Speakers

Professor Rehman Sobhan began his working career as the faculty of Economics, Dhaka University in 1957. Throughout his long and distinguished career as an economist, researcher, political scientist and public intellectual, Professor Sobhan has worked to uphold the welfare and interests of the average Bangladeshi, especially the poor.
He has played an active advocacy role and made many contributions outside the world of academe, including serving as Envoy Extraordinary with special responsibility for Economic Affairs (1971), Member of Bangladesh Planning Commission (1972-74), Member of the Advisory Council of the President of Bangladesh in charge of the Ministry of Planning and Economics Relations Division (1991), Founding Chairman of the Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD) since 1993, and as Chairman of the Board of the Grameen Bank (1996-2002). He has received a number of awards including, the Bangladesh Bank Purushkar (2000) for services to the economics profession in Bangladesh, and the Bangladesh Shadinata Purushkar (2008), the highest civil award in Bangladesh.

Dr. Martin Rama is the Chief Economist for the South Asia region of the World Bank, based in Delhi, India. His main priorities are to promote debate on difficult policy issues in the region, to lead the preparation of major reports on regional issues, and to oversee the overall quality of the Bank’s analytical work in the region. To deliver on these tasks, he and his team actively engage with counterparts in government, academia, civil society and the business community.
Until October 2012 Dr. Rama was the Director of the World Development Report (WDR) 2013, on Jobs. The WDR is the annual flagship report of the World Bank, and an important publication in the area of development economics. The Jobs report built on new research, in-depth case studies and extensive consultations. It led to the compilation of a massive new database of labor indicators across countries.
Over the previous eight years, until 2010, Dr. Rama was the Lead Economist for Vietnam, based in Hanoi. In this capacity, he oversaw the World Bank program in the country in areas related to economic policy and poverty reduction. He was also the focal person in the policy dialogue with government in relation to economic reforms, and led a series of annual policy lending operations co-financed by a dozen donors. Between 2007 and 2009, he also served as the acting Country Director for the World Bank in Vietnam.
Prior to moving to World Bank operations, Dr. Rama spent ten years with the research department of the World Bank, mainly in Washington DC, while providing support to a large number of developing countries. The main focus of his work was on labor issues. He co-managed a large research program on the impact of labor market policies and institutions on economic performance. He was also responsible for a research initiative on public sector downsizing. His research activities led to numerous publications in academic journals.
Dr. Rama gained his Ph.D. in macroeconomics in France in 1985. Back to his home country, Uruguay, he worked in CINVE, the country’s largest think tank, and became one of its directors. In parallel with his World Bank duties, he was visiting professor in development economics at the University of Paris until 2005.

Dr. Selim Jahan is the Director, Poverty Practice, United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in New York. Prior to his present position, he served during 2006-2007 as the Cluster Leader, Strategies and Policies for Poverty Reduction, Bureau for Development Policy (BDP) and between 2001and 2006, he was the Senior Adviser, Employment for Poverty Reduction in BDP. In his present capacity, Dr. Jahan is leading UNDP’s work on poverty and inequality, inclusive growth, inclusive globalization and the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), and oversees the work of the International Policy Centre on Inclusive Growth (IPC-IG) in Brasilia. His present research interest includes inclusive growth, inequality, food security, employment for poverty reduction and economic governance.

Dr. Pandey has been working on issues relating to International Trade and Economic Development for more than 20 years and is the Executive Chairman of South Asia Watch on Trade Economics and Environment (SAWTEE) which is a consortium of South Asian NGOs.
He holds Ph. D. degree in Economics and Master’s Degree in both Business Management and Economics. He was a Member of the National Planning Commission of Nepal, an apex policy making body of the Government of Nepal. He was one of the negotiators for Nepal’s accession negotiation for WTO membership. He is in the indicative panelist of WTO Dispute Settlement Body. Dr. Pandey worked with United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in Nepal on the issues of multilateral trade integration and trade related capacity building. He has also taught Economics for nearly a decade at the Tribhuvan University, the largest public university in Nepal. He has published research papers on international trade, macroeconomics and development in various national and international journals/books.

Dr. Dushni Weerakoon is the Executive Director and Head of Macroeconomic Policy Research at the Institute of Policy Studies (IPS), Sri Lanka. She holds a BSc in Economics with First Class Honours from the Queen’s University of Belfast, U.K., and an MA and PhD in Economics from the University of Manchester, U.K.
Dr. Weerakoon has over 23 years of experience at the IPS, and functioned as its Deputy Director from 2005 to 2017. Her research and publications cover areas related to macroeconomic policy, regional trade integration and international economics. She has extensive experience in the arena of public policy through her research and direct engagements in policy formulation. These have included serving as a member of the Macro and Trade Policy Steering Committee of the Ministry of Policy Development and Implementation (2002-04), an official delegate to the Committee of Experts to negotiate the South Asian Free Trade Agreement under the Ministry of Trade and Commerce (2004-05) and member of the Trade and Tariff Committee of the National Council for Economic Development (NCED) of the Ministry of Finance (2004-2010) amongst others. She has worked as a consultant to international organizations such as the ADB, World Bank, UN-ESCAP, UNDP and ILO.

Dr. Ahsan H. Mansur is Executive Director of the Policy Research Institute of Bangladesh (PRI). Dr. Mansur joined the International Monetary Fund under its Economist Program and thereafter completed his PhD in Economics from the University of Western Ontario. During his long career at the IMF, Dr. Mansur has worked on Middle Eastern, Asian, African and Central American countries.
He also served as the IMF Senior Resident Representative to Pakistan during 1998-2001 and as Fiscal Advisor to the Minister of Finance, Government of Bangladesh (1989-91). During his assignment in Bangladesh, Mr. Mansur was primarily involved with the successful introduction of Value Added Tax (VAT) in Bangladesh. Most recently, he served as the Division Chief of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) Division and was the IMF Mission Chief for Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Oman. Dr. Mansur has published extensively in various prestigious journals (including Econometrica, Journal of Economic Theory, and IMF Staff Papers), edited books on special economic topics and in the IMF Occasional Paper and Working Paper series.

