Eduardo Pádua
Strategy, partnerships and delivery. Based in The Hague, working across Europe and Latin America, with a growing focus on Portuguese-speaking Africa.
From design to delivery
I bring governments, companies, funders and international organisations together around large-scale public challenges, and take the solution all the way to the people it is meant to serve.
Student places delivered through Brazil's vocational education reform, across three states
Students in Rio de Janeiro's municipal network, where around 300 new schools were built to transform it into full-day education
New day-care places for children up to age three in Rio de Janeiro, doubling the network from 30,000 to 60,000
In government, companies, international organisations and as a funder of social projects
Selected work
Projects I led, with the role I held and the institution I was working for at the time.
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Brazil's vocational education reform, delivered through public-private partnerships
Brazil's secondary education reform opened a vocational pathway that states had to deliver at scale. I designed and led the company's public-sector business, from policy engagement and programme design to delivery with state secretariats of education. Vocational education at this scale builds a country's installed capacity: the skilled people its own industries need to grow.
- Programmes with Minas Gerais, São Paulo and Mato Grosso do Sul
- Largest fully private provider in Minas Gerais, and largest provider in São Paulo after Sistema S, Brazil's industry-funded training system
- Supported the Mato Grosso do Sul Secretariat of Education in designing its programme
50,000+ student places and R$ 160 million in government contracts -
Full-day schools for a network of 650,000 students
A Rio de Janeiro City Hall programme. As a member of the Secretariat of Education's staff, reporting directly to Mayor Eduardo Paes and Secretary Claudia Costin, I led its design and implementation.
Most of the city's 1,500 schools ran two shifts: one group of children in the morning, another in the afternoon. Moving to full-day education would, in principle, have meant doubling the number of schools. Instead, we reorganised how the whole network served the city.
- Each school came to serve a single stage of education
- We mapped where the population was growing and shrinking, and planned new schools around new social housing, new BRT lines and tunnels, and the city's family health clinics
- We divided the city into micro-areas, each designed to hold the full range of City Hall services
- 19 city agencies and the State Secretariat of Education aligned behind a R$ 4 billion programme, reorganising 1,500 schools, 42,000 teachers and 650,000 students
Around 300 new schools built and 227,000 new full-day places -
Early childhood: from a number to a system
Also a Rio de Janeiro City Hall programme, whose design and implementation I led. The target was to double day-care places for children up to age three, from 30,000 to 60,000. We treated it as the starting point for an early childhood system, up to age six, that supports both the child and the family.
- Day care, ages 0 to 3: 30,000 new places, doubling capacity to 60,000, with priority access for the most vulnerable children
- Early childhood, pregnancy to age 6: a single protocol for every child in the city's day care and pre-school, more than 100,000 children, joining health, social care and education from the moment a pregnancy is identified until the child enters primary school. Designed after a study visit to Chile with the World Bank
- Large-scale developmental assessment of children up to age six, with the President's Office for Strategic Affairs and economist Ricardo Paes de Barros: when a child showed warning signs, the family was referred to specialised care
Day-care capacity doubled to 60,000, and one protocol for more than 100,000 children up to age six -
Governance first
I arrived to implement projects and found that none would work without governance. I read the local context, changed course and redesigned the city's management model before anything else. To design the city's policies, I brought in experienced public leaders from Rio de Janeiro, including its secretaries of health, culture and urban planning.
A weekly management routine with the mayor, still in use today -
With international organisations
- World Bank: supported the reorganisation of the Recife municipal school network
- Inter-American Development Bank: studied high-performing secondary schools in territories with very low human development indicators
- UNESCO and Brazil's Ministry of Education: coordinated federal, state and municipal partnerships for Escola Aberta, a national programme opening schools to their communities
- UNICEF Spanish Committee: corporate partnerships, including the partnership with FC Barcelona
From policy studies to partnerships across three levels of government -
On the funder's side
Early in my career, at the corporate social investment institute of Telemar, then one of Brazil's largest telecommunications companies, I helped create and coordinate Novos Brasis, a programme funding NGO initiatives that used technology to improve education and opportunities for young people. I evaluated and selected the projects to be funded.
Grants to partner NGOs in more than 16 states
No single organisation can solve it alone.
Complex public problems need many institutions and many perspectives, and each brings its own culture, language and interests. My work is to bring the right actors to the table, align them around a common goal, and design a solution in which every one of them gains, above all the people it serves.
Understand the problem, not just the target
Every solution starts from the people who need it, the territory where they live, and how people and institutions actually work.
Bring in the best for every part
No one can do everything well. Identify the best specialists and organisations for each part of the problem, and bring them into the project around a common goal and a shared language.
Design so every actor gains
Projects last when each party sees its own benefit in them, from the agency to the funder to the leaders who champion them.
Deliver at scale
Pragmatic about what it takes to make things work: design what can be delivered, then deliver it.
Areas of expertise
Education reform
System-wide change, from network planning to implementation.
Vocational education and apprenticeships
Skills systems built with employers, including public-private partnerships.
Early childhood
Integrated services for children and families, from pregnancy to school.
Digital government
Data, technology and AI applied to public services and public budgets.
Digital health
Partnerships between governments and providers to widen access to care.
Capacity building, for institutions and territories
Management models that public institutions keep using, and the skills a place needs to drive its own development.
I have sat on every side of the table.
For more than twenty years I have worked on public challenges from each of the positions that shape them: inside government, in companies, with international organisations and development agencies, and as a funder of social projects.
That is what I bring to every project. I know what a secretary of education needs to show, what a company needs to make it viable, what a development bank needs to approve it and what a funder needs to see before investing. And I know no one delivers alone, me included: part of the work is finding the best people and organisations for each part of a problem and bringing them in.
Since 2021 I have lived in The Hague, working across Europe and Latin America as an advisor, board member and, increasingly, a partner in ventures that bring technology and institutional design to public challenges, including in AI and digital health.
Government
Seven years on the staff of Rio de Janeiro City Hall's Secretariat of Education, leading the design and implementation of the city's early childhood and full-day school programmes. Secretary of Planning and Management in Mesquita.
Companies
Director of Government Partnerships and Public Policy at Proz Educação, delivering vocational reform in three states. Partner and board member in digital health and AI.
International organisations
Projects with the World Bank, the Inter-American Development Bank, UNESCO and UNICEF, from policy studies to partnerships.
Funding
Early in my career, at Instituto Telemar, I evaluated and selected education and technology projects for funding, through a grant programme covering more than 16 states.
Education
- Master's degree, Universidad Carlos III de Madrid · public-private partnerships in education
- Executive education, Harvard Kennedy School · public leadership
- Executive education, Harvard University · early childhood development
- Executive education, Columbia University · leadership and public management
- Postgraduate specialisation, Centre for Public Leadership (CLP) · public management and leadership
- MBA and Bachelor's degree in Social Sciences, Federal University of Rio de Janeiro
- Portuguese, English and Spanish. Learning Dutch.
Institutions I have worked with
Current clients: SESI and Demà
- Rio de Janeiro City Hall
- World Bank
- Inter-American Development Bank
- UNESCO
- UNICEF
- Brazil's Ministry of Education
- Proz Educação
- SESI
- Demà
- Centre for Public Leadership
- Instituto Telemar
- Municipality of Mesquita
- SAS Smart
- Verbo
- Central das Emendas
- Instituto João e Maria Backheuser
- Instituto Península
- Movimento União Rio
Let's talk
Working on education, skills, digital government or digital health, or looking to work with governments in Latin America or Africa? I would be glad to hear what you are working on.