Chair/Discussant

Dr Helal Ahammad has specialised in program leadership and collaborative project management in both academic and government settings, as well as providing technical and policy advice to a range of stakeholders. He was a Lead Author of the Fifth Assessment Report of Working Group III of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC): Climate Change 2014: Mitigation of Climate Change. Dr Ahammad was also a Lead Author of the International Assessment of Agricultural Knowledge, Science and Technology for Development (AgAssessment) Global Report Agriculture at a Crossroads. During 2015-7, as an International Consultant, he successfully led and delivered an economic study on the Bangladesh ship recycling industry, jointly commissioned by the UN International Maritime Organization and the Government of the People’s Republic of Bangladesh, with financial support from the Norwegian Agency for Development Corporation. Dr Ahammad worked for the Australian (federal) Government for about 15 years in various senior executive positions; provided strategic leadership for a number of research programs of the Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics and Sciences (ABARE/S); and also contributed to the development of the Australian Government’s climate change response policies. Between 1987 and 2001, Dr Ahammad held teaching and/or research positions at the University of Rajshahi, the Australian National University, and the University of Western Australia. He is an Associate with the Australian National University’s Centre for Climate Economics and Policy. Dr Ahammad has published in reputable refereed journals including Agricultural Economics, Australasian Journal of Regional Studies, Economic Modelling, Energy Economics, Global Change Biology, Proceedings of the National Academy of Science, Resources Policy and Review of Urban and Regional Development Studies. He has published a book on the Bangladesh economy: Foreign Exchange and Trade Policy Issues in a Developing Economy: The Case of Bangladesh.

Dr Nazneen Ahmed is the Country Economist at UNDP. Before joining UNDP, she worked at the Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies (BIDS), as a Senior Research Fellow. She possesses a distinguished academic career with undergraduate and post-graduate degrees in Economics from the University of Dhaka, a post-graduate degree in Development Economics and International Development from the University of Sussex and a Doctorate in Economics from the Wageningen University. She has nearly 24 years of research experience in development economics, focusing on macroeconomic management, inclusive growth, international trade, industry, private sector, SME development, labour rights and gender issues. Dr Nazneen has been involved in resource planning and budget formulation for Bangladesh for about a decade. She was a member of the panel of economists to adopt the 7th Five-Year Plan of Bangladesh and one of the authors of the upcoming National Human Development Report of Bangladesh. She has also previously served as a Director of the Palli Sanchay Bank, a public sector bank in Bangladesh, and as a member of the General Body of the Palli Karma Shohayak Foundation (PKSF).

Mr Md. Tuhin Ahmed is a Senior Research Associate (SRA) at the South Asian Network on Economic Modeling (SANEM). Before promoting to SRA, he worked as a Research Associate at the same organization. He completed his MSS (Master of Social Science) and BSS (Bachelor of Social Science) in Economics from the University of Dhaka, Bangladesh. He has been awarded Shah A.M.S Kibria Gold Medal and Dr Jalal Alamgir Memorial Gold Medal for achieving the highest CGPA in MSS. His area of research interest includes labour economics, poverty & inequality, energy and power sector and firm-level economics. He is currently working on several research projects as a key team member of the SANEM research team. As of now, he was engaged in 14 more research projects. He worked for the Government of Bangladesh on a project titled “Drafting the Technical Framework of 8th Five Year Plan (FY 2021-2025) of Bangladesh”. He worked with several development partners such as the World Bank Group, Microfinance Opportunities (USA), Nathan Associates Inc. (USA), The Asia Foundation, British Council, Advocata Institute (Sri Lanka), ESCAP etc. For the World Bank Group project titled “Analyze the Impact of Special Economic Zones on Jobs and Economic Transformation in Bangladesh”, he was involved in reviewing of literature, developing an integrated SAM model, simulation design, Drafting a report, and analysing survey data. He was intensively involved in sample design, preparing the questionnaire, training enumerators, conducting and executing surveys, survey data analysis, and Drafting a report in two more projects entitled “COVID-19 and Business Confidence in Bangladesh: Results from Firm-level Survey” and “Climate-Induced Migration (CIM), is an issue-based project”. He was involved in data analysis and report writing in a research work conducted by SANEM titled “COVID-19 Impact on Poverty Dynamics in Bangladesh: An Analytical Investigation”. He was also a member of the SANEM team in a recent household survey (around 5500 households) conducted by SANEM. In this project, he was intensively engaged in questionnaire design, field supervision, data cleaning, as well as data analysis.

