Mr. Francesco Tornieri is Principal Social Development Specialist (GAD) at the Asian Development Bank (ADB), South Asia Department (SARD). Francesco is ADB’s focal point for gender equality, social inclusion, and civil society engagement in the South Asia Department (SARD). He promotes the visibility of gender equality, social inclusion and women’s empowerment in the design, implementation and monitoring of ADB operations in South Asia. Since 2017, he is the SARD Focal Point for Evaluation, in recognition of the critical role of monitoring and evaluation to achieve inclusive and sustainable results. He has been acting as JFPR Focal Point for SARD.  Prior to ADB, Francesco worked as Social Development Specialist in the Africa Region of the World Bank, where he led the Gender and Law Program in Sub-Saharan West, Central and East Africa, involved in a broad range of social development and social protection initiatives. He has also worked as advisor to several West Sub-Saharan African countries on gender and law-related issues, incl. gender-responsive law reform, legal literacy and legal aid targeting women and disadvantaged groups.