The United Nations Development Program for Latin America and the Caribbean (UNDP LAC) supports 34 countries (and 41 territories overall) in their efforts to address diverse development challenges, framed around three broad settings which require different forms of support:
- Eradicating poverty in all its forms and dimensions;
- Accelerating structural transformations for sustainable development; and
- Building resilience to crises and shocks
These three development challenges often coexist within the same country, requiring tailored solutions that can adequately address specific deficits and barriers. Underpinning them is a set of core development needs, including the need to strengthen gender equality and the empowerment of women and girls, and to ensure the protection of human rights.
We are committed to creating new solutions, building collaboration platforms, and sparking new partnerships and instruments for development to disrupt the way our organization thinks, invests, manages, and delivers—so we can perform faster and better than ever to accelerate progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals in Latin America and the Caribbean.
Institutional Representative: Marcela Meléndez, Chief Economist
Marcela Meléndez (Colombia) is the Chief Economist for Latin America and the Caribbean at UNDP. She has a Ph.D. in Economics from Yale University, a M.B.A from the Yale School of Management, and a B.A. in Economics from Universidad de los Andes in Colombia. Before joining UNDP, she was Managing Partner at ECONESTUDIO (public policy consulting firm), Deputy Director and Associate Researcher at Fedesarrollo, and Professor and Researcher at the Department of Economics of Universidad de los Andes. She continued to be affiliated as Adjunct Professor at Universidad the los Andes until leaving Colombia. Marcela is an applied microeconomist. Her research and consulting activities have focused on public policy design and evaluation, as well as on issues related to antitrust policy and the regulation of infrastructure services. She has influenced policy discussions in Colombia and has been called several times to participate in honorary advisory boards to the government on issues related to her expertise. Between 2010 and 2013 she codirected the “Equity and Social Mobility Mission”, a consultative process of research and policy discussions that led to concrete policy recommendations to the Colombian government.
The United Nations Development Program for Latin America and the Caribbean (UNDP LAC) supports 34 countries (and 41 territories overall) in their efforts to address diverse development challenges, framed around three broad settings which require different forms of support: Eradicating poverty in all its forms and dimensions;Accelerating structural transformations for sustainable development; andBuilding resilience to crises and shocks These three development challenges often coexist within the same country, requiring tailored solutions that can adequately address specific deficits and barriers. Underpinning them is a set of core development needs, including the need to strengthen gender equality and the empowerment of women…