Eduardo Pádua
Strategy, Partnerships & Delivery. Based in The Hague, working between Europe and Brazil, with a growing focus on the rest of Latin America and 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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Learning from Europe's vocational education systems
An ongoing advisory engagement with SESI, the social service of Brazil's industry, on vocational education and training. It began with a comparative benchmark of Brazil's model against those of Germany, the Netherlands, Austria and Switzerland.
ResultA comparative framework built on four European dual-training systems, now informing the next phase of the work -
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 created, built and ran the company's government vertical, in two roles: I personally led sales, relationships and institutional relations with state governments, and I directed operations, from programme design to delivery with state secretariats of education.
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Vocational education at this scale builds a country's installed capacity: the skilled people its own industries need to grow.
- Led the development and delivery of public-sector education programmes reaching 50,000+ students and mobilising 2,000+ teachers across São Paulo, Minas Gerais and Mato Grosso do Sul
- Largest fully private provider in Minas Gerais, second only to Sistema S, Brazil's industry-funded training system
- Supported the Mato Grosso do Sul Secretariat of Education in designing its programme
- A programme management team of 20+ ran day-to-day operations
Result50,000+ student places and R$ 160 million (around €28 million) in government contractsNet Promoter Score of 87.1 among students, 88.4 among teachers and 83.3 among school managers in Mato Grosso do Sul -
Full-day schools for a network of 650,000 students
A Rio de Janeiro City Hall programme, whose design and implementation I led as programme manager, reporting directly to Mayor Eduardo Paes and Secretary Claudia Costin.
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In 2012, most of the city's 1,500 schools ran two shifts: one group of children in the morning, another in the afternoon. The goal was to bring 35% of the network's 650,000 students into full-day education by 2016. 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, under a new full-time model combining dedicated teachers, collective planning, continuous training and a redesigned curriculum
- 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 (around €1.3 billion at 2014 exchange rates), reorganising 1,500 schools and 42,000 teachers
- A small delivery team of six made it happen: each member owned one area, from enrolment to construction, and worked with the relevant City Hall departments
ResultAround 300 new schools built and 227,000 new full-day placesIn the certified full-day middle schools, gains of 0.81 and 0.68 standard deviations on the national and municipal education quality indices (IDEB and IDERio), according to a World Bank evaluation (Policy Research Working Paper 8086) -
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.
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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 screening of children up to age six, with economist Ricardo Paes de Barros, then Secretary at the President's Office for Strategic Affairs: when a child showed warning signs, the family was referred to specialised care
- As programme manager, I led a delivery team of three, working in a matrix with the Secretariat's early childhood department, coordinating with health and social care and with the city's public works company, which delivered the new units
ResultDay-care capacity doubled to 60,000, and one protocol for more than 100,000 children up to age sixChildren with positive developmental indicators rose from 73% to 85% between 2010 and 2012 -
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.
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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. As Secretary, I led a small team of four that followed every priority project across the administration, working with each department to keep them moving.
ResultA weekly management routine with the mayor, still in use today -
With international organisations
Studies, programme support and partnerships with the World Bank, the Inter-American Development Bank, UNESCO and UNICEF.
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- 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
ResultFrom policy studies to partnerships across three levels of government -
On the funder's side
Early in my career, at Oi Futuro, then Instituto Telemar, the corporate social investment institute of 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.
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I evaluated and selected the projects to be funded.
ResultGrants 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
The fields where I have built most of my experience and delivered at scale. The same approach travels to other complex public challenges.
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Education reform
System-wide change in public school networks, from planning to implementation.
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Vocational education and apprenticeships
Skills systems built with employers, including public-private partnerships.
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Early childhood
Integrated services for children and families, from pregnancy to school.
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Digital government
Data, technology and AI applied to public services and public budgets.
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Digital health
Partnerships between governments and providers to widen access to care.
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Capacity building
For institutions and territories: management models and skills that stay after the project ends.
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.
Since 2021 I have lived in The Hague, working between Europe and Brazil 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 as programme manager. 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 Oi Futuro, then Instituto Telemar, I evaluated and selected education and technology projects for funding, through a grant programme covering more than 16 states.
Working with people
Most of the programmes I have led were delivered by a small core team working with many institutions, rather than by a large hierarchy. The work usually involves three circles:
- A small core team, where each person owns a clear part of the programme.
- Experts and organisations who bring the knowledge the programme needs.
- The institutions that have to act together for it to deliver.
Much of the work happens in the first circle: bringing in good people, giving them real responsibility and supporting their growth.
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 (native), English and Spanish (fluent). Dutch (learning, A2). French (reading and listening).
Institutions I have worked with
Currently working with: SESI, Demà and Grupo SAS
Board member: Central das Emendas and Instituto João e Maria Backheuser
Let's talk
Facing a complex challenge that needs government, business and development partners to move together? I would be glad to hear what you are working on. For example, when:
- a European company or organisation wants to invest or work in Brazil, or a Brazilian one wants to grow in Europe;
- an international organisation, development bank or foundation needs a programme designed with governments that actually reaches the people it was made for;
- a company needs its social investment, or its work with the public sector, to create real local capacity: skills, jobs and institutions that stay;
- a government in Brazil, Latin America or Africa, or the partners supporting it, has to deliver a complex reform that depends on many institutions.