Gabriel Demombynes is the Practice Leader for Human Development for Colombia and Venezuela.
Previously, Gabriel was Program Leader for Human Development for Brunei, Malaysia, Philippines and Thailand. Based in Manila, he lead the Bank’s program in those countries in the areas of education, health, nutrition, population, social protection, jobs, and poverty reduction.
Prominent examples of his work include critiques of the Millennium Villages Project evaluation, a study of infant mortality in Kenya, the development of innovative approaches to surveys in South Sudan, studies of crime and violence in Central America and the Caribbean, and elements of the Bank’s “Vietnam 2035” report. His work has been published in academic journals, and cited in the Financial Times, the Washington Post, and Economist magazine.
He has taught economic development at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) and was Economic Policy Advisor to Howard Dean during his 2003-04 U.S. presidential campaign. Gabriel holds a Ph.D. in economics from the University of California-Berkeley and bachelor's degrees in civil engineering and humanities from the University of Texas at Austin.