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Ilona Szabó de Carvalho (born May 31, 1978) is a Brazilian political scientist, civic entrepreneur.^[1] She is a co-founder and president of the Igarapé Institute, an independent think-and-do tank focused on human, digital and climate security.^[2]

In 2020, Szabó was the only Brazilian included on Prospect Magazine's list "The world's top 50 thinkers 2020^[3][4] Her position among the top 50 was later revealed to be fifth place.^[5]

She is also a coordinator of the Global Commission on Drug Policy.^[6]

in 2019, Szabó was include among the "19 Women of 2010" by Universa, a website from UOL.^[7]

In 2018, she received the Order of Merit for Public Security from the Brazilian Ministry of Public Security and the Office of the President of Brazil, and, in 2023, she was awarded the Bertha Lutz Diploma by the Brazilian Federal Senate.^[8]

Between 2011 and 2016 Szabó was the executive-secretary of the Global Commission on Drug Policy,^[9] a network of former presidents, entrepreneurs and public intellectuals. She previously coordinated the Latin American Commission on Drugs and Democracy. During her tenure she was responsible for helping shape global strategy with former presidents, supreme court justices, business and world leaders, including Fernando Henrique Cardoso, Cesar Gaviria, Richard Branson and the former UN Secretary General Kofi Annan. She contributed to the production of reference documents on drug policy, which were used in the experiences of cannabis regulation in Uruguay and the peace agreement in Colombia.^[10][9]

Szabó received the Responsible Leader at the BMW Foundation. In 2015, she was named a Young Global Leader at the World Economic Forum and has been participating in their annual meetings in Davos since then. She is the co-founder of the AGORA movement^[11][9] and has launched a number of expert networks.^[12]

Between 2008 and 2011, Szabó was the civil society liaison for the Geneva Declaration on Armed Violence and Development, working with diplomats and grass-roots organizations around the world.^[13]

In the mid-2000s while working for the NGO Viva Rio, Szabó coordinated one of the world's largest disarmament campaigns^[14] and helped shape a national referendum to ban the sale of handguns to Brazilian citizens.^{[15][16][17][18][19]}

Szabó holds a master's degree in International Studies at the Peace and Conflict Studies Department from the university of Uppsala in Sweden, a specialist degree in International Development, from the Oslo University and a bachelor's degree in International Relations. She was a Senior Public Policy Fellow at Columbia University School of International Affairs and Public Administration (SIPA) and is an affiliated scholar at Brazil Lab at Princeton University.

She has joined several executive courses, such as in Global Leadership and Public Policy for the 21st Century at the Kennedy School at Harvard,^[20] Transformational Leadership at the Said Business School at Oxford University and a Management Course on Disarmament, Demobilization & Reintegration (DDR) at the Swedish National Defense College^{[permanent dead link‍]}, Stockholm. In 1995 she spent a year at a Cultural Exchange Program in Latvia with the American Field Service (AFS).^[19]

Before working in the nonprofit sector, Szabó worked for almost five years in investment banks in Rio de Janeiro in the late 1990s.

Szabó is a columnist at Folha de S. Paulo. Between 2016 and 2018, she was a guest commentator on the Estúdio i program, broadcast on GloboNews, and has participated in other renowned interview programs on Brazilian television. Szabó is a frequent source for the media on the topics she works on, and her profile has been featured in publications such as O Globo newspaper, TPM magazine, Marie Claire magazine, El País, and Gol magazine.^[21][22]

She spoke at TED in 2014,^[23] and at Davos^[24] and other World Economic Forum events in 2016, 2017 and 2019.^[25][26][27]

She is the author of two books: Drogas: As Histórias que Não te Contaram ("Drugs: The untold stories"), Segurança Pública para Virar o Jogo ("Public security to change the game"), published by Zahar in 2017 and 2018, and A Defesa do Espaço Cívico ("The defense of civic space"), published by Objetiva in 2020. She was also the co-script writer and researcher for the award-winning documentary Breaking the Taboo. From 2020 to 2022, Szabó was also the host of the podcast and TV series Você Pode Mudar o Mundo ("You can change the world").^[28][29][19]

