Elena Ruiz Abril is a gender specialist with more than 20 years of experience working for gender equality and women’s empowerment. She is currently UN Women’s Women’s Economic Empowerment Regional Policy Advisor for West and Central Africa. Prior to joining UN Women, she worked for the World Bank, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development and several UN agencies in Africa, Latin America, Europe and Central Asia, and the Middle East and North Africa. She has spent most of her career working for women’s economic empowerment, conducting policy analysis, dialogue and reform, advising public and private sector institutions, and supporting advocacy and programmatic work to improve women’s access to economic opportunities, and to strengthen women’s economic rights. In her recent work at EBRD, she spearheaded the IFI’s work on gender responsive investment climate reform, and the design of the flagship Women in Business Program to support women entrepreneurs’ access to bank finance in 19 countries. She also led the Bank’s efforts to remove legal barriers to women’s participation in the labor market in Central Asia. In her current post, Elena works to scale up solutions to support women’s economic empowerment in Africa, with a focus on rural women and climate resilient agricultural value chains, women entrepreneurs and affirmative procurement, and policy reform for women’s participation in the economy.
Program to support women entrepreneurs’ access to bank finance in 19 countries. She also led the Bank’s efforts to remove legal barriers to women’s participation in the labor market in Central Asia. In her current post, Elena works to scale up solutions to support women’s economic empowerment in Africa, with a focus on rural women and climate resilient agricultural value chains, women entrepreneurs and affirmative procurement, and policy reform for women’s participation in the economy.