Dr Debapriya Bhattacharya (born 1956) is the Distinguished Fellow of the Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD), Bangladesh. Prior to joining CPD he worked as a Senior Research Fellow at the Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies (BIDS). He was the first Executive Director of the CPD (1999-2007). He is a macro-economist and public policy analyst. He had been the Special Adviser on LDCs to the Secretary General, UNCTAD (2009-2010). He was the Ambassador and Permanent Representative of Bangladesh to the WTO, UN office, and other international organisations in Geneva (2007-2009).
He studied at St. Gregory's High School, Dhaka and Dhaka College, Dhaka. Did his M.Sc. (Economics) with distinction and Ph.D. (Economics) from the Plekhanov Institute of National Economy, Moscow. Dr. Bhattacharya was a Post-doctoral Fellow at the Queen Elizabeth House, University of Oxford.He was a Senior Fulbright Fellow at the Centre for Global Development (CGD), Washington D.C. in 2004-2005. He was also a Visiting Fellow at the United Nations University-Institute of New Technology (UNU-INTECH), Maastricht and Department of Economics, University of Strathclyde, Glasgow. He has conducted joint research with the Institute of Developing Economies (IDE), Tokyo and Institute of Development Planning and Management (IDPM), Manchester.

Since June 2013, Dr. Sultan Hafeez Rahman is serving as the Executive Director of BRAC Institute of Governance and Development (BIGD), BRAC University. Dr. Rahman is leading the restructuring of BIGD and he is actively involved in research and academic matters (especially on governance and public policy) of the institute. He is also the ex officio member of BIGD Advisory Council.
He started his professional career in Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies (BIDS) in 1975 and joined the Asian Development Bank in September, 1992. He retired from the ADB as Director General, South Asia in June 2012, which was the senior most position held by any Bangladeshi in an international organization. Dr. Rahman served in BIDS from 1975-92. He is a reputed economist and has published on a wide range of economic and policy issues. He was also the Editor of Bangladesh Development Studies (the highly valued journal of BIDS). His current research interests are in the areas of economic growth and inequality, macroeconomic policy, governance, decentralization, regional integration and sustainable development. Dr. Rahman obtained his Ph.D. and M.A degrees from Stanford University and Vanderbilt University. He was also educated at University of Dhaka, Chittagong University and Faujdarhat Cadet College

Dr. Bazlul Haque Khondker is Professor at the Department of Economics, University of Dhaka and the Chairman of the South Asian Network on Economic Modeling (SANEM). He holds a PhD from the University of Warwick, UK. His areas of expertise include construction of technical framework for the Five Year Plan of Bangladesh, assessing resource gaps, implications of various investment intervention (including MDGs) using consistent Macroeconomic Framework, construction of Social Accounting Matrices (SAM), analysis of poverty and income distribution and impacts of trade and tax policy reforms using static as well as dynamic Computable General Equilibrium models. Dr. Khondker was involved in designing and implementing a ‘Generalized Macro Economic’ framework on behalf of UN Regional Bureau for the Asia and Pacific (UN RBAP) to develop MDG financing strategy within the framework of MTBF and LTMF, which has been used in Mongolia and Nigeria to develop their MDG financing strategies. He has presented his analytical works in conferences held in Dhaka, The Hague, Quebec city, Kampala, Bangkok, Kathmandu, Colombo, Nairobi (Kenya), Abuja (Nigeria), Yaoundé (Cameroon) organized by organizations such as UNDP countries offices, UNDP regional Canters in Asian and Africa, the World Bank, the Asian Development Bank and the International Labour Organization.

Dr Rounaq Jahan, currently at Columbia University was a Professor of Political Science at Dhaka University (1970-1982). She received her Ph.D. from Harvard. She headed the women's programmes at UNAPDC, Malaysia (1982-84) and the ILO, Geneva (1985-89). She was the founding president of Women for Women: Research and Study Group. She served on the Boards of the Population Council (1982-92) and the Asia Society (1982-90) and is at present on the Advisory Councils of Human Rights Watch Asia, The Feminist Press, Asian Survey and Asian Political Thought and Society. Her publications include Bangladesh Politics: Problems and Issues (UPL 1980), Women and Development (BILIA, 1979) and The Elusive Agenda: Mainstreaming Women in Development, UPL/ZED Books.

Professor Mustafizur Rahman is an Economist by training and is currently the Distinguished Fellow of the Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD). Earlier, he taught at the University of Dhaka. Dr. Rahman was a visiting Post-Doctoral Fellow at Oxford University and Warwick University, UK and a Senior Fulbright Fellow at Yale University, USA.
His recent research focus has been on Bangladesh’s macroeconomic performance, trade policy and external sector performance, WTO negotiations and interests of the LDCs, regional cooperation and economic integration in South Asia. Professor Rahman has published widely in Bangladesh and abroad. He was a member of Dhaka University Senate and served as a member of various national bodies set up by the Government of Bangladesh including Regulatory Reforms Commission, Core Committee on Connectivity and Panel of Economists for the Sixth and Seventh Five Year Plans of Bangladesh.

Dr. Fahmida Khatun is currently the Executive Director at the Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD), Bangladesh. She did her Post-Doctoral research at the Earth Institute, Columbia University, USA . She has accomplished Masters and PhD in Economics from the University College London. Prior to joining CPD she worked as a Research Fellow at the BIDS; as an Environment Specialist for the UNDP; as an Economist for the USAID Mission in Bangladesh. She taught economics at universities in Bangladesh and England. She was a Visiting Fellow at the Christian Michelsen Institute, Norway, at the Korea Institute for Industrial Economics and Trade, South Korea and Center for Study of Science, Technology and Policy, India. Dr. Khatun is a member of the Advisory Team of the Connect to learn programme, a global education initiative run by the Earth Institute of Columbia University, New York. Dr. Khatun sits regularly in various policy making bodies of the government. She was a Director of the SME Foundation of Bangladesh during 2011-2013. Dr. Khatun has undertaken research for several international organizations. Her areas of interest include macroeconomic issues, international development finance, SDGs, climate change, and gender economics.

Dr. Mustafa K. Mujeri joined Institute for Inclusive Finance and Development (InM) as the Executive Director on January 01, 2016. Before joining InM he served as the Director General of Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies (BIDS) since April 2009. He also served the Chief Economist of Bangladesh Bank.
During his professional career, he also served as the Poverty Monitoring and Analysis Advisor of UNDP in Cambodia; Project Leader of the IDRC’s Program of Micro Impact of Macroeconomic and Adjustment Policies (MIMAP) in Bangladesh; Director Research of the Centre on Integrated Rural Development for Asia and the Pacific (CIRDAP); Visiting Faculty at the Department of Economics, University of Queensland, Brisbane; National Expert in the Bangladesh Planning Commission; and Associate Professor of Economics, Rajshahi University.

