Regional Team Leader, Governance, Latin America and the Caribbean at UNDP. Previously global Policy Advisor on Core Government Functions and Public Service Excellence at UNDP New York from 2014 to 2019. Mr. Acuña-Alfaro has helped develop several policies regarding national public sector and civil service reform. In particular, he has provided policy advice and interventions with Governments for the formulation and approval of the Civil Service Laws, the adoption, implementation and monitoring of the anti-corruption strategies, the establishment of monitoring and evaluation frameworks on anti-corruption and public service delivery, pioneering new alternatives to measure corruption, and public administrative performance. From 2007 to 2014 he was the policy advisor at UNDP Viet Nam, where he pioneered as lead architect the Viet Nam Provincial Governance and Public Administration Index, the largest ever multi-year social accountability in the country. He also advised on the elaboration of PAR master programme, the anti-corruption law, and the civil service law among other critical policy areas during Viet Nam’s graduation to middle-income country. Mr. Acuña-Alfaro has experience in governance and public sector reform in such organizations as the World Bank Institute, Washington, D.C.; the Danish International Development Agency, HN Consultants ApS in Denmark; Tecnológico de Monterrey in Mexico; International Center for Sustainable Human Development, the Central American Supreme Audit Institutions Organization Transparency International and UNDP Costa Rica. Mr. Acuña-Alfaro, has degrees from Oxford University (Doctor of Philosophy candidate and Master of Letters), University of Essex in the United Kingdom, (MA in Political Economy), and Universidad Nacional, Costa Rica (MSc in International Relations). He was a Ronaldo Falconer Scholar at St. Antony’s College, University of Oxford and a recipient of the British Chevening scholarship.
Listed skills include Public Policy, International Development, Capacity Building, Civil Society, and 14 others.
