Gerardo Berthin

Gerardo Berthin is Vice President of International Programs at Freedom House, overseeing the organization’s efforts to advance democracy and human rights across all regions.

He has nearly three decades of experience working on democratic governance, anti-corruption, human rights, and civil society strengthening. He has worked in over 50 countries in the Middle East, Africa, Latin America, the Caribbean, Asia, and Central & Eastern Europe. He was director of the Latin America and Caribbean Programs at Freedom House. Prior to joining Freedom House, he was a Senior Associate at Tetra Tech’s Democracy and Governance sector, where he managed large USAID-funded projects. Between 2009-2014, he was the Governance and Decentralization Policy Advisor at the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Regional Service Center for Latin America and the Caribbean in Panama. He has done consultancies for the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation, and the Swedish Agency for Development Cooperation, among others.

He is the author of two books on political development and democracy, co-author of three books about democratic governance, political parties and institutional development respectively, author of chapters in books on various democratic governance areas, the author of over 50 articles in specialized peer reviewed social science journals. He is also the author and co-author of more than 12 UNDP national human development reports worldwide

He holds a Master’s degree from the University of Chicago in Political Science, another Master’s degree from Georgetown University in Latin American Studies, and a Bachelor of Arts in International Affairs from the George Washington University. He is a Certified Trainer from the United Nations Staff College in Turin-Italy and has a Certificate from Harvard University/J.F.K School of Government on Leadership in Development to Manage Political & Economic Reform.