Sylvia Dohnert

Dr. Sylvia Dohnert is a Private Sector Lead Specialist at the Competitiveness, Technology and Innovation Division of the Inter-American Development Bank. Her main role has been to lead Compete Caribbean, a multi-donor effort that since 2010 has contributed to increasing productivity and firms’ contribution to economic growth in the Caribbean region by supporting business climate reforms, cluster and value chain initiatives, and innovation and technology adoption by the private sector in traditional and emerging new sectors. Jointly financed by the Inter-American Development Bank, the United Kingdom’s Foreign and Commonwealth Development Office, the Caribbean Development Bank and the Government of Canada, Compete Caribbean has since 2010 supported more than 160 projects across its 13 beneficiary countries. Outside of Compete Caribbean and as an IDB specialist, Dr. Dohnert has also contributed to the design of public sector programs to stimulate private sector development in the LAC region. She has co-edited the book: “Are we there yet?:The Path towards Sustainable Private Sector Development in the Caribbean“ (2024), and the monograph: “Exploring firm-level productivity and innovation in developing countries: The perspective of Caribbean Small States” (2017). Dr. Dohnert holds a Ph.D. in Economic Development and Regional Planning from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).