Professional Affiliation

Senior Legal and Gender Specialist, World Bank

Expert Bio

Paula Tavares is a senior legal and gender specialist at the World Bank. She also serves as an adjunct professor at the American University Washington College of Law. She is a leader and expert in international development, gender equality and women’s rights and empowerment issues. Paula’s work focuses on comparative policy analysis and gender-informed regulatory reform for inclusive and sustainable growth, in particular covering Africa and Latin America, especially Brazil.

Paula is a licensed Brazilian attorney and holds a Master’s (LL.M.) in International Law from Georgetown University and a post-graduate specialization in International Relations from the University of Brasilia. Prior to joining the World Bank in 2010, she worked for the Brazilian government on legislative affairs and trade integration issues, in particular Mercosur. She is a native speaker of Portuguese and English and fluent in Spanish and French. She has written and been quoted in different media outlets in Latin America and Brazil, including in El País, El Comercio, Folha de S. Paulo, Valor Econômico, O Globo, CNN Brasil, and GloboNews.