Share
Ricardo Valverde serves as country director in NDI's Haiti office. Mr. Valverde, an elections expert and academic specializing in international law, human rights and democratic processes, has supported democracy-strengthening activities in more than 20 different countries in Latin America, the Caribbean and Africa. A native Spanish and fluent French speaker, he has participated in more than 60 electoral missions around the world.
Since the early 1990s, Mr. Valverde has been an officer and consultant for the Inter-American Institute of Human Rights (IIHR) and its Center for Electoral Assistance and Electoral Promotion (Centro de Asesoría y Promoción Electoral, CAPEL) based in San José, Costa Rica. In this capacity, Mr. Valverde has specialized in political rights and elections and has led numerous election assistance projects in more than 10 countries. He has also worked with political parties in the region on issues of public financing, accountability and the inclusion of marginalized groups such as youth. In addition, he has served as a consultant for the United Nations Election Assistance Unit in the Central African Republic (1999), Haiti (2000), Bolivia (2002), Honduras (2009) and for the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in Dominican Republic (2008/2009) and Guatemala (2009).
Mr. Valverde has contributed more than 30 academic articles to distinguished publications including the Dictionary of Elections, the Latin America Electoral Law Treaty and a collective tribute to political parties and elections expert Dieter Nohlen. He also co-authored a book on the internal democratization of political parties in Bolivia, Chile and the Dominican Republic.
Mr. Valverde, a lawyer graduated from the University of Costa Rica (UCR), has received his degree in human rights and democracy from the University of Chile, and has also done other studies in Strasbourg and Paris, France.
A professor since 1988 for various universities in Costa Rica, he has also collaborated for academic centers throughout Latin America, such as the University of Chile, the Catholic University Andrés Bello in Venezuela, the Autonomous University of Chiapas in México, the Catholic University of Santo Domingo in the Dominican Republic and the University San Martin de Porres in Peru.
Mr. Valverde has been named as a distinguished guest in the cities of Quito, Ecuador
(2009) and Morelia, México (2009).
