This post is also available in: Español

Mercedes Mateo is chief of education at the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), where she leads a team of specialists and professionals to support the transformation of educational systems in Latin America and the Caribbean.  

Mateo’s work covers different areas of social policy, with an emphasis on inequality. Mateo has coordinated the research, design, execution, and evaluation of innovative projects in education, as well as contributions to institutional reforms, female labor participation, early childhood education, childcare policies, soft skills development, and social cohesion. 

Mateo has a PhD in political science from the University of Leuven in Belgium. From 2002 to 2004, she was a Marie Curie Postdoctoral Fellow at the Robert Schumann Center of the European University Institute. 

Mateo was an event speaker at the Dialogue.