Dr. Rushidan Islam Rahman is the Executive Chairperson at the Centre for Development and Employment Research (CDER).
Dr. Rahman has been Research Director at the Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies. Before joining the BIDS, she taught economics at Jahangirnagar University. She is currently a Member of the Board of Directors, Bangladesh Bank. She has obtained her M.A. in Development Economics from the University of Sussex, England and Ph.D. from the Australian National University. She has published books, research monographs and articles on labour market issues, microfinance, agriculture and rural development, empowerment of women, skill development etc. She has served as a member of many national policy making bodies and advisory committees including “Panel of Economists” for Five Year Plans, National Wage and Productivity Commission etc.

Dr. Abid Qaiyum Suleri is the Executive Director of Sustainable Development Policy Institute (SDPI), Pakistan. He earned his PhD in food security from University of Greenwich UK. Earlier, he has served as Head of Program, Oxfam GB, Pakistan.
He is the member of different policy making forums/advisory boards, including National Economic Advisory Council; National Advisory Committee of Planning Commission of Pakistan; Climate Change Commission formed by Lahore High Court to ensure implementation of National Climate Change Policy; and Education Testing Council of Higher Education Commission of Pakistan, among others. He is an Adjunct Professor at the Institute of Business Management Sciences, University of Agriculture, Faisalabad. He has also served as the Member of Board of Management of Pakistan State Oil (PSO), and chaired PSO Board's Audit and Finance Committee during 2010-12.

Dr. Kazi Iqbal is a Research Fellow at Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies (BIDS). Dr. He received his Ph.D. in economics from University of Washington, Seattle, USA in 2006. After completion of his Ph.D. he worked for World Bank Institute in Washington DC as a consultant in Poverty Reduction and Economic Management Division. He also taught at University of Washington and Macalester College, Minnesota. His research interest lies in macroeconomics, development economics and applied econometrics. He has publications in internationally reputed journal such as Journal of Public Economic Theory, Climate Change Economics, Developing Economies, PlosOne, Demographic Research, BMC Public Health, etc. He is an associate editor of Journal of Bangladesh Studies and a member of the Editorial Advisory Board of Lahore Journal of Economics.

Faisal Ahmed is Chief Economist at Bangladesh Bank, where he joined as Senior Economic Adviser to the Governor in August 2015. Previously, he served as the IMF Resident Representative in Cambodia during 2011-15, a senior economist in the Asia and Pacific, Monetary and Capital Markets departments, and a core member of the emerging markets surveillance team at the IMF. He also led IMF missions on foreign exchange reserve management and debt market development.
Prior to joining the IMF in 2003, Ahmed was a visiting scholar at the U.S. Federal Reserve Bank, an economist at the Central Bank of Turkey, and an actuary for four years for a global reinsurance company. He also taught at the University of Minnesota, the South East Asia Central Banks Research and Training Centre, and the Royal School of Administration in Cambodia. Ahmed has a PhD and an MA in Economics from the University of Minnesota, an M. Fin. from Princeton University and is a CFA Charterholder.

Monzur Hossain is working as Senior Research Fellow at Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies (BIDS). He obtained his Ph.D. in International Economics from the National Graduate Institute for Policy studies (GRIPS), Tokyo, Japan and obtained Master's in Public Policy (Economics) from the same Institute.
Prior to joining BIDS as a Research Fellow directly in 2008, he was involved in teaching Economics at the American International University Bangladesh. He had international experience of working at the Asian Development Bank Institute (ADBI) and Graduate School of International Development, Nagoya University, Japan as Visiting Scholar (2009). With extensive focus on economic policies, his research interests mainly concentrate towards Macroeconomics, International Trade and Finance, Local government finance, Industrial development (ICT, RMG, SME etc.) and Banking and Financial Sector. He has published extensively in reputed academic journals including Journal of the Japanese and International Economies, Applied Economics Letters, Journal of Asian Economics, Journal of Developing Areas, Bangladesh Development Studies etc. He had good experience of presenting papers in many national and international conferences in the USA, UK, Japan, Singapore, India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, China, Hong Kong etc.

Dr. Kazi Ali Toufique is a Research Director at Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies (BIDS). He did his B.S.S. and M.S.S. in Economics in 1982 and 1983 from the University of Dhaka.
He obtained his M.A. from Fordham University, New York, in 1987. He then obtained M.Phil. in 1990, and Ph.D. in 1996 from the University of Cambridge, UK. He joined BIDS in 1989 as Research Associate. He has conducted several research projects with the Institute of Development Studies at the University of Sussex, the Overseas Development Institute, London, DFID etc. He has worked as consultant to several organizations including DFID, World Fish Center, FAO, UNDP. He has contributed to many seminars and conferences both at home and abroad and has also published in international journals such as World Development, Land Economics, Food Policy, South Asia, Economic and Political Weekly of India and the Indian Economic Journal. He has co-authored a book titled "Hands not Land: How Livelihoods are Changing in Rural Bangladesh" with Cate Turton.

Dr Ashikur Rahman is a Senior Economist at the Policy Research Institute [PRI] of Bangladesh and Visiting Research Fellow at the Bangladesh Institute of Governance Development [BIGD]. He is also a Lecturer at the Department of Economics at North South University.
Prior to this, he completed his PhD in Government (Political Economy) at the London School of Economics. Dr. Rahman has an MPA in Public and Economic Policy and BSc in Economics (Hons) from the LSE. He has been a consultant for a number of government bodies and other institutions, including the Planning Commission of Bangladesh, World Bank, UNDP, DFID and Japanese International Cooperation Agency [JICA]. His research interest is in the field of political economy, working extensively in areas such as development and governance with a key focus on the implications of political and economic shocks. At present, his work empirically examines the nature of concentration of political power and its role in shaping economic and political outcomes within the political arena of Bangladesh. Mr Rahman is also specialized in undertaking microeconomic program evaluation and institutional diagnosis.

Dr. Prabir De is a Professor at the Research and Information System for Developing Countries (RIS). He is also the Coordinator of ASEAN-India Centre (AIC) at RIS. Dr. De works in the field of international economics and has research interests in international trade and development. He was a visiting Fellow of the Asian Development Bank Institute (ADBI), Tokyo; and visiting Senior Fellow of United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UNESCAP), Bangkok. He has been conducting policy research for the Government of India and several international organizations. He has a Ph.D. in Economics from the Jadavpur University, Calcutta. He has contributed several research papers in international journals and written books on trade and development. He is the Editor of The South Asia Economic Journal, published by Sage.

