Manuela Garza

Founding partner of COMETA. Her main themes of expertise are: public budget accountability and access to information, gender-sensitive budgeting and public policy, public budget and policy advocacy, high-level facilitation, Theory of Change development, institutional development for CSOs, and horizontal learning strategies.

She began her work on budget accountability related issues in 2002. She was a researcher with Fundar, Center of Analysis and Research specializing in reproductive health and gender budgeting. She worked for 7 years as a Senior Program Officer and Technical Assistance Coordinator for the International Budget Partnership (IBP). During this time she led IBP’s work in Pakistan, Philippines, and Mali. She also coordinated the mentoring and technical assistance provided to 45 groups in 18 countries in Africa, Asia, and Latin America.

As part of her international advocacy work she was a member of the Steering Committee of the International Initiative on Maternal Mortality and Human Rights (IIMMHR) and member of a Steering Committee of the UN’s Partnership for Newborn and Child Health (PMNCH) focusing on the link between maternal mortality and human rights.

Manuela holds an MA in Social Anthropology from the New School for Social Research, New York, and a BA in International Relations from the Instituto Tecnológico Autónomo de México, ITAM. She was a Board member of the Project in Organizing, Education and Research (PODER) for 7 years, a Mexican organization focusing on corporate accountability. She is currently the President of the Board of IPAS Latin America and the Caribbean.

She works and lives in Mexico City with her 6-year-old daughter.

Additional Reading: Colectivo Meta Blog