Paola Fonseca

Public Policy is key to promoting Impact Investment; Latin American governments need to understand the impact ecosystem to draft effective and efficient regulations. Advancing this theme can change the ¨rules of the game¨ for the better. I trust that soon; we shall see Latin American authorities generate coordinated regulations that encourage Impact Investing in the region. Advancing this topic is my passion; it is why I left a long corporate law career, and now I am fully dedicated to strengthening sustainable development in the global south. – Paola Fonseca

Paola Fonseca is VIVA Idea´s Impact Director. VIVA Idea is a Latin-American organisation dedicated to strengthening sustainable development in the global south; it offers solutions to enhance collective impact strategies focused on social inclusion and sustainability.

She is a lawyer with more than 17 years of experience in international corporate law and governance; she has an MBA, a Post-MBA from INCAE Business School and is developing her PhD (focused on generating public policy to promote Impact Investment) the UN´s University for Peace. After a long career in the for-profit sector, where she held the roles of Regional In-House Counsel for the Americas and Head of Governance for Ibero-Latin America, she moved to the non-profit sector to promote public policies that foster Impact Investment.

Paola also sits on the board of directors of the International Association for Human Values, an NGO with consultative status at the UN, the Vance Center´s Woman in the Legal Profession (Costa Rica Chapter), is the President of the Central American In House Counsels Association, member of the Global Alliance of Impact Lawyers, among others.

After studying creative writing at the University of Oxford, England, she developed her passion for creative writing; she has published her first novel, Pen Pal Feathers and short stories in various languages.