Ambassador M. Shahidul Islam is the secretary general of the Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation (BIMSTEC). He obtained his Masters in International Relations from University of Dhaka in 1987 and Post-graduate Diploma in International Relations from International Institute of Public Administration (IIAP), Paris, France in 1991.
Ambassador Islam served as the Ambassador of Bangladesh to France and was the Permanent Representative to UNESCO in 2012. He also served as the Ambassador/High Commissioner of Bangladesh in Romania (2012-15), Algeria (2015-16), Ivory Coast (2015-17), Cameroon (2015-17), and South Korea (2008). He was the Director General of Americas, Pacific and Counter Terrorism Wing, Europe Wing, Ministry of Foreign Affairs at Dhaka in 2006. He was the Counsellor (2001) and also the Minister/Deputy Head of Mission at the Embassy of Bangladesh, Washington DC, USA (2004). In 1999, he served as the Director of Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Dhaka. In 1996, he served as the Counsellor under the Bangladesh Permanent Mission to the UN, Geneva, Switzerland. He was the Second Secretary and First Secretary of Bangladesh Deputy High Commission at Kolkata, India in 1992 and 1994 respectively. He also served as Assistant Secretary at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Dhaka in 1988.

Dr. Huque joined University of Dhaka in 2000 as a lecturer. She is currently a Professor at the Department of Economics, University of Dhaka. She specializes in health system and health economics with special focus on health care financing, resource allocation and budgeting, and economic evaluation.
She is also the Executive Director of ARK Foundation, a research NGO in Bangladesh. She is leading a number of research projects with University of Leeds, University of York and University of Liverpool, UK to support the Communicable Disease - Health Service Delivery (COMDIS-HSD) research program consortium and tobacco research in Bangladesh. She has wide experience in working with the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare of Bangladesh, local NGOs and international donor agencies since 2002. She was the member of Independent Review Team of Annual Programme Review (APR), 2013 on SWAp financing and financial management. She is also working as international consultant in preparing the Strategic Investment Plan (SIP) for the 4th SWAp of the country. A number of her papers/articles have been published in peer reviewed national and international journals including Nicotine and Tobacco Research, International Journal of Tuberculosis and Lung Disease, BMJ Open, and World Medical and Health Policy.

Ms Tahmina Begum is a health and development economist with over 20 years of professional experience in health and development economics. Currently she is working as an independent consultant. She has been providing technical assistance to the Health Economics Unit (HEU) of the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MOHFW) since its inception in 1995 as a consultant of international agencies including World Bank and GIZ. She has been involved in all five rounds of Bangladesh National Health Accounts (NHA) in different capacities. Presently she is a member the BNHA Cell of HEU. She was trained as a WHO regional trainer on System of Health Accounts (SHA) 2011 and facilitated a number of regional workshops on SHA 2011.
She is a member of the health equity network EQUITAP for the Asia Pacific region and GNHE a global health equity network. Ms Begum obtained M.Sc. in Economics of Education from the Institute of Education (IOE), University of London UK. Ms Begum has several publications including articles in peer reviewed journals to her credit.

Dr. Nazneen Ahmed is a Senior Research Fellow at Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies (BIDS), Dhaka. She has specialisation in conducting research in the areas of international trade and regional trade issues, value chain analysis, general equilibrium modeling, institutional, industrial, gender and labour issues. Dr. Nazneen holds a Ph.D. in Economics from the University of Wageningen, the Netherlands, a Master's in Development Economics from University of Sussex, UK and a Master's and Bachelor's in Economics from the University of Dhaka. She joined BIDS in 1998 as a Research Associate and became a Research Fellow in 2003. She has experience of working with a number of donors and international development organisations including the World Bank, DFID, UNCTAD, ILO, IFC, EU, AED, Action- Aid, IFPRI, etc. She has also worked as a consultant for the Ministry of Commerce, Government of Bangladesh.

Dr. Islam obtained Doctor of Philosophy in Political Science from University of Heidelberg and Masters of Philosophy in Public Administration from University of Bergen, Norway. He has extensive works on political economy of public and private sector initiatives and strategies for disaster risk reduction in Bangladesh. At present, he is serving as an Professor of Department of Development Studies, University of Dhaka. This unique blend of academic and research-based knowledge and experience has made Dr. Islam as one of the leaders in these sectors and the most effective one for leading such a dynamic team.

Dr. Selim Raihan is Professor at the Department of Economics, University of Dhaka and the Executive Director of the South Asian Network on Economic Modeling (SANEM). He holds a PhD from the University of Manchester, UK. Dr. Raihan possesses vast expertise in research on international trade and trade policy issues related to the WTO, regional trading agreements and domestic trade policies.
He has worked quite extensively on Applied Economics, especially assessing impacts of trade and economic policies, using country specific Computable General Equilibrium (CGE) models, GTAP models, Social Accounting Matrix (SAM) techniques, WITS/SMART partial equilibrium models, and dynamic stochastic general equilibrium (DSGE) model. He has experience in research on poverty and labour market dynamics using household survey data and micro- and macro-econometric modeling and estimation techniques. His research interests also include analysis of economic growth and political economy analysis of growth and development. He has a long experience in teaching international trade, economic modeling, quantitative economics, econometrics, development economics and poverty dynamics at Dhaka University. Dr. Raihan has worked for several national and international organizations including the Asian Development Bank, the World Bank, UNDP, UNESCAP, UNCTAD, IFPRI, the Commonwealth Secretariat, FAO, European Commission, ILO, IDRC, DFID etc.

