OMEGA Seminar: Toward More Holistic Approaches to Mega Transport Project Appraisal in Latin America

Juan Alberti is an international researcher and consultant in the field of infrastructure development. His work is focused on infrastructure policy analysis and megaproject planning, appraisal and delivery. He currently works as an external consultant for the Inter-American Development Bank (IADB), with previous experience working for the public and the private sector in several countries, and other multilateral institutions such as the World Bank and various United Nations agencies (UNDP, UNFPA, UNESCO, IOM). At present he is a PhD candidate in the Bartlett School of Planning at University College London. He holds a Master's Degree of Infrastructure Planning and Management from the University of Washington, and a BA in Economics from Universidad ORT Uruguay. In the past 10 years, he has worked in energy, transport, water and sanitation, and telecommunications in several Latin American and the Caribbean countries, namely: Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, El Salvador, Jamaica, México, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Dominican Republic and Uruguay.

Daniel Oviedo is a civil engineer with an MSc in Transport Planning and a PhD in Development Planning. Daniel has over 12 years of experience as a researcher and lecturer in transport and development in the UK and overseas. His research and consultancy focus on urban and interurban transport, having worked in Latin America, Africa, Asia, and the UK. Daniel specialises in the social, economic, and spatial analysis of inequalities related to urban transport and policy evaluation in developing countries. He has been an advisor for various national governments, including Colombia, Peru, Panama, Nigeria and Sierra Leone, and a consultant for the Inter-American Development Bank and the World Bank on issues related to transport planning, social equity and sustainability. He is the director of the International Network for Transport and Accessibility in Low-Income Communities (INTALInC) in Latin America and the Caribbean (intalinc-lac.com).

Julio D Dávila is Professor of Urban Policy and International Development at UCL. A civil engineer and urban development planner with international experience in research and consultancy projects in 15 countries in Latin America, the Middle East, Africa and Asia. Prof. Dávila's research focuses on the role of local government in progressive social and political transformation in developing countries; the governance dimensions of urban and peri-urban infrastructure (transport, and water & sanitation); the intersection between planning and urban informality; and linkages between rapid urbanisation and health. 

Between September 2012 and August 2020 Prof. Dávila was the Director of The Bartlett Development Planning Unit, UCL. He has taught at the London School of Economics and the University of Cape Town, and has lectured in several universities around the world. He has had advisory roles for institutions and projects including at Universidad Nacional de Colombia (Medellín campus), the British Academy, and Children Change Colombia (a UK-based charity). He has been a consultant to international organisations such as The World Bank, GIZ and DFID, among others. He has been interviewed by prestigious international media, such as The Economist, The New York Times, BBC and the Wall Street Journal, and appeared in a 2020 BBC documentary. He is a Fellow of the Institution of Civil Engineers (UK). Prior to UCL, he was a research fellow at the International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED) in London and Buenos Aires, under the leadership of the late Argentinian urbanist and historian, Dr Jorge E Hardoy. In 1988 at IIED he co-founded the journal Environment & Urbanization (Sage), one of the most influential and widely quoted international journals in the urban field.  

As a young graduate civil engineer in his native Colombia, he worked as a planner and researcher at the National Planning Agency (Departamento Nacional de Planeación), where he contributed his knowledge on self-help housing in Bogotá to the country’s first National Housing Plan.