PROGRAMME/PROJECT MANAGEMENT

During my experience in UNWFP, UNDP or AECID, my role as a project or programme manager was involving to manage funds, human resources and to design future projects and interventions.

During my time in Ethiopia (2011-2015) and especially, during the last three years, my role was to design, coordinate and implement a strategic programme between The World Food Programme and Government of Ethiopia for 2012-2015 for Disaster Risk Management Activities (budget ~$3 million) and to manage a program with 6 WFP experts and more than 20 government civil servants.

With UNDP Ecuador (2008-2009), my job was to coordinate two projects with the Ecuador ministry of the coastal regions, both to create resilience and early recovery among the local villagers affected by the coastal floods in Ecuador.

During 2011, as part of the Spanish Aid country office, my role was to identify, monitor and evaluate more than 20 projects funded to the Ethiopian Government, UN Agencies, International and Local NGOs and Universities.

RESILIENCE, DISASTER RISK MANAGEMENT AND GOVERNANCE

Better resilience and disaster risk management is needed to prevent the harm that the increase in disasters is producing. My contribution has been to coordinate a programme in Ethiopia with the government and UNWFP to increase the capacity of local districts to reduce the impact of disasters and to support the government of Ecuador with UNDP to prepare better contingency plans.

During my time in Ethiopia (2011-2015) and especially, during the last three years,  my role was to design, coordinate and implement a strategic programme between The World Food Programme and Government of Ethiopia for 2012-2015 for Disaster Risk Management Activities (budget ~$3 million) and to manage a program with 6 WFP experts and more than 20 government civil servants to provide every district of the country (more than 700) with a new and innovative disaster risk profile (with 100 socio-economic indicators), a disaster risk reduction plan, and an emergency plan that could help to better manage disasters. See a video here.

With UNDP Ecuador (2008-2009), I was part of the United Nations team advising the state minister for disaster risk reduction. I supported four municipalities to develop better plans to reduce and face socio-natural disasters. I trained more than 200 government authorities in communications and emergency situations and developed information technology innovations to improve the availability of disaster risk information.

During 2011, as part of the Spanish Aid country office, my role was to identify, monitor and evaluate more than 20 projects funded to the Ethiopian Government, UN Agencies, International and Local NGOs and Universities, related to disaster risk management, humanitarian affairs, refugees, social protection, refugees and water and sanitation (~ €10 million). Also, to support the development of the Spanish Development Assistance Framework with the Ethiopian government for 2011-2016 and to represent Spain in humanitarian forums.

ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT

Economic growth policies, local innovation ecosystems, better know-how, strategic plans… all are tools that increase economic development. With the Harvard Center for International Development, my role in Sri Lanka (2016) was to support the tourism vision and to develop analysis and recommendations of tourism development zones, the tourism informal sector or the capabilities of government offices.

I published this book about the tourism industry in the post-conflict regions of Sri Lanka.

EVALUATIONS

Impact evaluation looks to assess the change attribute to a particular policy or project. Impact evaluations seek to answer cause-and-effect questions. Check for example what I wrote about impact evaluationMy contribution in this field has been to evaluate projects like in Cusco (Peru) with the World Bank, where we evaluated the impact of an intervention in different municipalities.

 The World Bank supported different offices of the government of Cusco to simplify the authorizations needed to open a business. My job was to evaluate the quantitative impact of that intervention in the informality, investment and employment and also unintended effects.

HUMANITARIAN CRISIS MANAGEMENT

Today, there are still many places that require humanitarian responses due to natural hazards, climate change, man-made causes or conflicts. My contribution in this field goes from supporting the humanitarian responses in Ecuador with United Nations (Tungurahua Volcano and Ecuador Floods), coordinating funds and actors during emergency response with the government of Ethiopia (drought, refugees, floods or human diseases), to logistical coordination with the Spanish Aid Agency (Haiti earthquake and Pakistan floods).

During the first six months of my stay in Ecuador (2007-2009), my role was to provide technical coordination of the Emergency coordination team of UN agencies, EU and NGO actions in emergency situations (Tungurahua Volcano and Ecuador Floods), and to manage and to analyse emergency Information (Development of more than 10 UN Situation Reports).

With the Spanish Aid Agency (AECID) in 2010, my role was to support the monitoring and evaluation of aid projects financed by the Humanitarian Aid Office for Africa, Middle East, Latin America and the Caribbean and South-East Asia (Annual budget of the Office was €120 million) and also to provide logistic organization of the Spanish humanitarian response (Haiti Earthquake, Pakistan Floods, and others), and to develop an application guide for Spanish NGO emergency programs.

During my time in Ethiopia (2011-2015), my contribution was linked with the humanitarian response of the Ethiopian government together with partners, and how this response could be improved in the future with early warning and contingency planning mechanisms.

I have written methodologies, articles and a book about it. I also teach an advanced seminar in humanitarian crisis management at IE University.

PUBLIC OPINION AND RESEARCH

Articles about public policy and international development in media such as: El País, ESglobal, Agenda Pública or El Norte de Castilla (see more in Publications/Media). Furthermore, pieces of research about different issues in resilience, economic development, humanitarian, innovation or social entrepreneurship. Some of them have been done in collaboration with students of the Harvard Kennedy School

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