Moema Maria Marques de Miranda, convener from Latin America, is an anthropologist with an MA. from the Graduate Programme in Social Anthropology at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, where she studied rural labor and politics. Since 1992 she works at the Brazilian Institute of Social and Economic Research (IBASE) on different projects and initiatives. Initially, she was the Secretary-General of the Agrarian Reform National Campaign. Between 1998 and 2001, she worked on the issues of favelas (slums) and urbanization in Rio de Janeiro, being a member of the steering committee of the National Forum on Urban Reform. She was an active participant of the Citizenship Action against Hunger and for Life, one of the largest popular mobilizations in Brazilian history. Currently she is a coordinator of two programmes at IBASE: the World Social Forum (WSF) Process; and Democratic Alternatives to Globalization. Recently, she has also taken charge of IBASE's Human Rights initiative. As IBASE's representative in the WSF International Council, she has been a member of the organizing committee of the last five global WSF events. A ‘Carioca’, as natives of Rio de Janeiro City are called, Ms. Miranda has two daughters and one son.