Elisabetta Lattanzio Illy is a journalist and photographer with over 25 years of experience advocating for equal dignity for all. Her devotion, commitment, and passion in stimulating sustainable development have brought her to be nominated as a UNIDO Goodwill Ambassador in 2019.

She founded Picture of Change, a photo agency, to share stories of positive change from all over the world and raise awareness of the UN’s 17 Sustainable Development Goals.

The underlying theme of all her projects is the discovery and the respect of the producing countries and populations, still too often underrepresented.

Hers is not a charity approach, but a development focused one. It’s about connecting far away realities to collaborate for their respective growth. The end goal is to empower local communities to promote their products and self sustain their economy.

It all started from her first book in 2008, Aroma del Mondo, where she explores the origins of coffee in Ethiopia. The book, prized with the International Gourmand World Cookbook Award, achieves sounding success.

Elisabetta jumps straight into her second publication, Foglie di Tè, to uncover the world of tea in India, China, Japan and Sri Lanka.

In 2016, she starts collaborating with UNIDO to support their capacity building missions in developing countries. She focuses on reporting the positive impact that sustainable actions in industrialised countries have on the quality of developing countries’ economy, society, and environment.

Since then she has worked on various projects, including a Water Management initiative for CNHIndustrial, a photo exhibit for the Italian Foreign Ministry, an educational project for Ghanese cocoa farmers and a training program for embroidery for the Kalash women.

Elisabetta is also member of the scientific committee for the creation of the first UBS Italian Philanthropy Forum, member of the Advisory Board of the European Institute of Oncology and the World Food Program in Italy.