Appointment of Coordinators for the Consultation Phase and the Compliance Review Phase
After a thorough selection process, Ms. Arantxa Villanueva Hermida was appointed as Coordinator of the Compliance Review Phase, and Mr. Paco Giménez-Salinas was appointed as Coordinator of the Consultation Phase. Both will officially start their positions on January 16, 2016, and their mandate is for a maximum term of 5 years from that date.
The selection process was carried out by a panel presided by Mrs. Victoria Márquez-Mees, the Director of the MICI, three executives of the Bank who work in corporate or independent functions similar to MICI, and two external advisors, Susan Wildau (CDR) and David Hunter (American University), whose extensive experience in accountability and mediation contributed to the strengthening of the process.
It is important to highlight that the selection of both was the result of a highly competitive process, opened in May of 2015, in which more than 100 high-level candidates participated.
With these appointments the governing structure of the MICI according to the Policy is completed.
Maria Aranzazu Villanueva, Coordinator of the Compliance Review Phase, is a Spanish lawyer who has developed her professional career in the area of international law and human rights.
“I am enormously grateful for the opportunity and the trust placed in me. I assume this responsibility with a firm commitment to contribute to the strengthening of the Mechanism, in order to turn it into a framework tool that contributes to achieving social and environmental sustainability of projects financed by the IDB.”
Her career has taken her to several countries in the region; as a lawyer at the Inter-American Court of Human Rights she resided in Costa Rica and later she served as an advisor to the President of the Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation in Mexico. She began her professional experience in the private sector and was a consultant to the Inter-American Institute of Human Rights on economic, social and cultural rights. In 2013 she moved to Washington, DC to serve as a Case Officer in the MICI.
Francisco Giménez-Salinas, Coordinator of the Consultation Phase, born in Spain, is a lawyer by profession and is specialized in mediation and conflict resolution.
Mr. Giménez-Salinas has worked for the CAO (Compliance Advisor Ombudsman) of the International Finance Corporation and as a local mediator. He recently worked as a consultant in Mexico in conflict mediation for the Security and Prevention Center (CESUP) in Mexico, the Civic Collaboration Center (CCC), and Community and Biodiversity (COBI), civil society organizations that are committed to democratic dialogue and the use of mediation as a means of preventing violence. He has taught courses and seminars on issues related to conflict mediation in universities and institutions in Mexico, Nicaragua and Spain as well.
"It is an honor and responsibility to have been appointed Coordinator of the MICI Consultation Phase. Under the supervision of the management of the mechanism and pursuant to the principles of transparency, independence and impartiality, the purpose of this phase is to open spaces for listening, mutual understanding and to facilitate the construction of agreements. One of the challenges will be to use complaints and requests for assistance to MICI as opportunities from which new forms of collaboration and cross learning between all parties arise, that, in turn, result in current and /or future efficiency for Bank projects."