Speakers

Rebeca Grynspan

Secretary General at the Ibero-American General Secretariat (SEGIB) and Chair of the Board of Trustees
International Institute for Environment and Development

Rebeca Grynspan was born in San José (Costa Rica) in 1955. She was unanimously elected as Ibero-American Secretary-General at the Extraordinary Meeting of Ministers for Foreign Affairs held in Mexico City on 24 February 2014. She took office on 1 April of that year and her mandate was renewed for a further four-year term in 2018.

In 2010 Grynspan was named Deputy Secretary General of the United Nations (UN) and Associate Administrator of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). From 2006 to 2010, she was UNDP Regional Director for Latin America and the Caribbean. Prior to joining the UN, Rebeca Grynspan served as Vice-President of Costa Rica (1994-1998). She was also Minister for Housing, Minister Coordinator for Economic and Social Affairs, and Deputy Minister for Finance. In addition, Grynspan was a member of the High Level Panel on Financing for Development, convened by the former UN Secretary-General, Kofi Annan, in 2001.

A renowned advocate of human development, she has helped to focus the attention of the world and of Latin America on relevant issues such as the reduction of inequality and poverty, gender equality, South-South cooperation as a tool for development, and the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Grynspan was also a delegate to the United Nations Commission for the Reconstruction of Haiti, a group consisting of the Haitian government, Bill Clinton - the former President of the United Nations - and other prominent international partners.

In June 2014, she was appointed as the Chair of the Board of Trustees of the International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED), one of the most influential organisation worldwide in the field of policy research, devoted to the study of the interface between development and the environment. Grynspan is a member of the steering commitment of the UNICEF Scaling-up Nutrition (SUN) Movement, a member of the Governing Council of the Society for International Development (SID), a global network of individuals and professionals at the forefront of development, and is on the ILO Global Commission on the Future Work, among others.

In 2014 and 2015, she was recognised as one of the 50 most influential intellectuals of Latin America. In 2016, she joined the Board of the Complutense Institute for International Studies (ICEI) at Madrid’s Complutense University. In 2017, she received the Forbes Award for Excellence and the Spanish Government presented her with the Grand Cross of the Civil Order of Alfonso X the Wise. Grynspan graduated in Economics from the University of Costa Rica and has a MSc in Economics from the University of Sussex. She was awarded a Doctorate Honoris Causa by the University of Salamanca, the University of Extremadura and the European University of Madrid in recognition of her professional career.