Vasu Mohan, Regional Director, Asia-Pacific

Vasu Mohan currently serves as the International Foundation for Electoral Systems’ (IFES) regional director for Asia-Pacific and technical lead on election, conflict and security.

For the past two decades, Mohan has worked on democracy, governance and human rights promotion with a focus on post-conflict elections and democratic inclusion. He has been with IFES since 2001 in the headquarters and the field and supervised programs and field offices in over 22 countries, partnering with a range of international, regional and national stakeholders.

Mohan also serves as IFES’ technical lead on election, conflict and security, providing thought leadership on innovative programs and tools to prevent and mitigate violence throughout the electoral cycle. He has designed, managed and implemented electoral assistance programs in Afghanistan, Myanmar, Nepal and Sri Lanka in post-conflict contexts.

Throughout his career, Mohan’s work has focused on political, social and legal empowerment of the disenfranchised and marginalized – women, ethnic and religious minorities, and persons with disabilities. Mohan was responsible for IFES' flagship Women’s Legal Rights Initiative and Garima Projects in India (2003- 2011) on gender equality and women’s empowerment, which expanded the dialogue on women’s rights and legal resources available to women.

Mohan has also served in various voluntary capacities including as a member of the Board of Directors at the Tahirih Justice Center, a nonprofit working to protect immigrant women and girls seeking justice in the United States from gender-based violence, and the Institute for Healing Racism. 

Mohan is co-author of “Gender Equality and Election Management Bodies: A Best Practices Guide,” Sehr: A New Dawn Breaks, a book highlighting IFES' Muslim Women's Initiative in India, and the IFES White Paper “Countering Hate Speech in Elections: Strategies for Electoral Management Bodies.” He is currently working on a translation of vignettes from the history of his native Sri Lanka from Tamil into English. Mohan is fluent in Tamil and Hindi and conversant in Sinhala and Urdu.

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