Athayde Motta
Mr. Athayde Motta was born in the working-class suburbs of Rio de Janeiro, has two brothers and is a passionate advocate of civil society organizations (CSOs). He is an experienced development professional, having worked in Brazil and abroad in program development, program management and fundraising. His areas of expertise include participation, policymaking, communications, urban inequalities, racial inclusion, and the organizational development of NGOs. As an academic researcher and consultant, he has worked in the United States, Mexico, Switzerland, Turkey, East Timor, Kenya, and Brazil. Over the course of his professional career, he has interned with the Geneva-based United Nations Research Institute for Social Development (UNRISD) and has worked for the Brazilian Institute of Social and Economic Analyses (IBASE), in different capacities; the Ford Foundation; and Afirma Communications and Research. Until this past March, he was a Program Manager with Oxfam GB in Recife, Brazil.
Mr. Motta received his B.A. in Communications from the Fluminense Federal University, in Brazil, and holds Master’s degrees in Public Affairs and Anthropology, both from the University of Texas at Austin. He is currently writing his Ph.D. dissertation on Afro-Brazilian political activism in the Graduate Program in African Diaspora Studies at the University of Texas at Austin’s Department of Anthropology. Mr. Motta is fluent in Portuguese and English and speaks some Spanish.
Mr. Motta has been chosen to serve as the first Executive Director of the Baobá Fund for Racial Equity (Baobá - Fundo para Equidade Racial), where he will lead the new organization’s fundraising and grantmaking strategies to promote the sustainability of Afro-Brazilian CSOs. The Fund will also seek to develop a racial-equality programming for Brazilian CSOs at large and network with Brazilian and international organizations on a broader effort centered on promoting racial equality in the international agenda.