Professor Dr. Mohammad Mainul Islam received his PhD in Demography from the Institute of Population Research at Peking University, China, in July 2009, specializing in Population Health. He got his Bachelor's and Master's degrees in Sociology from the University of Dhaka, Bangladesh, in 2000 and 2002 respectively. Mohammad completed a Global Health Research Capacity Strengthening Program (GHR-CAPS) Postdoctoral Fellowship at McGill University, Canada, between 2013 and 2014. He also got training at the Johns Hopkins Fall Institute at Barcelona, Stanford University and Brown University, and the University of Bergen in Health Policy and Management (2015), Formal Demography (2014), Population and Development (2012) and the Global Development Challenges (2008), respectively. Currently he is a Professor in the Department of Population Sciences at the University of Dhaka. Besides teaching, he has held the position of elected Member of the Syndicate -the highest decision-making body of the University of Dhaka - for two consecutive terms between 2010 and 2014. He was awarded the First Prize of Academic Excellence Award of Peking University in December 2008 and later he was named as the Nick Simons Scholar of the New Investigator in Global Health (NIGH) program of the Global Health Council (GHC), Washington, DC, USA in June 2010. He is a two-time winner of the 10 best abstracts of the New Voices in Global Health (NVGH) program, receiving these accolades in 2014 and 2016 at the World Health Summit (WHS) in Berlin, Germany. His work broadly focuses on reproductive health, child health, urban health and health communication. Mohammad has attended and presented his research at more than 56 international meetings and academic conferences around the world. He has contributed to over 35 peer-reviewed publications, including publications of research findings as first author in PLoS ONE, BMC Women’s Health and The Lancet. He has also authored and co-authored conference papers and other publications.
HMohammad has authored a book (2016) entitled on Communication and Change in Health Behavior in Bangladesh: Realities at the grassroots. Professor Islam is Demography and Population Studies Advisory Board Member of the Cambridge Scholars Publishing, UK. He is also a member of various professional associations including the International Union of Scientific Study of Population (IUSSP), the Asian Population Association (APA), the American Population Association (PAA), the Canadian Coalition of Global Health Research (CCGHR), the Center for Health Trends and Forecasts (CHTF) affiliate network of the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) at the University of Washington. Professor Dr. Mohammad Mainul Islam has been appointed as a member of the Population Expert Group/Committee (PEC) of the General Economic Division's Planning Commission within the Ministry of Planning of the Government of Bangladesh since November 2017.

Dr. Sayema Haque Bidisha is Associate Professor at the Department of Economics, University of Dhaka and Research Director of South Asian Network on Economic Modeling (SANEM). She received her Bachelor’s as well as Master’s from the Department of Economics, University of Dhaka.
She obtained a Masters from the University of Bath and earned her PhD in Economics from the University of Nottingham. Her research interest lies on development economics, labor economics and environmental economics. She worked for the Planning Commission of the Government of Bangladesh and was closely involved in drafting the Five Year Plans of Bangladesh. She has completed a number of research projects on food security, rural credit, poverty, women empowerment in particular. She published a number of articles in peer-reviewed journals and also contributed in several book chapters and research reports. Dr. Haque also worked with different international organizations like the World Bank, FAO, IDRC, ILO etc.

Dr Atonu Rabbani is an applied micro-economist with research interests in health, labor and organization economics. Currently, he is working in a number of research projects addressing intra-firm productivity and management issues in ready-made garment (RMG) sector in Bangladesh. He also works in public health field to understand how promotion using local women leaders and also monitoring and incentive can motivate better hand hygiene behaviors. Recently, he has also worked on evaluating an employer-based mandatory health security scheme to understand how incentives can alter households’ health seeking behavior. He has a number of papers published in international peer-reviewed journals like Journal of Regional Science, American Economic Review P&P, The Lancet, Annals of Internal Medicine, Journal of Biosocial Science, Health Services Research and Archives of Internal Medicine, among others. Atonu Rabbani is a Research Advisor at the BRAC Institute of Governance and Development (BIGD), BRAC University and also an Associate Professor in the Department of Economics at the University of Dhaka. He is also affiliated the James P. Grant School of Public Health at the BRAC University as an Associate Scientist. , Beside these he is an affiliate with the Urban Services Initiative of J-PAL and also a Research Affiliate with the International Growth Centre (IGC). Previously, he has worked as a full-time Research Fellow at the Institute of Microfinance (InM) and before that as a Post-Doctoral Fellow with the Department of Medicine and Center for Health and Social Science (CHeSS) at the University of Chicago. He earned his PhD in Economics from the Department of Economics at the University of Chicago in 2007 where he also got an MA in Economics in 2003. Before that he graduated from the Department of Economics at the University of Dhaka where he obtained MSS in 1998 and BSS (Honours) in 1997.

Anna Minj joined BRAC in 2009 and since then has served as a director in various programmes. She is currently the director of community empowerment programme, integrated development programme and gender justice and diversity.
She started her career with Caritas Bangladesh in 1987 where she served as the programme officer of child care and orphanage management programme. She later became the project coordinator of integrated women’s development programme in the same organisation, a position which she held for 12 years and successfully managed its three phases. She completed her masters in zoology and postgraduate level diploma in project planning and management from IDPM, Manchester University, UK.
Ms Minj is affiliated with a number of national and international level forums and networks in the field of development, gender and indigenous peoples’ rights. She serves as the executive board member of Stromme Foundation- Norway, Vice Chair of National Coalition of Indigenous People in Bangladesh, and as chair person of Bangladesh Community Radio Association.

Sultan Mohammed Zakaria is a political analyst at BIGD. He is currently serving as a Senior Research Associate under the Politics and Democratic Governance cluster at BIGD. He joined the Institute (former IGS) in 2007. At BIGD, he teaches two graduate modules: ‘Global Issues in Sustainable Development’ and ‘Politics, Political Economy, and Government of Bangladesh’ in the Master of Development Management and Practice (MDMP), and Master of Development Studies (MDS) programmes respectively. He holds an MA in Sustainable International Development from Brandeis University, USA.
Being a political analyst, Zakaria draws on insights from democratic and international relations theories and his intimate observations of local and global events to formulate hypotheses about the effects of process, mechanisms, and governance of political institutions, and behavior of actors on the democratic and political outcome, especially in the context of transitional democracies. His research interests also include the issues of democratic deficit across new, transitional, and established democracies; Middle East geopolitics; and regionalism in relation to South Asian economic and political cooperation.

Professor Mashfiqus Salehin is Director at the Institute of Water and Flood Management (IWFM). He has been working in both technical and interdisciplinary research areas, focusing on a variety of issues, including basin scale hydrologic modeling, hydrodynamics of exchange processes between river and groundwater, hydro geologic analysis of coastal aquifers, groundwater and seawater intrusion modeling, flood hazard, vulnerability and risk analysis, harmonization of multiple uses of water resources, assessment of ecosystem service-poverty alleviation linkages, biophysical vulnerability of coastal hazards and implications to water and food security, and trans boundary river water management. At BUET, Professor Dr. Salehin teaches postgraduate courses on Groundwater Resource Assessment, Hydrogeology and Groundwater, Environmental Analysis, Integrated Water Resources Management, and Interdisciplinary Field Research Methodology in Water Management.

