Creating Safe Communities for Women with Disabilities in LAC

Maria Elena Garcia Mora joined the World Bank in 2010 and since she has specialized on social inclusion, safeguards and social sustainability, mainly in Africa and the Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) region. She is currently a Senior Specialist in the Social Sustainability and Inclusion Global Practice based in Panama. She is the focal point on disability-inclusion in the LAC region and coordinator of the SSI portfolio for Central America and the Dominican Republic. She was part of the team that led the reform of the safeguards policies and has worked on several operations across sectors, including education, health, infrastructure, DRM, among others. She has co-authored analytical pieces on social inclusion including as the lead author of the regional report on disability inclusion (2021), the climate crisis is a social crisis as part of the Honduran CCDR (forthcoming), trade and sexual violence in DRC (2020) and social inclusion in Uruguay (2020).  Maria Elena holds a master’s in public affairs from Princeton University and a law degree from Escuela Libre de Derecho in Mexico.

Seynabou Sakho is the Director of Strategy and Operations for the Latin America and Caribbean Region of the World Bank. Prior to that she was the Director for Central America covering Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Costa Rica and Panama. In that role she oversaw the programs, research and funding, country relations and partnerships for the six countries. Ms. Sakho, a Senegalese national, joined the World Bank in 2004 as a Young Professional. She has since held various positions in operations and in corporate. Her previous assignments included being the practice manager for the macroeconomics and fiscal team of the World Bank for West and Central Africa covering 25 countries. Sakho was an Adviser to the Managing Director and Chief Operating Officer and an adviser in the Operations and Policy Department. She has authored several publications on economic growth, private-sector development, and the effect of financial restrictions on small and medium-sized enterprises. Sakho’s work has been published in the Journal of Development Economics, the Journal of African Economies, and the World Bank Policy Research Working Papers series. Ms. Sakho holds a Ph.D. and a M.A. in Economics from the University of Pennsylvania, a M.Sc. in Finance and Economics from the London School of Economics, and a M.Sc. in Statistics and Economics from the Ecole Nationale de la Statistique et de l’Economie (ENSAE).

Louise Cord is the Global Director for Social Sustainability and Inclusion in the World Bank’s Sustainable Development Practice Group. Previously, Ms. Cord was the Country Director for Senegal, Cabo Verde, The Gambia, Guinea Bissau, and Mauritania, based in Dakar, Senegal. Prior to her appointment as Country Director, she was Practice Manager in the Poverty Global Practice responsible for Latin America and the Caribbean, where she also covered gender equality. A U.S. national, she joined the Bank in 1991 as a Young Professional in the Bank’s Young Professional Program. She has since held various positions in the World Bank’s poverty reduction and sustainable development departments, working specifically on inclusive growth, poverty reduction, and rural development. She has worked in Africa, Latin America, and Eastern and Central Europe. Ms. Cord holds a Ph.D. in development economics from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University.

María Soledad Cisternas Reyes was appointed as the Secretary-General’s Special Envoy on Disability and Accessibility since June 2017, Ms. María Soledad Cisternas Reyes has been promoting the rights of persons with disabilities at regional and global levels. Prior to the current appointment, Ms. Cisternas was the Chairperson of the Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities of the United Nations and recipient of the National Prize of Human Rights (2014-2015). She has been working closely with the United Nations on disability issues for the past two decades, including serving as an expert before the ad hoc committee that developed the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, for which she was also the rapporteur for individual complaints. As a human rights lawyer by training, she also serves as a professor in various universities and contributes to the promotion of the rights of persons with disabilities at national, regional and international levels. She graduated from the Universidad Catolica de Chile with a law degree, and was awarded the title of Supreme Court attorney. Ms. Cisternas has also completed her Master’s studies in political science at the same university with a focus on political institutions and processes.

Daniel Concha Gamboa is the National Director of the National Disability Service, SENADIS in Chile. He has a Bachelor of Theology from the Catholic University of Chile, Master in Weston Jesuit School of Theology in Cambridge and a Master's in Social Work from Boston College. In addition, he is a professor of Epistemology and Social Policies, and labor inclusion issues for people with disabilities.