Wouter Biesterbos is a Principal Adviser with the Office of the Secretary-General in Stockholm, Sweden. Wouter joined International IDEA in August 2024 on a secondment from the Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

For the past 25 years Wouter has worked with the Netherlands’ Government, initially focusing on elections at the Ministry of the Interior before moving to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 2001. His positions at the MFA include postings at the Netherlands Embassy in Bucharest, Romania; the Secretariat of the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI) in Oslo, Norway; and the Netherlands Permanent Representative Office to the UN and WTO in Geneva. Before joining International IDEA in Stockholm, Wouter was the IDEA focal point at the Directorate for Stability and Humanitarian Aid at the MFA in The Hague, where his work focused on Inclusive Governance in Fragile and Conflict-Affected Settings.