Margarita Alonzo

Margarita Alonzo
(Guest Blogger)

Guatemalan politician, entrepreneurship professor and biotechnological patent examiner

Guatemala

Margarita Alonzo is a Guatemalan politician, entrepreneurship professor and biotechnological patent examiner. She is the Founder and National Board Member of Transparency, Order, Development, Opportunities and Security (TODOS) political party, established in 2012, and her experience also includes developing entrepreneurship programs focused on promoting economic independence of women, community leaders and youth. In 2014 Margarita was the 6th Andi Parhamovich Fellow at the National Democratic Institute in Washington DC, during which she developed a project to train female candidates and promote women’s political participation in Guatemala. Margarita holds a B.S. in Biochemistry and Microbiology and a Master’s Degree in International Relations.

Being Bold for Change in Guatemala

Guatemalan campaign 2015, TODOS political party candidates for Congress on the National List

In 2013, while I was working in partnership with NDI Guatemala, I became interested in encouraging more women to get involved in politics, so I applied for the Andi Parhamovich Fellowship. I proposed a project focused on increasing women's participation as decision-makers in Guatemala - a huge challenge for me considering my background was in the sciences and I was new to politics.

Through my APF project I worked on a training program to prepare female candidates, who defied gender stereotypes, for the legislative elections in 2015, but we never expected a year like that.

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