Fernanda Thomaz da Rocha is IFAD’s Senior Regional Technical Specialist in Rural Institutions for the Latin America and the Caribbean region, based in Lima. Before joining IFAD she was a senior Manager at the Brazilian Development Bank-BNDES with 15 years of experience in development projects. As Manager of the Social Fund of BNDES, she has led the design andsupervision of several programs and projects to combat rural poverty and increase the productivity and income of family farmers in Brazil, with a portfolio amounting to USD 300 million and more than 240 thousand small farmers and 540 farmers’ organizations benefited until 2018. She joined IFAD in the last year and has been working in LAC country programmes in strengthening farmers’ organizations and rural institutions, rural extension and advisory services, agroecology and other sustainable approaches. Fernanda holds a Master in Public Policy from the University of California at Berkeley.