Professor Mmantsetsa Marope is the Executive Director of The World Heritage Group, and the Honorary President of the Indian Ocean Comparative and International Education Societies. She holds a Ph.D. in Education from the University of Chicago, an MEd from Pennsylvania State University, a BA, and a CDE from the University of Botswana and Swaziland. Her four decades service includes senior positions in the civil service, non-governmental organizations, university teaching, the World Bank, and the UN System. She also has extensive experience in consultancy and advisory services to governments, regional economic communities, regional research networks, ministries of education, bilateral and multilateral agencies on all levels of education and learning as well as on early childhood care and development. She serves on advisory boards of several intellectual and technical entities and has been the editor-in-chief of PROSPECTS, Comparative Journal of Curriculum, Learning and Assessment, as well as founder and editor-in-chief of one of the most prestigious education and learning magazines: IBE IN FOCUS. Some of her key initiatives within the UN are: launching a Collaborative Senior Fellowship between Educators and Scientists of Learning; launching a Sciences of Learning Portal to disseminate relevant sciences of learning research to educators; articulating a Global Paradigm Shift for the Future of Curriculum; articulating a Future Competences Framework as a Global Reference Point for Curriculum Reforms; developing Education Systems Diagnostic Framework; and developing an ECCD System Prototype.

Professor Marope has gained eminence as a global thought leader on futures education and learning; the future of education and work; and future competences all global citizens require to thrive in rapidly changing 21st century work and life contexts. She calls for stronger private sector and Foundations’ engagement in the transformation of education and learning systems into future-forward, life-long-learning systems in their own right before they can be counted on to prepare learners for unpredictable futures. She holds that such transformation demands education and learning systems’ capacity for optimal use of evidence-based knowledge, science, emerging technologies, and big data to guide and even predict their futures and for constant self-renewal. Professor Marope is an avid advocate for constantly shaping the future of education and learning and for shaping the future through education and learning.