Mr Sakil Ahmmed is an economist by training, working as a Lecturer at the Department of Economics, University of Dhaka. He has three years of research experience in development. Before joining Dhaka University, he worked as a lecturer at the Department of Economics, Bangladesh University of Professionals, Dhaka. He also worked as a research associate at the South Asian Network on Economic Modeling. As a researcher, Mr Ahmmed is interested in exploring the microeconomic behaviour of different economic agents.

Dr Shamsul Alam is a Bangladeshi economist, and has been the State Minister of Planning of Bangladesh since 19 July 2021. He retired as a member and the Senior Secretary of the Bangladesh Planning Commission. He is also one of the syndicate members of Sylhet Agricultural University. In recognition of his contribution in economics, the government of Bangladesh awarded him the country's second highest civilian award Ekushey Padak in 2020. He is also a member of Awami league Advisory council.

Dr Amin Masud Ali is an Associate Professor in the Department of Economics at Jahangirnagar University (JU). He completed his BSc and MSc degree in Economics from Jahangirnagar University. Later, he obtained an MA degree in Economics from Andrew Young School of Policy Studies (AYSPS) of Georgia State University, USA, under the Fulbright Scholarship Programme. Dr Amin has completed his PhD in Development Policy and Management from the Global Development Institute (GDI) of The University of Manchester, UK. His PhD thesis investigates the impact of local government decentralisation and political clientelism on poverty reduction and public expenditure allocation at the subnational level of Bangladesh. His research interest is in development economics, political economy, and public policy. His teaching experience includes Macroeconomics, Microeconomics, Econometrics, Trade Theory, and Bangladesh Economy.

Dr Zulfiqar Ali obtained his Ph.D. in Applied Economics from the University of Bath, UK in 1998. He also completed the Advanced Training Program (which is M.Phil equivalent) in Economics and Quantitative Techniques from BIDS in 1991. Earlier, he obtained B.Sc. (Hons.) and M.Sc. in Economics from Jahangirnagar University in 1989 and 1990 respectively. Later, he completed a course on "Economic Theory and Poverty Reduction: Theory, Empirical Evidence and Implication for South Asia" organised by the World Bank Institute in 1998, and another course on "Human Development: From Theory to Practice" from the Queen Elizabeth House of the University of Oxford in 2000. He joined BIDS in 1992 as Research Associate and was promoted to the position of Senior Research Fellow in 2010. He has published in both nationally and internationally accredited journals. He has also contributed to several edited volumes. His areas of interest include growth, inequality and poverty; human and social development; human wellbeing; applied economics; food security; natural resources and environmental economics; and climate change.

Mr Abul Kalam Azad is currently working as an Assistant Professor of Economics at the University of Dhaka. His research fields encompasses Applied Macroeconomics, Applied Microeconomics, Poverty and Rural Development, Econometrics, Climate Economics etc.

Dr Shubhasish Barua is an Associate Professor at the Department of Development Studies, University of Dhaka, Bangladesh. He also served as a Research Economist at the Bangladesh Bank and as a Senior Project Economist at the Institute of Microfinance (now known as Institute for Inclusive Finance and Development, InM). He obtained PhD in Economics degree from the University of Warwick, UK in 2016 and MSC in Economics and Econometrics degree (with Distinction) from the University of Essex, UK in 2008. Earlier he had obtained BSS and MSS degree in Economics from the University of Chittagong, Bangladesh. His research interests centre on understanding the strategic responses of economic agents (e.g., firms, households or individuals) to changes in economic environments. His PhD thesis, “Essays on Trade, Multi-product Plants, Manufacturing Performance and Labor Market,” explores the impact of intensified import competition from China on the evolution of the manufacturing sector in India. His current research spans broadly in the areas of development economics and international trade from understanding how firms (or factories) in developing countries adjust to rising international competition to how households respond to natural disasters and health shocks in rural areas. He is particularly interested in impact evaluation of development interventions using micro level survey data and randomized experiments. He was also involved in designing appropriate financial protection schemes, in particular microinsurance for low-income households and developing institutional mechanisms and regulatory framework for efficient distribution of financial services.

