INSTRUCTORS
Juan Pablo Guerrero
Network Director, GIFT
Juan Pablo Guerrero is the Network Director of the Global Initiative for Fiscal Transparency, a multi-stakeholder action network to advance fiscal transparency, public participation and accountability in countries around the world. He was a founding Commissioner of the Federal Institute for Access to Information & Data Protection in Mexico (2002-2009), where he subsequently was the Secretary General (2013-14). Between 2009 and 2013, he was the manager of the Mentoring Governments for Transparency Program at the International Budget Partnership. Before 2003, he was a university professor at the CIDE (Center for Research & Teaching in Economics) in Mexico (1994-2003) specialized in public administration reform for accountability, anticorruption and fiscal transparency. He started his career as news reporter and correspondent in Washington & Paris, where he studied master and PhD programs in public policy (SAIS-Johns Hopkins University and Sciences-Po).
Raquel Ferreira
Senior Technical Advisor, GIFT
With Economics degrees obtained from the University of South Africa, Raquel Ferreira gained vast experience working in the South African public sector from 2002 to 2019, firstly in the central bank providing analyses on public finances for monetary policy authorities and then in the heart of public finance and government budgets, in the Budget Office of the National Treasury of South Africa. She held senior positions in the Budget Office, including heading up the Expenditure Planning Chief Directorate that is responsible for researching, strategizing, designing, and implementing the national government’s budget processes as well as for the production of its budget expenditure legislation and documentation. The Unit is also responsible for South Africa’s budget reform program. From 2020, Raquel has utilized this experience to work as a Senior Technical Advisor on Public Financial Management.
Aura Martínez
Coordinator for Knowledge, Technical Assistance and Collaboration, GIFT
She has vast experience in government openness aimed at improving public management, specifically through innovation, transparency and public participation. From the Ministry of Finance and Public Credit of Mexico, she promoted the improvement of the Open Budget Index, implemented the contracting and open fiscal standards, as well as the platforms for extractive industries, infrastructure, and delivery of state aid and subsidies, among others. She has supported Ministries of Finance at different levels of government and collaborated with international institutions such as the UN, Transparency International , and the OAS, as well as worked with different civil society organizations. She is a political scientist and internationalist who holds a Master’s in Public Administration from Columbia University. She has received academic distinctions for the use of quantitative and qualitative methods in the social and economic sciences, and she is the recipient of the Integrity Icon México distinction, for a career with integrity in the public service.
Marianne Fabian
Communications and Outreach Coordinator, GIFT
As a good governance advocate, Marianne has seven years of extensive experience in the promotion of open government and public financial management reforms.
As previous Country Point of Contact of the Open Government Partnership (OGP) in the Philippines, she led the co-creation and assessment of three OGP National Action Plans from 2015 to 2019. Alongside this, she has facilitated the development of the Philippine government’s six-year roadmap on participatory governance.
During her tenure as the Technical Secretariat of the Fiscal Openness Working Group in the Philippine Department of Budget and Management, she led strategic communications, outreach and policy research activities which contributed directly and significantly in the increase of the Philippine Open Budget Index, propelling the Philippines 13 notches higher and to the 10th position in global fiscal transparency rankings in 2019 from 23rd in 2015.
Carol Kiangura
Director of Partnerships, People Powered
Carol is a passionate activist deeply interested in transparency, participation and accountability initiatives, that are key to effective governance processes. She has over 10 years’ experience in supporting civil society policy dialogue, advocacy and campaigns initiatives, citizen’s voice and participation processes, especially on social and economic justice initiatives.
Carol is the Director of Partnerships at People Powered, where she works on initiating and strengthening participatory democracy initiatives, that expand people’s power to make government decisions. She most recently worked for IBP, where she supported African civil society and government efforts on open and accountable budgets. While at Publish What You Pay (PWYP), Carol supported pan African campaigns for open and accountable extractive industry, so that revenues from oil, gas and mining are used to drive development.
Carol is well-connected with African Civil Society and understands the wave of change in the continent. She holds multiple degrees, including a MSc in Organisational Development from the United States International University, Africa. She is passionate about processes that give voice and power to citizens-especially women.
Ralph Mathekga
Postdoctoral Research Fellow, South African Research Chairs Initiative (SARChI): African Diplomacy and Foreign Policy, University of Johannesburg
Ralph Mathekga is a South African author and one of the country’s leading political analysts and columnists. His first book, When Zuma Goes, was published in 2016, and his second book, Ramaphosa’s Turn: Can Cyril Save South AFrica? in 2018.
He has taught politics at the University of the Western Cape and worked as a senior policy analyst at the National Treasury. He is often quoted by both local and international media and he comments regularly on television and radio.