In 2022 she was invited by the United Nations Secretary-General to join his The High-Level Advisory Board on Effective Multilateralism. She is a member of the board of the Fernando Henrique Cardoso Foundation, the Brazilian Center for International Relations (CEBRI), and the Institute for Mobility and Social Development. She also serves on the advisory board of the World Economic Forum's Global Leaders Network, the editorial board of Americas Quarterly magazine, and is the co-chair of the Global Future Council on the Future of Nature and Security.^[30]

Szabó served on the board of the Drug Policy Alliance, on the advisory board of the Young Global Leaders of the World Economic Forum and presided the Public Security Council of the Rio de Janeiro State Industry Federation (FIRJAN).^[31] She was a mentor of the Columbia Women's leadership network in Brazil,^[32] served as an international jurist for the Bloomberg Mayors Challenge^[33] in Latin America and for the MacArthur's Foundation $100 million initiative – 100&Change. She has been a consultant for various international organizations such as the OECD, UNDP, EU, and several international NGOs, conducting evaluations throughout Latin America. Szabó has also provided support to grassroots organizations in their organizational development.^[19]

• Bertha Lutz Diploma, Brazilian Federal Senate, 2023
• Finalist for the "Claudia Magazine Award", category public policy, 2019^[34]
• Order of merit of Public Security, Brazilian Ministry of Public Security and the Office of the President of Brazil, 2018
• Civic Entrepreneur, Political Action Network for Sustainability, 2016
• Medalha Mulher Cidadã Heloneida Studart, Nova Friburgo City Council, 2016^[35]
• Young Global Leader, World Economic Forum, 2015^[36]
• Responsible Leader, BMW Foundation, 2015^[37]

• 100 best NGOs in Brazil, Doar Institute (2019, 2021, 2022)
• Nominated for the "Faz Diferença" award by O Globo newspaper (2020)^[38]
• Best Social Policy Think Tank, Prospect, 2019^[39]
• 100 best NGOs in Brazil, Doar Institute, 2019^[40]
• Best Human Rights NGO in Brazil, Doar Institute, 2018^[41]
• 100 best NGOs in Brazil, Doar Institute, 2018^[42]
• Schmidt Family Foundation Award, 2014
• Social Impact Challenge, Google Brazil, 2014^[43]

In early 2019, Ilona was nominated by Brazilian Minister of Justice and Public Security Sergio Moro to a voluntary advisory position at the Brazilian National Council for Criminal and Penitentiary Policy, a consulting board which conducts assessments of the penitentiary system, proposes criminal policy guidelines and do inspections of penal establishments, among other duties. Due to massive attacks by extremists supporters of the Brazilian far-right government on social media, Ilona was removed from the council by the minister on the order of President Jair Bolsonaro.^[44][45]

Szabó is of Hungarian descent. She has a daughter, and is married to Canadian economist and academic Robert Muggah, who is also co-founder of the Igarapé Institute.^[10]

• Green, Clean and Safe: Analytical Dimensions and Metrics for 21st Century Brazilian Agriculture — Working Paper, Igarapé Institute (2021, editor)
• Technology Solutions for Supply Chain Traceability in the Brazilian Amazon: Opportunities for the Financial Sector — Policy Paper, Igarape Institute (2020; with Fergunson, B. and Sekula, J)
• Environmental Crime in the Amazon Basin: A Typology for Research, Policy and Action — Policy Paper, Igarape Institute (2020; with Abdenour, A., Fergunson,B. Muggah, R., Risso, M.)
• What is Behind Brazil's Homicide Decline? — Technical Note, Igarape Institute (2019; with Robert Muggah)
• Segurança Pública é Solução — Policy Paper, Igarape Institute (2018, editor)
• Rio Seguro — Policy Paper, Igarape Institute (editor, 2018)
• Making Cities Safer: Citizen Security Innovations from Latin America — Strategic Paper, Igarape Institute (2016; with Robert Muggah, Nathalie Alvarado, Lina Marmolejo and Ruddy Wangwith)
• Measurement Matters: Designing New Metrics for a Drug Policy That Works — Strategic Paper, Igarape Institute (2015; with Robert Muggah and Katherine Aguirre)
• Política de Drogas no Brasil: A Mudança Já Começou — Strategic Paper, Igarape Institute (2014; with Ana Paula Pellegrino)
• Taking Control: Pathways for Drug Policies that Work — Report, Global Commission on Drug Policy (2014)