Caio Sato

• MSc, Economics, Fluminense Federal University
• BA, Economics, Fluminense Federal University

Caio has been helping foundations and NGOs in Brazil to set up strategic and delivery planning, and to model achievement trajectories and financial budgets. His delivery impact has focused on improving educational outcomes for millions of students and implementing senior civil servant systems in governments to enhance public leadership selection, allocation and development.

As the High School Program Coordinator at Brazil's Ministry of Education, Caio led a team in partnering with all 27 states on a program to lengthen school days, especially for the most vulnerable students. As the leader of the initiative, Caio’s responsibilities involved managing the program’s budget, and he distributed more than R$1bi to the state’s different Departments of Education for implementation. Ultimately, his team doubled the amount of money schools receive for students’ meals, and 85% of the target number of schools lengthened their school days. When Caio left, the program had already gained approval from 90% of school managers and 87% of state teams. 

Caio started his career as a policy implementation consultant at Pará's State Department of Education, located in Brazil’s Amazon region. There, he and his team partnered with all 144 municipalities to implement Pará’s Large-Scale Educational Assessment (SisPAE) for almost 600,000 students, which represented an 11% increase in general participation. The assessment allowed states to assess individual student performance, which was significant because previously states could only assess performance at the state, regional, and school levels. Before that, Caio designed a theory of change for the Inter-American Development Bank at the Education Division, aiming to reduce educational inequalities in the country. He also led the research and data unit for an advocacy NGO, Todos Pela Educação.