/item.aspx?num=45821 http://www.hbs.edu/global/research/europe/center/

Worked in the public policy, health, finance, transport and water practices of this leading consultancy firm. Regularly applied economics to complex policy issues, conducted quantitative analysis and presented findings to clients. Select projects:- European Venture Capital Association (2012-13): report on the links between private equity and economic growth in Europe. - UK Water Industry Research (2012): how to design outcomes, measures of success and incentives that can promote regulatory effectiveness and customers’ satisfaction in the UK water sector.- Major energy company (2012): model to assess the overnight and financial costs of building a Generation III+ nuclear plant in Europe and Asia. - National Health Service UK (2011): cost/benefit analysis of a merger among three NHS Trusts in London, evaluating pros and cons for patients and taxpayers. - BAA Heathrow (2011): assessed the economic rationale of a potential expansion of Heathrow’s capacity and the value of air connectivity for the UK economy. Designed the main methodology to assess Britain’s connectivity gap in the report.

Operations Evaluation, African Development Bank, Tunis, Tunisia Co-author of approach paper on the evaluation of multi-country projects conducted by the AfDB between 2000-10.

Researched on economic and public policy issues for this geo-political consultancy. Worked mainly on the Prosperity Index 2010, which ranks countries on their level of development, and on daily analysis of political and security affairs in the Middle East and Africa.

Researched on E-Government best practices, producing a compilation of cases for the Department publication "Compendium of Innovative E-Government Practices, vol.3", a guide for policymakers which aims to promote exchange of E-Government experiences across countries.