Mr. Karim is the founder and CEO of Technohaven (www.technohaven.com), an independent software company and IT solutions provider since 1986. Mr. Karim represented the software industry as a full member of the Bangladesh Prime Minister’s ICT Task Force during 2002-2003 and 2008-2009. Earlier in 1997 he helped found the Bangladesh Association of Software & Information Services (www.basis.org.bd) and was its founding secretary general. He was also elected president of BASIS twice for the terms 2002-2003 and 2008-2009. Mr. Karim was the Convener of the Working Group of the national ICT Policy Review Committee in 2008 that authored the Bangladesh ICT Policy 2009. His paper on impact of ICTs on the Bangladesh trade and economy was published in the Commonwealth Ministers Reference Book 2006. He is a columnist for the Daily Star (www.thedailystar.net), the Financial Express (www.thefinancialexpress-bd.com) and the Asian Age. He co-authored a book titled “Going Digital – Realizing The Dreams Of A Digital Bangladesh For All” (www.goingdigitalbook.com) which was published by the University Press Ltd in 2011. Earlier he produced and anchored a weekly television talk-show on trade and economy named “Orthoniteer Chaka” on Boishakhi TV. He currently sits on the executive committee (Board) of Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce and Industry (MCCI), the oldest chamber in Bangladesh and is a member of the Governing Board of the Bangladesh Institute of Management (BIM). Mr. Karim has a BSEE degree from Yale University, New Haven, CT, USA and can be reached at karim@technohaven.com or hnkarim@gmail.com.

Mr. Asif Ibrahim was born in Dhaka, Bangladesh in the year 1965. He received his formal education from the University of Delhi (India) and the University of North Texas (USA). Mr. Ibrahim is the Vice Chairman of Newage Group of Industries, a business house involved mainly in manufacturing and exporting ready-made garments, textiles and plastic products. Mr. Asif Ibrahim is the former President (2011-2012) of Dhaka Chamber of Commerce and Industry (DCCI), the largest SME business chamber of Bangladesh. He is the Advisor and former founder Chairman of Business Initiative Leading Development (BUILD), a Public Private Dialogue platform to expedite the policy reforms to enable private sector led economic growth of Bangladesh. Mr. Ibrahim is the Executive Director of UNESCAP Business Advisory Council (EBAC) and is also the Chairman of the UNESCAP Sustainable Business Network (ESBN) Taskforce on Disaster and Climate Risk Reduction. He is a core group member of the Citizen’s Platform for SDGs Bangladesh (CPSB) and Advisor for DCCI Committee on SDG Goals and Strategy 2030 set up to assist monitoring and implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in Bangladesh. Mr. Ibrahim is a member of the Board of Advisers for BRAC Business School (BBS) under BRAC University and is a board member of Bangladesh Thailand Chamber of Commerce and Industry (BTCCI). Previously Mr. Ibrahim served as a board member of Federation of Bangladesh Chamber of Commerce and Industry (FBCCI) from 2012 to 2015 and was the Chairman of the Privatization Standing Committee of FBCCI. Mr. Ibrahim also served as a member of the Executive Committee of Bangladesh Employers’ Federation (BEF) from 2013 to 2016. He was the Director Administration of Bangladesh Philippines Chamber of Commerce and Industry (BPCCI) from 2014 to 2017. He has also previously been in the board of France Bangladesh Chamber of Commerce and Industry (CCIFB) and is also the former Chairman of the Research Cell (RDTI) of Bangladesh Garments Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA).

Dr. M. Masrur Reaz is a Senior Economist and Program Manager, Finance, Competitiveness, Innovation Global Practice, World Bank Group. Dr. Masrur, since 2012, heads WBG’s Investment Climate reform program in Bangladesh. He was the Task Team Leader for WBG’s Doing Business Reform Program in India which helped India to recently secure its largest ever improvement in the Doing Business ranking. He led the World Bank Group’s investment climate program in Nepal in 2013-2014, and led a strategy team in 2013 to develop Trade & Competitiveness strategy in Sri Lanka. He currently leads a WBG team that supports the Government of Thailand to improve its enabling environment for businesses. He also supported WBG investment climate work in Myanmar and Saudi Arabia.

Dr. Minhaj Mahmud is a Senior Research Fellow, Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies (BIDS) Minhaj Mahmud received his Ph.D. in Economics from the University of Gothenburg in 2005, Sweden and MA in Economics from the University of Manitoba in 1999.
Previously, he held academic and research positions at Queens University Belfast and Keele University in the United Kingdom and BIDS, BRAC University and Jahangirnagar University in Bangladesh. He was also a Visiting Research Professor at University of Tokyo, Japan and Visiting Faculty at Jawaharlal Nehru University, India and University of Dhaka. He has publications in reputed journals such as Economica, Economics Letters, Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization, Health Economics, Applied Economics, Plos One, Environmental Science and Technology. Currently, he is a Visiting Scholar to the JICA Research Institute, Tokyo and Visiting Fellow to the Department of Government at University of Essex, UK.

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Dr. David Jackman is a Research Associate at ESID, working on the capital cities and political settlements project. He completed his PhD in International Development from the University of Bath in 2017. David’s research examines the political economy of violence in South Asia, focusing on brokerage, party politics and crime in Bangladesh. His PhD thesis was based on a political ethnography of labourers in a bazaar in Dhaka.

Syeda Salina Aziz joined BIGD (former IGS) in 2009 as a Research Associate and is now working at the institute as a senior research associate. She is engaged in institutes flagship publication ‘The State of Governance in Bangladesh’ (SoG). Currently she is working under the ‘Economic Growth and Development’ cluster of the Institute. She has completed her first masters in economics from North South University, Dhaka and her second masters from University of Guelph, Canada. Her undergraduate degree is from Shahajalal University of Science and Technology.
Before joining BIGD, she worked as a part-time lecturer at the Department of Economics in United International University, Dhaka. She was involved in the study on ‘Development and testing of an effective insurance market to alleviate flood risk vulnerability and poverty in Bangladesh’ funded by Dutch Ministry under Poverty Reduction and Environmental Management (PREM) programme.