Dr Debapriya Bhattacharya, a macroeconomist and public policy analyst, is a Distinguished Fellow at the Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD), Dhaka, where he was its first Executive Director. Earlier he was a Senior Research Fellow at the Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies (BIDS). He had been a former Ambassador and Permanent Representative of Bangladesh to WTO and UN Offices in Geneva and Vienna, President of UNCTAD Governing Board, Special Advisor on LDCs to the Secretary-General of UNCTAD, Coordinator of LDC Group of countries in the UN System in Geneva. Currently, he is a member of the United Nations’ Committee for Development Policy (CDP). He did his Masters and PhD in Economics from the Plekhanov Institute of National Economy, Moscow. Later did his post-doctoral research at Queen Elizabeth House, University of Oxford. He was a Senior Fulbright Fellow at the Center for Global Development (CGD), Washington DC. He held a number of short-term visiting positions including at the UN University Institute of New Technology (UNU-INTECH), Institute of Developing Economics (IDE), Tokyo and University of Strathclyde, Glasgow. Also, he has undertaken joint research, among others, with Harvard Business School, University of Manchester, Overseas Development Institute (ODI), London and a large number of research organizations from South Asia. He undertook consultancy assignments on behalf of international and bilateral development agencies in various developing countries from Asia, Africa and Central America. He is member of various high-level national consultation committees and commissions. He had been, among others, member of Monitoring Advisory Group of the Global Partnership of Effective Development Cooperation (GPEDC), managed by UNDP and OECD. He is member of governing bodies of several leading institutions (including BRAC International) and editorial advisory boards of reputed journals (including Oxford Development Studies, South Asia Economic Journal). He is the founding Chair of the Southern Voice international network of think tanks – a network of more than 50 think tanks from Asia, Africa and Latin America. Under the auspices of Southern Voice, led the pioneering multi-country studies on shaping the 2030 Agenda, data deficits of SDG monitoring, and early signals of SDG implementation. Conceptualised the project and led the research team for the first Southern Voice Report on the State of SDGs (2019) Team leader of the study titled Quest for Inclusive Transformation of Bangladesh. Who Not to be Left Behind (2017). Also chairs the LDC IV Monitor – an alliance of development organisations including OECD Development Centre and the Commonwealth Secretariat. Leading a number of global studies focussed on impact of COVID-19 on LDCs and incentives for graduating (LDCs). Contributed to a number of studies in this area conducted by the WTO, UN-ESCAP and the Commonwealth secretariat. A civil society activist, founding Convenor of the Citizen’s Platform for SDGs, Bangladesh – network of about 150 development organisations and private sector bodies. A media personality in Bangladesh and a commentator on international media. Recent edited volumes include Bangladesh’s Graduation from the Least Developed Countries Group: Pitfalls and Promises, Routledge (2018) and Southern Perspectives on the Post-2015 International Development Agenda, Routledge, London (2017). Other recent publications include Rethinking Development Effectiveness: Perspectives from Global South. Occasional Paper No 59, Southern Voice (2020).

Dr Sayema Haque Bidisha is a professor in the Department of Economics, University of Dhaka. She did her bachelors as well as masters from the Department of Economics, University of Dhaka and MSc. from the University of Bath, UK. She obtained a PhD in Labour Economics from the University of Nottingham, UK. Her research interest lies in labour economics, development economics, population economics and micro econometrics. Her work involves both empirical analysis as well as policy focused research with emphasis on developing countries. In the context of Bangladesh, she worked on a number of research projects on labour market, gender and women empowerment, gender budgeting, migration and remittance earning, credit and food security, population and development, economic growth and exchange rate movements, skill and education, demographic dividend and youth population etc. In addition, Dr Bidisha has also worked closely with the Government of Bangladesh in preparing various policy documents and government flagship objects.In particular, she was actively engaged in drafting a number of chapters of the 6 th Five Year Plan of Bangladesh (e.g. Education and Training, Agriculture, Health and Nutrition) and also Perspective Plans of the country. She has worked with several international as well as national organisations e.g. the World Bank, IDRC, ILO, FAO, UNICEF, DFID etc. and has published a number of articles/book chapters in peer reviewed publications both at home and abroad.

