The speaker will reflect on the role of Mexican civil society on a range of current challenges such as those of violence, human rights and education reform. Mónica studied at El Colegio de México, LSE and in the Latin American Centre, University of Oxford. In 2003, she founded a capacity building organisation, called Alternativas y Capacidades (www.alternativasycapacidades.org). Alternativas is focused on advocacy capacity building for civil society organisations, improving relations between organisations and government for better policy-making and strengthening Mexican philanthropy for social change.