Alicia Bárcena is the Executive Secretary of the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) where she previously held the positions of Deputy Executive Secretary and Director of the Environment and Human Settlements Division. Prior to her time in ECLAC, Alicia Bárcena was Coordinator of the Latin American and Caribbean Sustainable Development Programme of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and coordinator of the Environmental Citizenship Project at the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP). Alicia Bárcena also founded and directed the Earth Council, a non-governmental organization based in Costa Rica, responsible for monitoring the agreements reached at the United Nations’ Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED) held in Rio de Janeiro (Brazil) in 1992.