Serena Cocciolo joined the IIES as a graduate student in September 2016. She received her MSc and BSc in Economics and Social Sciences from Bocconi University. Her primary fields of interest are development economics, political economy and behavioral economics. In her research work, Serena studies political and social institutions, their persistence and how they interact with development policies, especially in the context of participatory governance.

K.M. Nafiz Ifteakher Tulon is an Assistant Professor of Economics at University of Dhaka.

S.M. Abdullah is an Assistant Professor of Economics at the University of Dhaka.

Mr. Maruf Ahmed joined BIDS as a Research Associate in November, 2015. He obtained his MSS and BSS in Economics from University of Dhaka. Prior to joining BIDS, he has served as a Lecturer in Eastern University Bangladesh. He kicked off his career as a Staff Researcher in BRAC Research and Evaluation Division (RED). His area of interest lies in the field of Macroeconomics, International Finance, Trade Policy and Health Economics.

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Asjadul Kibria is an economic journalist. After completing his graduation in economics from the University of Dhaka he started his carrier with the Prothom Alo, the largest circulated daily newspaper in Bangladesh. In his 19 years in journalism Kibria has worked on various issues of economy, finance, trade and development. He has covered several international events including two ministerial conferences of the WTO. He is an author and translator of several books (in Bengali).

K Suranjit is a Deputy Director working at the Banking Regulation and Policy Department, Bangladesh Bank. He obtained master degree in International and Development Economics from the Australian National University as an Australia Awards Scholarships 2015 recipient. Prior, he studied MBA (finance) and BBA (finance and banking) at University of Chittagong. His research interest includes Monetary Economics, Institutional Economics, Applied Econometrics and Game theory.

Siban Shahana is currently working in Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies (BIDS), as Research Associate. Her research relates to socio-economic benefits of public policy primarily in education, health, energy and agriculture sectors in Bangladesh. She earned Master’s in Policy Economics (2016) from Williams College, Massachusetts, USA. She is the awardee of Joint Japan/World Bank Graduate Scholarship Program of 2015. She also obtained M.S.S. (2010) and B.S.S. (2009) in Economics from University of Dhaka. Before joining BIDS in 2011, she worked as a lecture at East West University and as a Research Associate at Policy Research Institute (PRI).

Dr. Mehdi Chowdhury is a Senior Lecturer in Economics at the Department of Accounting, Finance and Economics, Business School, Bournemouth University, UK. He joined the School in September 2011 after obtaining his PhD from the School of Economics of the University of Nottingham. He received Masters Degrees in Economics from Ritsumeikan University, Kyoto, Japan and the University of Dhaka, Bangladesh. He worked as a Teaching Assistant in Economics at the Department of Economics of the University of Bristol from 2009-2011. His current area of research includes international migration, human capital and incentives. He primarily works within International Migration literature using tools developed by International Trade theory and Industrial Organization/Applied Game Theory. He is interested in supervising students doing PhD in ‘International Migration’, ‘International Trade’ and ‘Applied Game Theory’ with reference to the needs of developing countries.

Mohammad Mainul Hoque is currently working at Bangladesh Institute of Development studies (BIDS) as research fellow. He received PhD in Economics from Iowa State University, USA in 2015 and MSc. in Economics from the same university in 2009 under Fulbright Scholarship Program. He is trained in applied microeconomics with specialization in Labor Economics, Development Economics, and Environmental and Resource Economics. He spent one year at Center for Agricultural and Rural Development (CARD), Iowa, USA as a pre-doctoral associate in an interdisciplinary environment. He works on issues related to labor market dynamics and policies, inter-linkage between nutrition, health and education, non-market valuation, linkage between agriculture and environment, and rigorous impact evaluation. He has accumulated extensive research experience of almost a decade while working in various capacities with BIDS, World Bank, ADB, Iowa State University, CARD, Government of Bangladesh, UNICEF, and IFPRI.

Muntasir Murshed is an aspiring economist who believes that sky is the limit when it comes to brainstorming in quest of generating research motivations. He completed his Bachelors of Science in Economics degree from North South University and is currently pursuing his Masters of Science in Economics in NSU too. Upon completion of his Bachelors, Muntasir worked as a Research Associate at NSU before joining the Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD) as a Programme Associate (Research). His areas of research interest stem across Sustainable Development Goals, Dutch Disease, International Trade, Energy Economics and Tourism. Till date, Muntasir has published several of his research articles in reputed double peer-reviewed international journals as well as in the Journal of Business Studies (University of Dhaka). His latest publication was titled ‘An Empirical Investigation of Foreign Aid and Dutch Disease in Bangladesh,’ published in the Journal of Developing Areas (USA) in January 2018. He also coauthored an international book chapter “Economies of Cross-Border Electricity Trading in Bangladesh” in a book titled ‘Prospects and Challenges of Connectivity and Trading in Power and Energy: A Regional and International Perspective,’ published by Institute for Policy, Advocacy and Governance (IPAG). Muntasir, for his research endeavors, has received ‘8 Best Paper Awards’ at several International Conferences as of now. Muntasir represented Bangladesh and NSU at the 2nd Hallenic Association for Energy Economics (HAEE) conference in Athens, Greece and has presented a paper titled ‘How can Bangladesh prepare for the New Era of Renewable Energy Transition’ which was published as a working paper under the United States Agency for Energy Economics (USAEE). Besides, Muntasir is also a regular contributor to the local dailies in Bangladesh having published more than 60 OP-ED as of now.

Mr Shafiun Nahin Shimul is an Assistant Professor in the Institute of Health Economics (IHE), University of Dhaka

Dr. Akhilesh K. Sharma is a Development Economist. At present, he is Associate Fellow at Institute for Human Development, New Delhi. Previously, he has been affiliated with Institute of Economic Growth, New Delhi. Dr. Sharma has obtained his doctoral degree from Banaras Hindu University. He has achieved international award in the category of young scholars from Alfred Nobel Charity Fund in 2011. He has achieved Jawaharlal Nehru Memorial Doctoral Fellowship during his Ph.D.
Dr. Sharma has diversified research interests including Human Development, Poverty, Social Protection, Inclusive Growth, Institutional Economics and Macro-Economic Modeling. He has various national and international publications in these areas.

