Karla Gonzalez Carvajal is an international development professional with over 25 years of experience in infrastructure investment, public policy, and strategic leadership. Currently, she is the World Bank’s Infrastructure Lead for Southern Africa and Ethiopia, where she manages a portfolio of projects across complex transport topics, including road sector initiatives, urban transport, road safety, climate resilience, logistics, and regional integration. She provides extensive dialogue and technical assistance to governments to support reform initiatives and regional integration and cooperation.
As a former Minister of Public Infrastructure and Transport in Costa Rica, she achieved a fourfold increase in public works investments and led significant reforms in the transport sector. A passionate advocate for gender equity in transportation, she has pioneered initiatives to address mobility challenges for women and promote their participation as leaders in the sector. Her contributions have earned her recognition as one of the “Remarkable Women in Transport” by the Transformative Urban Mobility Initiative (TUMI) in 2020. She has also authored numerous publications focused on gender gaps in transport, sustainable mobility, and the role of transport in empowering women.
South Africa