Andrés del Castillo

Chief Advisor and Manager of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Electoral Support Project in Mozambique since January 2019. Prior to this position, he served as Chief Advisor and Manager of the UNDP Electoral Support Project in the Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste, being the only foreigner who has participated in the formation of Timor-Leste's electoral system and in all electoral processes in the country since the 1999 popular consultation that led to the country's independence until the most recent elections in 2018, a total of 22 elections including: the referendum for independence, the elections of the constituent assembly, all local elections, parliamentary, presidential (first and second round). In 2010 the President and Government of Timor-Leste awarded him the medal of merit for his contribution to the development of the country.

He has been Chief Advisor and Manager of the UNDP Electoral Support Project in Nepal for 4 and a half years, during which time he participated in the organization of the Constituent Assembly elections. He participated as an advisor in the South Sudan independence referendum and in the audit of the 2014 Afghanistan presidential elections, most recently he was Acting Project Manager of the project to support the registration of persons in Honduras. He has 20 years of experience in UN projects, UN missions and especially UNDP, in areas such as electoral support, electoral legislation, voter registration, civic and voter education, electoral training and electoral operations, among others.

He holds a Master's degree in Asian and African Studies, specializing in Southeast Asia from El Colegio de México. He holds a degree in International Relations, graduated with honors from UNAM. He is a doctoral candidate in Latin American Studies at the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) and a doctoral candidate in Asian and African Studies at El Colegio de México. He speaks Spanish, English, Portuguese, Bahasa Indonesia, Tetum (Timor-Leste), Bahasa Malaysia and has a good level of Italian and knowledge of French and Nepali. His academic interest is the colonial presence of Spain and Portugal in Southeast Asia, a subject on which he has published several articles.