Raquel Lagunas is the Head of Gender Equality at UNDP, based in New York, with more than 25 years of experience working on gender equality in different development settings. She has advised Governments across the world and large Development Organizations, such as the World Food Programme, the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights and IUCN; and worked closely with non-governmental organizations and grass root women’s movements across Latin America. With substantive experience of working on gender equality in a number of Latin American countries, Raquel is also the co-founder of ‘America Latina Genera’; a unique knowledge management platform that promotes gender equality across the region.

Raquel has worked closely with academia, including leading a master’s degree in the Gender Studies Programme at the Instituto Complutense de Estudios Internationales (ICEI); serving as a senior researcher for think tanks in Madrid; and lecturing at SIPA/Columbia University and Duke University. She holds an MA in International Studies: Gender and Development, and a second one in Sexual Sciences from Universad de Alcalá, as well as a BA in Philosophy from Universidad de Salamanca.

raquel.lagunas@undp.org