Valentina Girotto

Valentina is a recognized international development expert with more than 15 years of experience. She integrates gender equality and social inclusion (GESI) within sustainable development and climate transition strategies.

Valentina designs and delivers complex multimillion-dollar projects embedding and developing GESI consideration assessments, strategies, and actions plans. She focuses on operating at the nexus of climate, energy, and urban development, and works across 30 low- and middle-income countries.

Valentina shapes the approach to mainstreaming GESI within flagship projects such as the UK PACT Green Recovery Challenge Fund, the Nigeria Country Programme, the China Prosperity Fund Energy, and the China Low Carbon Programme, and she advises local governments on how to integrate a green, resilient, and inclusive approach into their policy and investment priorities for the Nepal Urban Resilience Programme.

Valentina combines her background as a policy analyst and women’s economic empowerment specialist, with a focus on private sector and market systems development and social norms approaches, and work in the urban, energy, and climate sectors. She focuses on developing innovative approaches to include women, youth, and marginalized groups, adopting a human-centered design lens, and opening a dialogue between stakeholders who typically operate in separate spaces.

Valentina earned her master’s degree in international economic policy from the Sciences Po Paris, and her bachelor’s degree in economics from the Università degli Studi di Padova.