Professional Affiliation

Research Professor, Escuela de Gobierno y Politica Pública

Expert Bio

Marco Antonio Fernández is a research professor in the School of Government at Tec de Monterrey and a researcher associate at Mexico Evalúa. He specializes in political economy, particularly on education policy, decentralization, clientelism, transparency, corruption and the challenges of good governance. He received his B.A. in Political Science at ITAM, Mexico. He has a M.A. and a Ph.D. in Political Science from Duke University. He was fellow at the Center for U.S. – Mexican Studies from 2010 to 2011. He has worked as a consultant for different international organizations, including the World Bank, the Inter-American Development Bank, the OECD and the Economic Social Council from United Nations. He has worked as an adviser in the Mexican Congress and Senate, as well as has served as senior adviser for the Office of the President and for the Education Minister in Mexico. He is currently working on different research projects, including (1) the politics of education reform in Mexico, (2) the challenges of fiscal transparency in emerging economies and its role to curb the abuse of public budgets, and (3) an analysis of the institutions in charge of fighting corruption in Mexico.

Wilson Center Project

“The Challenges of Curbing Corruption: Structural Reforms and Good Governance in Mexico”

Project Summary

Mexico faces the challenge of consolidating its legal and prosecutorial system in order to curb corruption, which has undermined its economic growth and development, and has eroded its democracy. Transparency and the strengthening of institutions such as the Attorney General’s Office, the Auditor General’s Office and other institutions in charge of combating corruption will be essential to consolidate accountability, good governance and the rule of law in Mexico. After the approval of key constitutional reforms to strengthen transparency and creating a national anticorruption system, Mexico has to develop a new legal and institutional framework in order to reduce corruption practices in key sectors such as the education and energy sectors. Taking into account both the current Mexican institutional framework as well as lessons learned and best practices from other countries, this project will develop a series of proposals to improve Mexico’s good governance and its efforts to tackle corruption.

Major Publications

 

"Los desafíos de la implementación de la reforma educativa y la perspectiva estatal” in Las reformas y los estados México D.F. Ed. IMCO 2014

 

 

"El censo educativo: radiografía del dispendio presupuestal”. Mexico City: México Evalúa 2014

 

 

"Managing the politics of education reform" in Great Teachers: How to Raise Student Learning in Latin America and Caribbean World Bank 2014