I have a Bachelor's degree (licenciatura) in Political Science (1987-1991) and a Research proficiency certificate of the doctoral program in international studies (1991-1994), both by the Complutense University in Spain. I have a diploma (similar to Master) on International Studies by the Spanish Diplomatic School (1992-1993). I also have a Master on Strategic Knowledge and Information Management, by the Universitat Oberta de Catalunya (2017-2019), where I wrote a thesis on collective intelligence for knowledge sharing in regional public policy networks. I am very much convinced of the importance of Knowledge for development processes.

I have been working in international development cooperation for more than twenty years, at the university, in civil society organisations and mainly at the Spanish Agency for International Development Cooperation (AECID, www.aecid.es), in the capacity of country-representative (Coordinador General de la Cooperación Española) to China (2001-2006), Egypt (2006-2010) and Argentina (2011-2014). Since April 2014 to February 2020 I have been the Director of the Spanish Cooperation Knowledge Management & Training Centre for Latin America and the Caribbean located in Santa Cruz de la Sierra, Bolivia. During this period, I have been also Acting Coordinator-General of the Spanish Cooperation in Vietnam (September-December 2004) and Algeria (July 2008-November 2009). I also performed a mission (February 2005) of EUNIDA (European Network of Implementing Development Agencies) to Indonesia and Sri Lanka for the designing of a EU rehabilitation program after Tsunami, representing Spain. My experience is mainly focused on middle-income countries, but I also have some experience in emergencies. I have a profound knowledge of political, economic and social issues of international development in Asia –Pacific the Middle East and North Africa and Latin America and the Caribbean

During this time, I have played an instrumental role in strategy and policy-setting in the country offices. I have been a strong advocate for development cooperation efforts that respond effectively to the countries national and regional priorities. I have been striving to enhance partnership-building as a necessary vehicle to mobilize support, build inclusiveness for shared development objectives, making sure the Aid Effectiveness agenda is properly implemented. Among the activities that I carried out are planning, implementation, monitoring and reporting of the Country Strategy Paper of bilateral cooperation; planning and monitoring of bilateral and regional programs and projects (including support to integration processes, international public goods and South-South and Triangular cooperation); drafting of reports, speeches, and notes on the bilateral cooperation program and on development issues; and supervision of the financial resources and personnel of the AECID Offices. I have been able to cultivate strong partnerships with donor governments, the private sector, civil society, as well as national, regional and international organizations, in the EU framework (Development and Science Counsellors´ Groups), as well as at the Donors Coordination Group. I have worked very closely with the UN system on the field especially during the implementation of the Spain-UN MDG Achievement Fund.

Since 2014 to February 2020 I have been participating very actively in the AECID Knowledge for Social Development regional program for Latin America and the Caribbean, Intercoonecta (intercoonecta.aecid.es), in my capacity of director of the Regional Centre in Bolivia. The activities in which I was involved were mainly the management of an AECID regional programme to support Latin America and the Caribbean on fulfilling the Agenda 2030 social pillar goals and targets, under the approach provided by the social cohesion concept, where knowledge management for development takes an important part. This include tacit and explicit knowledge management, support to regional public policy networks and strengthening of its collective intelligence, data and information gathering and generation, and policy advocacy and dissemination, just to name a few. It also includes the management of knowledge as an international public good, through the above-mentioned internet platform. For these purposes I was collaborating very closely with some international agencies such as ECLAC/CEPAL, UNDP, SEGIB, the EU (Eurosocial Programme), … Since June 2019 to February 2020 I was also part of an AECID Taskforce for the establishment of a corporate Knowledge management system. I have also participated in international meetings concerning the management of knowledge for development (Knowledge for Development workshop in Antigua-Guatemala, organised by IDB and AECID in 2015, or Global Delivery Initiative workshop in Santiago de Chile in 2016 entitled “Aprendiendo, iterando y adaptándose para lograr resultados”). I also participated as a Speaker at the Congreso Internacional de Conocimiento e Innovación (CIKI), that took place in Guadalajara (Mexico) on 24-26 September 2018 (https://congresociki.org) with a presentation on “regional public policy networks”.

Since March 2020 I am providing services as an independent consultant. In this regard, I provided  a technical assistance to the Universidad Franz Tamayo (UNIFRANZ) in Bolivia for the acceleration of its internationalization process (23/03/2020-31/05/2020). The areas of my interest are the following:

• Planning, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of programmes and projects, especially in technical cooperation for capacity-building, at a national as well as at a regional level (South-South cooperation)
• Management of training programmes for sustainable development
• Knowledge management in international development cooperation agencies
• Networks/platforms management and facilitation for results (knowledge sharing, peer to peer, policy innovations diffusion…)
• Evidence-based policies (Big data for development, collective intelligence, adaptive implementation, …)
• International public goods
• International negotiation
• Science diplomacy and the internationalization of higher education
• Knowledge society and developmental State
• Social cohesion and inclusion & good governance
• Agenda 2030 and the Sustainable Development Goals