Rita Almeida

Rita K. Almeida is a Regional Practice Manager with the World Bank's Education & Skills Global Practice, based in Austria, covering Europe and Central Asia since July 2022. In this role, she defined and is implementing a new regional strategy, overseeing a US$2.3 billion lending and advisory portfolio across more than 21 diverse countries. She coordinates all aspects of regional engagement, supervising a globally distributed team of 25 professionals. She has spearheaded several landmark initiatives, including the first World Bank Group Program-for-Results (PforR) operations in Ukraine following the Russian invasion, as well as major engagements in Uzbekistan in close collaboration with IFC and development partners.

Immediately prior to this, Rita served as Lead Economist and Human Development Program Leader for Central America, coordinating programs across seven countries during the COVID-19 crisis. She played a central role in mobilizing and delivering US$1.6 billion for vaccine deployment across 13 operations. She also served as Acting Practice Manager for Latin America and the Caribbean, overseeing the Education and Skills portfolio across 31 countries and leading a multidisciplinary team of more than 30 professionals across the region.

Since joining the World Bank in 2002, Rita has held a range of technical and leadership roles across regions, with a strong focus on human development, jobs, and skills policies. These include positions as Senior Economist in the Education and Social Protection and Jobs Global Practices, and Economist in the Development Economics Research Group. She also served as the World Bank’s Global Lead on Skills, managing lending and analytical programs across Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean, Eastern Europe, and the Middle East and North Africa.

Rita is widely recognized as a though leader and brings deep operational experience in the areas of jobs, labor markets, skills, human development, and innovation policies across IBRD/IDA contexts. She has an extensive publication record spanning peer-reviewed academic journals, flagship World Bank reports, and policy-oriented research. She has published in leading journals in labor economics and development and has been a core contributor to influential World Bank analytical products, including regional flagship reports and global knowledge pieces on jobs and skills.

Prior to joining the World Bank Group, she served as Economist in Argentaria, an investment Bank, and served as Lecturer at the Portuguese Catholic University, in Lisbon. A Portuguese national, she earned her PhD in Economics from Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Spain, and a bachelor’s degree in economics from Portuguese Catholic University.  She is a fellow of the Institute for the Study of Labor since 2003.