Ms. Gladys H. Morales is an international consultant currently responsible for the design and development of the Global Poverty Reduction and Inclusive Growth (GPIG) portal and the Village Leaders Exchange program website, hosted at the International Poverty Reduction Centre in China (IPRCC). The GPIG portal is part of a knowledge exchange and capacity building initiative co-funded by the Asian Development Bank and the World Bank.
In this capacity, she is also responsible for establishing strategic partnerships with other international organizations and policy research institutes in the region and for organizing events to promote international cooperation and knowledge sharing.
Prior to this, she was a consultant in rural and microfinance for the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) contributing to the design, implementation and evaluation of micro-finance projects in Latin America and Asia.
She worked also as an economist for the Global Information and Early Warning System of the FAO and represented the organization at the WCO in Brussels in meetings that would lead to the adoption of food security relevant items in the Harmonized Commodity Description and Coding System (2007).
Ms. Morales counts with more than 13 years of experience providing technical expertise on poverty reduction, food security, early warning, rural and micro-finance, knowledge exchange and strategic partnerships to bilateral, multilateral and international organizations.
She has worked and lived in various countries in the Americas and Asia and is presently based in Rome, Italy. She is fluent in English, Spanish and Italian and has a good knowledge of French. Ms. Morales holds a Master in Development Economics and International Cooperation from the University of Rome, Tor Vergata and a B.S. in Foreign Service with a major in International Economics from Georgetown University.