Jaime Saavedra is the Director of Human Development for Latin America and the Caribbean at the World Bank. Previously, he led the institution's Global Education Practice.
Between 2013 and 2016 he served as Minister of Education of Peru. During his tenure, he promoted a teachers’ career reform, an expansion of full-time secondary, and a bold university reform. The performance of Peru’s education system improved substantially as measured by international learning assessments.
Prior to assuming this role, he was Global Director for Poverty Reduction and Equity and Acting Vice-President of Poverty Reduction and Economic Management at the World Bank, where he co-led the establishment of the twin goals of Eliminating Extreme Poverty and pursuing Shared Prosperity, which continues guiding the work of the institution.
Throughout his career, Dr. Saavedra, a Peruvian national, has led groundbreaking work in the areas of poverty and inequality, labor markets, the economics of education, and the use of data and evidence in public policy. He has held positions at the Inter-American Development Bank, the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean, the International Labor Organization, LACEA, and the National Council of Labor in Peru. He has been the Executive Director of Grupo de Análisis para el Desarrollo (GRADE), a leading think tank in Peru.
He has also held teaching positions and Universidad Católica of Peru, and the University of Toronto. He is currently a board member of Teach for All, the Global Education Evidence Advisory Panel, and the High-Level Council on Leadership & Management for Development of the Aspen Institute. Dr. Saavedra holds a Ph.D. in economics from Columbia University and a bachelor’s degree in economics from the Catholic University of Peru.