Rita K. Almeida is a Manager in the World Bank's Education Global Practice covering the Europe and Central Asia region. She was formerly the lead economist and human development program leader for Central America (Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua and Panama). In this position, Rita oversees the human development program across the six countries.
Since joining the World Bank in 2002, Rita has held different positions including Senior Economist in the Education and in the Social Protection and Jobs Global Practices, and Economist in the Development Economics Research Group. During this tenure, Rita served as the Bank skills global lead and managed lending and analytical work across Latin America and the Caribbean, Eastern Europe, and the Middle East and North Africa. Most recently, she served as Practice Manager for the Latin America and the Caribbean Region leading a team of more than 30 professionals working in the Bank’s lending operations and analytical activities to support education systems in the region.
Prior to joining the World Bank Group, she served as Economist in a private investment bank, and as Lecturer at the Portuguese Catholic University, in Lisbon. A Portuguese national, she earned her PhD in Economics from Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Spain, and a bachelor’s degree in Economics from Portuguese Catholic University. She is a fellow of the Institute for the Study of Labor since 2003.