Regional Launch of the 2022 Economy and Development Report (EDR)

Sergio Díaz-Granados has extensive experience in public and private service, both nationally and internationally, with special emphasis on regional development and integration issues. Before assuming the presidency of CAF, he served as Executive Director for Colombia at the Inter-American Development Bank. He previously held the positions of Minister of Commerce, Industry and Tourism of Colombia, Vice Minister of Business Development and President of the Boards of Directors of Bancóldex and ProColombia. He also has been a congressman and chairman of the Economic Affairs Committee of the Colombia’s House of Representatives.

Lucila Berniell has a Ph.D. in Economics from Universidad Carlos III (Madrid) and a M.A. in Economics from the same university. She also has a B.A. in Economics from the National University of Córdoba (Argentina). She is a research associate at the CEPE of the Universidad Torcuato Di Tella (Argentina). She was previously a researcher at IERAL of Fundación Mediterránea (Argentina) and at the Institute of Economics and Finance of the UNC, and a lecturer at the Universidad Carlos III in Spain, the Universidad Torcuato Di Tella and the National Universities of La Plata and Córdoba in Argentina. Her research interests are in the areas of the economics of education, economic development, labor economics, and health economics. See publications

Dolores de la Mata holds a degree in Economics from the Universidad Nacional de Córdoba (Argentina). She holds a Ph.D. in Economics and a Master's degree in Economics from Universidad Carlos III de Madrid (2011). Her research interests include: health economics, education economics, labor economics and economic development. Previously she worked as a senior lecturer at Universidad del Rosario (Colombia), lecturer at Universidad Carlos III and Universidad Nacional de Córdoba. She was a researcher at IERAL of Fundación Mediterránea (Argentina). See publications

He is the Vice President of the World Bank for the Latin American and Caribbean region. Under his direction, the Bank's operations in the region are focused on boosting growth, reducing poverty, supporting equity, and protecting the environment. Previously, he served as the World Bank's director for Kenya, Rwanda, Somalia and Uganda, based in Nairobi. Prior to his posting in Africa, he served as Senior Director of the World Bank Group's Global Macroeconomics, Trade and Investment Practice, where he led a global team of more than 450 economists. Since his joining the World Bank in 2002 he has also been assigned two terms as country director in the Latin America and Caribbean region. Before he joined the Bank, he was a public official in the Colombian government, holding positions in the Ministry of Finance, the Central Bank and the Ministry of Commerce. He has an MS and PhD in development economics from Stanford University. He has taught at the Department of Economics at the Universidad de los Andes, in Bogotá, and at the University of Maryland, College Park.

Rodrigo Arim has been rector of Universidad de la República in Uruguay since October 2018. He obtained a Bachelor's in Economics from the same institution and completed his postgraduate studies at the Universidad Torcuato Di Tella (Buenos Aires, Argentina). Prior to being elected rector, he participated in the university co-government as member of the Council of the Faculty of Economics and Administration, serving in various capacities: first as a student, then as a professor, and finally as Dean of the Faculty, a position he held between 2010 and 2018. He was also Vice Chancellor of the University of the Republic from 2017 to 2018. As an academic researcher at the Institute of Economics, he contributed greatly to the area of employment and income distribution. From 2007 to 2009, he was responsible for the Social Policies department of the Office of Planning and Budget for the Presidency of the Republic, a role in which he actively participated in the design changes of the social protection matrix of Uruguay. Previously, he was research coordinator of the Cuesta Duarte Institute, an institute of the PIT-CNT as well as a consultant for international organizations on several occasions.

Professor at Instituto de Economía (Iecon) from Facultad de Ciencias Económicas y de Administración at Universidad de la República (Udelar) in Uruguay. She integrates the National System of Researchers (Level II). She is also Research Fellow at the Partnership for Economic Policy (PEP). Previously, she was the Director of ECLAC Office in Montevideo and she worked for the Social Development Division of ECLAC (United Nations). Her research interests are development economics, gender and labor economics, with emphasis on Uruguay and Latin America.

Ana María Baiardi Quesnel has several postgraduate degrees from the University of Perugia, Complutense University of Madrid, the Institute for Advanced Strategic Studies and Long Island University, and a diploma in Equality Agent in the framework of the Master's Degree in Interdisciplinary Intervention in Gender Violence and Equality Agent from the International University of Valencia, Spain. She was the minister of Women of Paraguay and vice president of the International Commission of Women of the OAS between 2013 and 2018. She has served as Ambassador of Paraguay in Peru and Italy as well as a representative to MERCOSUR and FAO. She has published various works on Gender Equality, Gender-based Domestic Violence, Violence against Women in the business environment, among others.

Holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Economics from the Andrés Bello Catholic University (UCAB) in Caracas and a Ph.D in Economics from Brown University. Currently, she is the director of macroeconomic studies at CAF, where she coordinates the team of economists in the shareholders countries and contributes to the research publications of the organization, including joint work with other regional and international institutions. She is also an Assistant Professor at UCAB’s School of Economics. She previously worked in the Research Department of the Central Bank of Venezuela. She has published research articles in national and international journals and books.

Pablo Bartol holds a degree in International Relations from the Universidad de la República (Uruguay) and a Master's Degree in Business Management from the Universidad de Montevideo (Uruguay) and a Master's Degree in Organizational Governance from the Universidad de Navarra (Spain). He has previously served as Minister of Social Development of Uruguay (March 2020 - May 2021), Social Policy Advisor to the National Party of Uruguay (February 2019 - February 2020), Professor of Business Policy at the Business School of the University of Montevideo (IEEM) (2009 - 2018), Visiting Professor for MBA courses at university institutes in Brazil, Mexico and Chile, and Advisor to social and educational organizations in Uruguay and Argentina. In 1997, he founded the Los Pinos Educational Center in Casavalle, and he served as director for the institution for 21 years.

Christian Asinelli is a political scientist from the Pontificia Universidad Católica Argentina (UCA), has a Master's degree in Public Administration and Policy from the Universidad de San Andrés (UdeSA) and postgraduate degrees in Urban Economics (Universidad Torcuato Di Tella) and in Sociourbana Management (FLACSO). In 2019, he received his Ph.D in Political Science from the National University of San Martín (Argentina). During the last sixteen years he has been appointed in different roles in the public sector and the international arena: Alternate National Director of the State Modernization Project at the Chief of Staff of the Cabinet of Ministers of the Nation (2005); Deputy of the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires (2007-2010); Undersecretary of Evaluation of Projects with External Financing of the Chief of Staff of the Cabinet of Ministers of the Nation (2011-2014); Corporate Director of Institutional Development of CAF (2014-2017); President of the Fundación Banco Ciudad (2019) and Undersecretary of International Financial Relations for Development, Secretariat of Strategic Affairs, Presidency of the Nation. He was a Fellow of the Hubert Humphrey Fellowship Program (2010), the Special Program for Urban and Regional Studies-MIT (2011) and the Singularity University Executive Program (2017). He is the author of the books Buenos Aires: The city we have, the city we want (Buenos Aires, 2009); Modernization of the Argentine State: policies, management and professional scene (Buenos Aires, Edition, 2015) and Financing Development: The role of multilateral banking in Latin America (Buenos Aires, 2021).