Tandin Wangmo is a development expert with close to two decades of working in the government in Bhutan. Having started her career in 2004 in the erstwhile Ministry of Labour and Human Resources and was in charge of the capacity development programme for the private and corporate sectors in the country. She went on to join the Gross National Happiness Commission (GNHC) in early 2012, where she was involved in donor coordination works and development financing for national plans and programmes. She closely worked with the multilateral development partners, namely the UN Agencies, GEF, and GCF. Furthermore, in 2017 she was entrusted to lead the division in charge of local government planning in the country and oversaw the formulation, implementation, and monitoring of plans and programmes in the local governments. She has briefly worked in the Ministry of Finance, post-dissolution of the erstwhile GNHC in 2022 as part of the transformation and restructuring exercise in the Government.
She joined the Bhutan Centre for Media and Democracy (BCMD) as its Executive Director in September 2023. The Centre is a non-governmental organization that works towards empowering an accountable, active and responsible citizens in line with the country’s adoption of a constitutional democratic government in 2008. It works towards creating knowledge resources for its citizens and works to foster civic engagement through provision of civic space for public discourse and conversations on topics of national relevance.
She brings with her a wide range of experience, from policy formulation and analysis to development planning and programming, donor coordination and resource mobilization, and partnership building with multiple stakeholders. She has managed national and local development policies, plans, and programmes, synergizing governance ecosystems and promoting collaborations across sectors. She played a key role in ensuring the integration of local government needs and priorities into central plans through the active engagement of local leaders and officials during consultation on central plans and programmes. While in GNHC, she led the revision of the Local Development Planning Manual, 2021 in order to provide a guide to local governments (LGs) and communities in planning at the Dzongkhag, Gewog, and Thromde levels. The manual particularly introduces a concept of downward accountability whereby LG officials would be required to report back to the communities/ beneficiaries on the status of the decisions or actions taken on the Zomdu (community meetings) deliberations and submissions. She is a believer in the power of collective efforts and therefore is passionate about ensuring inclusive and participatory approaches in all walks of life (planning, policy discussions, actions/ solutions, and monitoring)- and works with a wide range of stakeholders even in her current work- from students, teachers, government officials to all citizens (vulnerable groups, women, children, people living with disabilities and mental health challenges, etc.)
Office Website: www.bcmd.bt