International Network for Economics and Conflict

Graciana del Castillo is an economic expert on countries in crises, including those affected by conflict, natural disasters or financial collapse. She is a co-founding partner of MAG (Macroeconomic Advisory Group), an advisor to financial companies and foreign affairs institutions, and a member of task forces for the promotion of peace.

With a Ph.D. in Economics from Columbia University (1986), she was Adjunct/Visiting Professor there in 1990-2007, Associate Director of the Center on Capitalism and Society (2008-09) and Senior Research Scholar (2008-10). She is currently working with Jeffrey Sachs at Columbia University and with M. Ishaq Nadiri at New York University on preparing and promoting an integrated rural development project in Afghanistan.

She designed the arms-for-land program for El Salvador, which has been credited for bringing the peace process back on track in September 1992 after the incipient process was close to collapse. She was also involved in the design of policies for jumpstarting the Kosovo economy, after production and the banking and payments system had collapsed following the war and NATO bombardment in 1999.

Oxford University Press published her book on Rebuilding War-Torn States: The Challenge of Post-Conflict Reconstruction in late 2008. Her articles have appeared in top economic and political journals and over 60 newspapers worldwide.