Dr Narayan C. Das is a development economist and Senior Research Fellow at BIGD, BRAC University. He is leading BRAC Bangladesh research under the Economic Growth Cluster of BIGD. He is also leading BRAC Asia Research. Dr Das started his career at the Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD), Bangladesh in 2004. His last appointment was as Senior Research Fellow at BRAC’s Research and Evaluation Division which has been integrated with BIGD in January 2019. He has a PhD in Agricultural and Resource Economics from the University of California at Berkeley. Dr Das has published extensively including in top economics journals on poverty and labour market issues. His researches focus on poverty analysis, quantitative analysis of development policies, and impact assessment of social programs and labour markets.

Dr M. Abu Eusuf is an economist by training and has an excellent track record of leading and managing multiple projects. He was awarded Ph.D. in Development Policy and Management from the University of Manchester as a Commonwealth Scholar. He also completed his MA in Development Studies at the Institute of Social Studies (ISS), Netherlands, under the UN fellowship program. Dr Eusuf is has conducted research for UNDP; World Bank; EU, ODI, Center on the Budget and Policy Priorities, USA; University of Manchester, The Asia Foundation, Bangladesh Planning Commission, Consumer Unity and Trust Society (CUTS) International, India; ActionAid Bangladesh, Care Bangladesh, Oxfam, World Vision, Institute for Inclusive Finance and Development (InM) and so on.

Dr A S M Shakil Haider joined the Department of Economics & Social Sciences (ESS) as an Assistant Professor of Economics in September 2021. Dr Haider completed his PhD in Applied Economics from Texas Tech University, USA. He earned his MA in Economics from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee (UWM), USA and completed his Bachelor of Business Administration (BBA) degree from North South University, Bangladesh with Magna Cum Laude Distinction (majors: Finance, Economics). Prior to joining BRAC University, Dr Haider worked as a Graduate Instructor at Texas Tech University, as a Lecturer in the Department of Economics & Social Sciences (ESS) at BRAC University as well as a Lecturer in the School of Business & Department of Economics at North South University. He has also worked as a Researcher of Economics at University of Southampton, UK. Dr Haider had the honour to work with Nobel Laureate Professor Muhammad Yunus on his concept of Microfinance and Social Business. Dr Haider was in HEC-Paris (France) as a Visiting Scholar for the Social Business Certification Program from April 2013 until June 2013.

Dr Enamul Haque is currently a Professor of Economics in East West University. He is also the Director of Asian Center for Development and Economic Research Group. He is a distinguished expert on Natural Resources Economics, Climate Change, Environmental Economics, Food and Agricultural Policy and Trade, and capacity building. He has long experience in teaching and research in the fields of climate change, food and agricultural policy and trade. He worked with different national and international organizations, including the World Bank, IUCN, Save the ChilDren, IFC, SANDEE, SANEI, UNDP and GIZ. Dr Enamul Haque completed his PhD in Natural Resource Economics and M.Sc in Agricultural Economics from University of Guelph, Ontario, Canada. Before that, he obtained his MSS and BSS from University of Chittagong. Dr Haque had actively contributed towards capacity development in Bangladesh as well as in the South Asian region through his advisory roles in SANDEE.

Dr Mirza M. Hassan is a political economist and the Head of the Governance and Politics Cluster of BIGD, BRAC University. Dr Hassan’s research largely focuses on political development, state-business relations, urban governance and local governance, justice sector and human rights, and related issues in South Asia, the Pacific region and North Africa. He has more than 20 years of consulting experience on these issues for DFID, The Asia Foundation, The World Bank, UNDP, CARE Bangladesh, and other development agencies. He is well versed in conducting political economy analysis, institutional and stakeholder analysis, and using mixed methods. He completed his PhD in Development Studies from the Institute of Commonwealth Studies (ICS), University of London, UK and his MA in Urban Studies and Planning from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Cambridge, USA. He is also an honorary Academic Fellow of the Institute of Development Policy Management (IDPM), University of Manchester, UK.

