Leena Rikkilä Tamang is Director for the Asia and the Pacific region and oversees IDEA country programs in Myanmar, Nepal, Bhutan, and Fiji. Ms. Tamang joined International IDEA in 2002 and worked on the South Asia and Burma program from 2002-2006 and on elections and constitution-building support in Nepal from 2004-2013. In Nepal, she created and supported initiatives aiming at forging consensus on political reform.
Ms. Tamang is a former Secretary-General of Finland's Advisory Board for Relations with Developing Countries (Ministry for Foreign Affairs). She is a member and former chair of the Network Institute for Global Democracy (NIGD). Tamang has also worked in India, Sri Lanka, Nepal, and Vietnam, and on Burma/Myanmar and published about democracy at the global level, on women's political participation, and on inclusive democratic processes.