Mariana Santoyo Bahamon is a Political Scientist and Internationalist from the Javeriana University in Bogotá, Colombia. She holds a Master Degree in International Humanitarian Action from Uppsala University in Sweden. Mariana is the Regional GBV Programme Specialist at UNFPA’s Subregional Office for the Caribbean. Since 2019, Mariana has been supporting the region in the response to GBV during humanitarian emergencies, including COVID 19, the Venezuelan refugee influx and hurricane response. She also supports the implementation of the Regional Spotlight Initiative, spearheading the ESP Community of Practice alongside the CARICOM Secretariat.
Mariana is Colombian/Spanish, and is currently working remotely from Spain. Before starting her work in the Caribbean, Mariana has worked in the prevention and response to GBV and Child Protection, in Headquarters in Sweden and New York. She has worked in the field, especially during humanitarian emergencies such as the Rohingya Refugee Influx to Bangladesh, the Syrian, Afghan and Iraqui refugee influx to Greece and the armed conflict in Colombia.