Gonzalo Hernández Licona
Gonzalo Hernández Licona is a Mexican economist and distinguished scholar in the fields of poverty measurement, economic development and social program evaluation. Hernández Licona holds a PhD in Economics from the University of Oxford, a Masters in Economics from the University of Essex and a B.A. in Economics from the Mexico Autonomous Institute of Technology (ITAM). Hernández Licona founded the National Council for the Evaluation of Social Development Policy (CONEVAL), a decentralized Mexican federal government institution. CONEVAL's main objective is to evaluate social programs and measure poverty in Mexico. Since November 2005, Hernández Licona has served  as the Executive Secretary of CONEVAL, in charge of overseeing the Council's activities and executing the agreements reached upon by the Council's board. In collaboration with other distinguished academics on CONEVAL's executive board, Hernández Licona participated in the development of a multidimensional poverty measurement methodology. This methodology accounts for multiple social deprivations and income wellbeing in Mexican households. It is currently employed as the official poverty measurement methodology in Mexico. Due to his work as a scholar and as an evaluator, Hernández Licona has received multiple awards and recognitions. Amongst his most prestigious distinctions is the GPSA  Award for Leadership and Social Accountability (2015), awarded to Hernández Licona by the Global Partnership for Social Accountability (a World Bank affiliate) for his contributions, and those of CONEVAL, in poverty measurement and evaluation of social programs under an accountability framework. Dr. Hernández Licona has also been awarded the International Award for Research in Health Policy “"José Luis Bobadilla"” (2017), Trimestre Económico “"Daniel Cosío Villegas"” Award (2000), the Banamex Economics Award (1996), and the ITAM Professional Merit Award- Public Sector (2013). Prior to leading CONEVAL, Hernández Licona served as the General Director of Evaluation and Social Program Monitoring for Mexico 's social development ministry (SEDESOL). While at SEDESOL he developed an innovative system for the evaluation and monitoring of federal social programs. Hernández Licona has also been a long time scholar at ITAM, having directed its B.A. program in economics from 1998-1999. He has also lectured multiple courses, and advised nearly 30 student thesis, six of them which have gone on to win the Banamex Economics Award. He has been a member of the National Researchers System since 1997 and holds more than 70 publications. Due to his expertise, in 2015 Hernández Licona was appointed by the UNDP and  the OECD member of the Monitoring Advisory Group for the Global Partnership for Effective Development Co-operation. Then in 2016, he was appointed by the Secretary-General of the United Nations as one of the 15 independent scientific experts in charge of developing the 2019 Global Sustainable Development Report. Hernández Licona has also served on the International Initiative for Impact Evaluations' Board of Commissioner since 2009.