Andean Region and Southern Cone

Jean-Paul Lacoste

Senior Program Officer Santiago

Jean-Paul Lacoste focuses on economic opportunity and social protection issues in the foundation's Andean region. Most of his grant making promotes efforts to help the rural poor improve their livelihood opportunities and build assets through access to financial, business development and institutional services. Specific strategies include fostering innovative services; creating and strengthening support organizations; promoting inclusive public and private policies; and building local, national, regional and global networks. In the field of social protection, his grant making focuses on building links between conditional cash transfer programs and inclusive financial policies.

Before joining the Ford Foundation in 2002, Jean-Paul was project coordinator for Louvain Development—a Belgian nongovernmental organization—in Zimbabwe and Ecuador, advising and overseeing the implementation of income-generation, savings and credit projects in poor, rural communities. He also served as a consultant for the Centre for Socio-Economic Development in Geneva, the Food and Agriculture Organization, and Care International on issues of microfinance, economic security and governance.

Jean-Paul holds a Ph.D. in development studies from IDS, University of Geneva, and a bachelor's degree in business administration from the Catholic University of Louvain.