Ms. Sarah Sabin Khan is a research associate at the Centre for Policy Dialogue in Dhaka, Bangladesh. She is experienced in research in areas of international development e.g. issues related to the least developed countries and the sustainable development goals. She is particularly interested in policy research, development economics and impact evaluation. Sarah has previously worked with Katalyst, a project by Swiss-contact, and, Keystone Business Support Company Ltd, a research-consultancy firm. She did her Master of Arts in Economics from McGill University, Canada and her Bachelors of Business Administration with dual majors in Finance and Economics from North South University, Dhaka.

Hafiz Iqbal is a BCS Cadre Officer and work as an Assistant Professor of Economics at the Government Edward College, Pabna. He received his BSS in Economics from Rajshahi University, his MSS in Economics from the same University. In 2011, he was awarded Japanese Grant Aid for Human Resource Development Scholarship (JDS) fellowship and did his MS in Development Economics from the Graduate School for International development and Cooperation (IDEC). Hiroshima University, Japan. Recently, he did MSc in climate change and development from Independent University, Bangladesh. Currently, he is doing PhD research in Health economics at Bangladesh University of Professionals. He is a global environmental leader recognized by the Japanese Ministry of Education, culture, sports, science, and Technology.

Muhammad Moshiur Rahman is a researcher with more than 5 years of professional research experience. Currently, he works as a Research Associate in United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), Bangladesh. Prior to joining UNDP, he served as Senior Research Associate in South Asian Network on Economic Modeling (SANEM). He obtained his Bachelor’s and Master’s degree from the Department of Economics, University of Dhaka. He is a member of National Transfer Accounts (NTA) Bangladesh.
He involved in research projects for the Central Bank of Bangladesh, the Asian Development Bank (ADB), the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UNESCAP), the International Development Research Center (IDRC) of Canada, United Nations Population Fund Asia-Pacific Regional Office (UNFPA-APRO), the University of Cape Town, RTI International along with various national, government and international organizations.

Md. Wahid Ferdous Ibon currently working at Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies as Research Associate. His area of interest includes Monetary Economics, International Trade and Applied Microeconomics. Previously, he has worked with South Asian Network on Economic Modeling (SANEM) and Bureau of Economic Research, University of Dhaka. He earned his B.S.S (Honors) and M.S.S in Economics from the University of Dhaka respectively in 2014 and 2015 with distinction.

Mr. Al-Hasan is a research associate at Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD). Research interest includes empirical economics and econometrics. He has expertise in using statistical and mathematical software (STATA, Matlab and R) for sophisticated econometric modelling and analysing data. Al-Hasan completed BSS and MSS in Economics from East West University

Mr. Nobin Kundu is working as an Assistant Professor at the Department of Economics, Comilla University. His teaching specialization is in Macroeconomics, International Macroeconomics and Finance. He has over 7 years of teaching experience. Besides this he has research experiences on 4 projects, has presented papers in 6 conferences and published 14 journal articles.
Mr. Kundu is well acquainted with economic models including econometric modeling, time series and panel data analysis. His areas of interests include: open-macroeconomic & macroeconomic policy issues, international trade, and labor market issues. He is a life member of Bangladesh Economic Association (BEA) and Member at World Economics Association (WEA), Bristol, United Kingdom. Mr. Kundu has completed his graduation and post-graduation from the Department of Economics, Jahangirnagar University.

Avinno Faruk is a fourth-year student at the Department of Economics, University of Dhaka. Among other things, she has been awarded World Highest in two A Level Subjects by Edexcel High Achievers' Award, and has also served as the Vice President of ShARE Global Student Think-tank: DU Chapter. Her paper titled "What Matters for the Quality of Education in South Asia: An Empirical Examination with a QEI" has won the Best Paper Award, under the theme of Quality Education, at the 14th South Asian Economics Students' Meet (SAESM). With a view to explaining the South Asian void regarding quality of education, the paper proposes a Quality of Education Index (QEI) using panel data for 139 countries over a 25-year period, and then attempts to identify its determinants using OLS, Random-effects GLS and Fixed-effects techniques in a panel regression covering 16 years.

Tamanna Tabassum is a student in the Department of Economics at University of Dhaka

Wasik Sajid Khan is an Economics student who is currently pursuing his MSS degree from the Department of Economics, University of Dhaka. He completed his BSS from the same department. He served as the President of Economics Study Center, a students’ body of the department for the period 2016-2017. Besides studies, he likes to explore different fields of economic research. He has taken part in the 14th South Asian Economics Students’ Meet as the student leader of Bangladesh and jointly won the best paper award under the sub-theme ‘Decent Work and Economic Growth’. His areas of interest are Macro Economics, Health Economics, Labor Economics, Trade and Development Economics.

Semab Rahman is pursuing her undergraduate degree in Economics at the University of Dhaka. Her areas of interest include different fields of public policy, international trade and development economics. She attended the 13th South Asian Economics Students’ Meet at Nepal in January 2017. Semab is serving as the current General Secretary of the Economics Study Center, an organization that aims to harness and foster the potential of the students of the Economics discipline. Her dream is to see a world where the shackles that encumber the less fortunate people are broken and a life of dignity is ensured for all.

Farhana Kabir is a third year student of Department of Economics, University of Dhaka. Currently she is working as an Executive member of Economics Career Alliance. Some of her most recent achievements include Best position paper award in Dhaka University Diplomatic Conclave,2 nd Runner up in Speakonomics arranged by Economics Study Centre. She participated in the 14 th South Asian Economics Students Meet where her paper titled “ Rainwater Harvesting : The Best Solution to Mitigate Urban Water Supply Crisis in South Asia” won the Best paper award under subtheme 9 : sustainable cities and communities. The main purpose of this paper is to provide an in-depth look into the practicality of using rainwater harvesting as a supplementary water supply system alongside the existing municipal water supply and implies that rainwater harvesting method exclusively mitigates the water management problems that urban South Asia faces using the calculations for Dhaka city as a case study.

Md. Raied Arman has completed his B.S.S in Economics from the University of Dhaka in 2018 and is currently pursuing for a Master’s degree from the same institution. The intricate pattern of human behavior has always intrigued him and if circumstances allow it, he plans on delving deeper into the fields of Behavioral Economics. International Trade and Environmental Economics are also areas of his interest. He has participated in the 14 th South Asian Economics Students’ Meet and won the “Best Paper” award in his category. While away from Economics, he directs films, follows and participates in Cricket and plays on musical instruments.

Ishtihak Rayhan is a student of Economics at the University of Jahangirnagar.

Ms. Ayesha Ahmed is a student in the Department of Economics at University of Dhaka.