Mr Bernard Haven has been working as a senior country economist of the World Bank in Bangladesh. He was a Public Sector Specialist in the World Bank’s Governance Global Practice, based in Kabul, Afghanistan. Before joining the World Bank, he was a diplomat with Global Affairs Canada. In Haiti, he was an economic adviser at the Canadian Embassy and led work on a tax and customs technical assistance program. In South Sudan, he headed the technical secretariat of a multi-donor public administration trust fund. In Afghanistan, he was based at the Kandahar Provincial Reconstruction Team and the Canadian Embassy, supporting local governance and basic service delivery. He began his public service career at a tax services office of the Canada Revenue Agency in Quebec. He was educated at Calvin College, the London School of Economics, and the School of Oriental and African Studies at the University of London.

Dr Monzur Hossain obtained his Ph.D. in International Economics in March 2007 from the National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies (GRIPS), Tokyo, Japan. His area of interest mainly concentrates on the macro-financial domain, with an extensive research focus on evaluating and analyzing development interventions and economic policies. In particular, his core areas of interest are macroeconomics, international economics and financial economics. He also has an interest in some emerging development issues pertaining to SME development, ICTs and knowledge economy, green finance and renewable energy. He has served as a team leader in numerous professional research projects. He served as a consultant for the UNDP, ADB, UNCTAD, EU, World Bank, JICA, International Growth Center (London School of Economics), etc. Before joining BIDS in 2008, he worked for Bangladesh Bank (central bank), Asian Development Bank Institute, Tokyo, and taught Economics in some leading public and private universities in Bangladesh. He has held several visiting positions, such as Visiting Scholar at Graduate School of International Development, Nagoya University, Japan (in 2010) and visiting Research Fellow at IDE-JETRO, Japan (from January-March, 2020). Currently, he is a member of the Executive Board of the American Committee on Asian Economic Studies (acaes.us). He is a member of the Editorial Board of the journal "Bangladesh Development Studies" and the "International Journal of SME Development." He also serves as a member of various committees of the government of Bangladesh under different Ministries and institutions. Dr Hossain has published extensively in internationally accredited journals, including Economic Modelling, Journal of the Japanese and International Economies, Applied Economics Letters, Journal of Asian Economics, Local Government Studies, Asian Economic Papers, Bangladesh Development Studies, and so on. He also has to his credit numerous other publications in the forms of research reports and edited books. He recently edited a book titled "Bangladesh's Macroeconomic Policy," published by Palgrave Macmillan in February 2020, and a book titled "Digital Transformation and Economic Development in Bangladesh" is forthcoming from Palgrave Macmillan. He presented papers at many national and international academic conferences held in the USA, UK, Japan, Finland, Singapore, India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, China, Hong Kong, and other countries.

Mr Md. Nazmul Hossain is currently working as an assistant professor of Economics at the University of Dhaka. He had completed his graduation in Economics in 2009 from the same department and later completed MSc in Mathematics from Western Illinois University, USA in 2018. His broad research interests focus on the field related to statistical analysis, applied econometrics and health economics. Nazmul has been involved as a researcher from ARK Foundation, Dhaka on various projects related to health economics. Recently, he has been involved in the “Cigarette demand analysis in Bangladesh using GATS 2009 and 2017 data” and “Evaluating the effect of brand repositioning on cigarette tax revenue in Bangladesh” projects funded by the University of Illinois Chicago’s (UIC) Institute for Health Research and Policy. Currently, Nazmul is working on “Fiscal and regulatory mechanisms for promoting healthy diet” with the support of the International Development Research Centre (IDrC) Canada.

Mr Sayed Jubair Bin Hossain is currently working as Lecturer of Department of Economics at University of Dhaka. He was working as lecturer at North South University before joining as lecturer at Department of Economics at University of Dhaka. He completed his bachelor and master’s degree in Economics from University College London.

