Belen Sanz Luque has over 20 years of experience in development, peacebuilding, and humanitarian action, with a focus on gender equality and human rights. She currently serves as UN Women Regional Director for Europe and Central Asia, based in Istanbul, Türkiye.
Previously, she was UN Women Country Representative in Mexico, leading one of the organization’s largest offices in the Americas and co-hosting the Generation Equality Forum. Before that, she served for five years as UN Women Country Representative in Colombia, playing a key role in the UN’s support to the historic peace process between the Government and the FARC-EP, and later as Acting UN Resident Coordinator during the implementation of the gender-inclusive peace accords.
Earlier, Ms. Sanz was Chief of Evaluation at UN Women Headquarters in New York and Chair of the UN Evaluation Group. Before joining the UN, she worked for Spain’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs as Head of Evaluation and Gender Advisor.
She holds Master’s degrees in Social Anthropology (University of London) and Evaluation of Public Policies (Complutense University of Madrid).