Paola holds a gender and development MA from the Institute of Development Studies (IDS) in the UK. Since 1994 she has worked on gender issues for a range of organisations, academic institutions, (I)NGOs and CSOs. She has extensive experience of communications, knowledge management and networking and of building partnerships for social development and gender justice. Paola speaks English, French, Spanish and Italian fluently and has a basic knowledge of Portuguese. She has worked on several Open Knowledge and knowledge management projects in partnership with organisations in the Global South. She is currently working with Sula Batsu Cooperativa, a cooperative based in Costa Rica.

She has lived in Ecuador, South America, where she worked in a rural women’s grass-root organisation and gender equity networks. She has a keen interest to include the perspectives of non-English development thinkers and practitioners in the development debates occurring in the Anglophone world.