Maria Pinto De La Sota Diaz is a Peruvian national and holds a BA in Economics and a MSc in Social Policy. During the past 10 years, she gained experience in both the public and development sector. Her work focused on the implementation of projects aimed at improving living conditions among the poor in Peru in different areas: income generating activities, microfinance and environment. Currently, at the Latin Amercian Centre, her research interests focused on inequality and poverty dynamics and their relation to public policies. For that purpose, she analysed how the design and implementation of public policies have experienced important changes in terms of approach, institutional development, targets, and strategies, across different governments.