Marisela Benavides is a sociologist from the Pontifical Catholic University of Peru and holds a master's degree in public administration from Harvard University, USA. She has more than 20 years of experience designing, managing, evaluating, and monitoring programs and projects of economic-social development and innovation in rural and urban Peru and other Latin American countries. She has been responsible for the monitoring areas of institutions specialized in competitive funds, such as Fondo Minero Antamina, Fondoempleo, and Fondecyt/Concytec, supervising monitoring and learning activities.
She specializes in agricultural value chains, innovation, gender, territorial and local development, and small and micro enterprises. She is the author of 21 publications and a professor at the Pontifical Catholic University of Peru and the National University of San Marcos in the master's degree in sociology.