María Fernanda Valdés is a Senior Economic Affairs Officer at the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs. She previously served as Technical Vice Minister of Finance and Vice Minister of Industry in Colombia, where she played a key role in shaping economic, fiscal, and industrial policy.

She also worked as Project Coordinator at the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung in Colombia (FESCOL), the political foundation of Germany’s Social Democratic Party, where she led initiatives on social justice and sustainable economic development—focusing on fiscal policy, tax justice, inequality, and environmental transformation.

Valdés has been  a lecturer at Universidad de los Andes, a former researcher at Freie Universität Berlin, and the author of Reducing Inequality in Latin America: The Role of Tax Policy (2016). she also coordinated the transition process for Colombia’s Ministry of Commerce, Industry, and Tourism between the administrations of Iván Duque and Gustavo Petro. 

She holds a degree in economics from Universidad Icesi in Cali, a Master’s in International Political Economy and Development from the Institute of Social Studies at Erasmus University Rotterdam, and a PhD in Economics from Freie Universität Berlin.