Malena de Montis

After finishing her doctorate with CIE, Malena returned to Nicaragua where she founded two sister NGO's centered on women's economic and political empowerment: The Center for Economic and Democratic Development, CENZONTLE focusing on education, technical assistance, organization and advocacy; and FODEM-CENZONTLE, a micro-finance organization that facilitates credit. She left the executive director position at Cenzontle in 2001 having received a prize for best practice in the Latin American region.  The organization developed a methodology based on practice that articulated institutions, micro-enterprise and citizenship advocacy development for women through education & training, organization and access to credit with a gender perspective.

 

Malena also worked as a senior official in the Ministries of Planning and Education and was a coordinator of the National Literacy Campaign, which was awarded UNESCO’s international prize.

 

Between 1995 and 2000, Malena served as the Latin American Coordinator of the Women’s Political Network that was launched at the Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing. She was also a driving force behind the incorporation of a gender and empowerment perspective in a number of national (ASOMIF), regional (REDCAMIF) and global (WEMAN) microfinance organizations.

 

Subsequently, Malena has also worked as an advisor for a number of international organizations, among them UNIFEM, UNESCO, UNICEF, HIVOS, Women’s Learning Partnership, NORAD, Care International and AWID.[10-23]

 

Email: malenademontis9@gmail.com 

 

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CIE Graduate