Head of the ILO Regional Office for Latin America and the Caribbean
ILO Regional Director for Latin America and the Caribbean
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Ana Virginia Moreira GomesILO Regional Director for Latin America and the Caribbean
Since 1 January 2024, Ana Virginia Moreira Gomes, from Brazil, has held the position of Assistant Director-General and Regional Director of the ILO Office for Latin America and the Caribbean, based in Lima, Peru.
Since taking office, Ana Virginia Moreira Gomes has led the regional rollout of the Labour Migration and Human Mobility Strategy 2023–2030, positioning the ILO as a central actor in migration governance in Latin America and the Caribbean. She has also driven the formalization strategy, with the launch of the FORLCAC 2.0 initiative, focused on promoting formal employment as a tool for social justice.
On gender and care, she has raised the visibility of unpaid care work and its impact on labour market gaps, actively promoting the ratification of international conventions and standards in this area — including Conventions No. 156 and No. 183 — and fostering transformative regulatory frameworks to advance shared responsibility and gender equality.
She has also strengthened the cooperative movement, highlighting its value as a sustainable alternative within the social and solidarity economy, and consolidated the "Latin America and the Caribbean Free of Child Labour" initiative, supporting regional monitoring and action platforms. In parallel, her leadership has underscored the importance of tripartite social dialogue as a key operational pillar for building consensus and inclusive responses to labour challenges, through the Regional Initiative for the Strengthening of Social Dialogue and Collective Labour Relations in Latin America and the Caribbean.
In addition to her role at the ILO, she is a full professor (currently on leave) at the University of Fortaleza, where she has taught in both the Postgraduate Programme in Constitutional Law and the Undergraduate Law Programme. Her academic background includes a Law degree from the Federal University of Ceará (1994), an LL.M from the University of Toronto Faculty of Law (2009), a PhD in Law from the University of São Paulo (2000), and a postdoctoral degree from the School of Industrial and Labor Relations at Cornell University (2007). At the University of Fortaleza, she also coordinated the Centre for Labour Law and Social Security Studies.
Throughout her career, she has developed solid academic work on topics such as international labour standards, social protection and social dialogue. She has presented her research at international forums such as the ILO Conference on Regulation for Decent Work, the International Labour and Employment Relations Association (ILERA), and the Labour Law Research Network (LLRN). Her work has been published in specialized academic journals such as the Comparative Labor Law & Policy Journal, Revue de Droit Comparé du Travail et de la Sécurité Sociale, Revista do Tribunal Superior do Trabalho, and the International Journal of Comparative Labour Law and Industrial Relations. She has also co-edited three books dedicated to key ILO standards: the 1998 Declaration, Convention No. 151, and a publication marking the ILO’s centenary (2019).
She has also played an active role in shaping public policy in Brazil, participating in the technical team of the National Labour Forum (2004) and serving on state and judicial advisory councils related to social and labour rights. She has been a visiting professor at institutions in Brazil and Canada, including Osgoode Hall Law School at York University, Toronto Metropolitan University, the Catholic University of Santos, and Mackenzie Presbyterian University.