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Started his
professional career as a Research Assistant in International Law at
the University of Parma.
Active as an
international officer with Italy's National Students Association and
with the Young Christian Democrats, Savio was responsible for the
Christian Democratic Party's relations with developing countries
before becoming international press chief for Italian Prime Minister
Aldo Moro.
His career in the
news media started with Italy's daily Il Popolo and he went on to
become Director for News Services for Latin America with RAI,
Italy's national broadcaster. After the 1973 coup d'etat in Chile,
Savio left Italian politics to pursue journalism. He received a
number of awards for TV documentaries, including the national
Italian award, the St. Vincent prize. He has also produced five
films, two of which were presented at the Venice and Cannes film
festivals, and published several books, the latest of which is Verbo
America, dealing with the cultural identity of Latin America.
In 1964, Savio
established Inter Press Service (IPS), a non-profit co-operative of
journalists and experts specialising in global communications for
development. IPS grew to become the world's fifth-largest news
agency, providing daily balanced, in-depth and analytical coverage
of the development process. It also offers communication services to
improve South-South and South-North exchange and executes projects
with international partners to open up communication channels to all
social sectors. IPS has been recognised by the United Nations,
holding NGO consultative status (category I) with ECOSOC.
Since 1973, Savio has been a consultant on information and
communication issues for many developing countries, designing the
National Information Systems Network (ASIN) for Latin America and
the Caribbean and the UNESCO-supported Latin American Features
Service (ALASEI). Savio is the founder and managing director of the
Technological Information Pilot System (TIPS), a major U.N. project
to implement and foster technological and economic co-operation
between developing countries. He was also instrumental in setting up
the Women's Feature Service (WFS), initially an IPS service, now an
independent NGO with headquarters in New Delhi. He has also been
actively involved in promoting exchanges between regional
information services, such as between ALASEI and the Organisation of
Asian News Agencies (OANA) and between the Pan-African News Agency
(PANA) and the Federation of Arab News Agencies (FANA).
Savio has been
actively involved at the technical level with international
communication issues, introducing the Development Press Bulletin
Service Tariff in UNESCO's International Commission for the Study of
Communication Problems (the MacBride Commission).
He has also worked
closely in the field of information and communication with a variety
of international organisations, such as UNDP, UNEP, UNFPA, UNICEF
and UNITAR. After several years of being a member of the governing
council of the Society for International Development (SID), the
oldest international organisation of the civil society on
development, he has been elected Secretary General for three terms.
The present term, under the chair of Boutros Boutros Ghali, will end
in the year 2001. He is also a member of the Board of Directors of
the North-South Centre of the Council of Europe.
Since October 1999 he
has been appointed Senior Advisor for Strategies and Communication
to the Director General of the International Labour Organization. He
has also been co-opted at the same date in the Board of Training
Centre for Regional Integration.
Since February 2000
he was appointed Consultant for Internal Communications Strategy to
Ms. Catherine Bertini, Executive Director of World Food Programme. |