Dr Rumana Huque is a Professor in the Department of Economics, University of Dhaka, Bangladesh. She specializes in health systems and health economics with special focus on health care financing, resource allocation and budgeting. She is particularly interested in research and advocacy in the field of tobacco control. She has conducted studies on tobacco taxation, second-hand smoking, smokeless tobacco and tobacco cessation in Bangladesh. She closely works with the National Tobacco Control Cell (NTCC) of Ministry of Health and Family Welfare of Bangladesh, and played an active role in a series of policy dialogues on tobacco control policies in Bangladesh. She holds the position of Executive Director at ARK Foundation, Bangladesh, which is a research NGO working in health system strengthening, urban health, mental health and tobacco control, working with a number of development partners and universities in the United Kingdom and North America. She is a member of the faculty of public health (fph), United Kingdom, through distinction. She has wide experience of working with the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare of Bangladesh, local NGOs and international donor agencies since 2000. She was the member in the Technical Working Group of the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare of Bangladesh in developing Health Care Financing Strategy (2012-2032), Strategic Investment Plan (SIP) and Programme Implementation Plan (PIP) of the 4th Health Sector Programme (2017-2022), and Annual Programme Reviews (2013, 2019). She is a visiting Faculty of Nuffield Centre for International Health and Development, University of Leeds, United Kingdom. She is also the Convener of Knowledge Hub on ‘Tobacco Taxation in Bangladesh’, and a member of ‘Bangladesh Anti-Tobacco Alliance (BATA)’. Rumana received her bachelor’s in economics from University of Dhaka, Bangladesh and received her MA and Ph.D. in health economics from University of Leeds, UK.

Dr Zahid Hussain served as a Lead Economist in the Macro, Trade and Investment Global Practice of the World Bank. He joined the World Bank in 1995 and prior to that, he was a member of academia, with 14 years of teaching experience in a number of universities in Bangladesh and abroad. He has worked on several flagship World Bank reports on Bangladesh. His other passion is cricket.

Kazi Maruful Islam is a professor of governance and politics at the Department of Development Studies, University of Dhaka. He is also a Senior Fellow of the Centre on Budget and Policy of Dhaka University. Previously he taught University of Rajshahi where he served as the Chair of Public Administration. Working in the development field since 1998, Prof Islam has spent most of his career in teaching and development research. He looks at politics of development, manifested in different areas of concerns in a postcolonial context. His areas of expertise include health governance, local governance, political institutions, political violence and climate change policy. He was actively involved in Drafting Decentralisation Policy for Democratic Local Governance submitted to the government. He currently teaches Politics and Public Administration, Public Policy Analysis, Poverty and Inequality, and Qualitative Research Methodology. He chairs Governance and Resilience Research Group at the Department. He received his MPhil from University of Bergen, Norway and PhD from University of Heidelberg, Germany with DAAD Scholarship. Dr Islam is a reviewer of several international journals. He is a member of South Asian Governance Research Network, International Association of Public Policy Analysis, Executive Committee Members of Democratic Budget Movement, Bangladesh, Democratic Local Government Forum, Governance Advocacy Forum and Bangladesh Citizens Network on Climate Change and Convenor of Bangladesh Working Group on External Debt.

Dr Md. Deen Islam is an associate professor of economics at the University of Dhaka. His research interests include development economics, applied international trade, Macroeconomics, and urban economics. He completed BSS and MSS in economics from the University of Dhaka and obtained PhD in economics from Boston University. He was a pre-doctoral fellow at the Global Policy Development (GDP) center at Boston University. He was a part of a multidisciplinary team and contributed to two studies investigating the implications of Bangladesh’s LDC graduation on access to essential medicines in Bangladesh. These two studies have recently been published in peer-reviewed journals. Currently, he is involved in several studies investigating the implications of LDC graduation for Bangladesh. In addition, he has expertise in impact evaluation and causal analysis research to examine the effectiveness of development interventions. In particular, he uses structural and micro-econometric techniques to Draw inferences from the household survey and administrative data. He has experience working with impoverished people’s education, health, and livelihoods and has published on poverty, inequality, child labor, and other development issues. Additionally, he has several publications on macroeconomic issues, such as the long-run trade-off between inflation and unemployment and the fiscal multiplier. He has worked as a consultant for the Center on Integrated Rural Development for Asia and the Pacific (CIRDAP), Dhaka, RTI International, North Carolina, USA, and the Bureau of Economic Research (BER) of the University of Dhaka. BER has funded his several research project on poverty mapping, identifying determinants of child labor, analyzing the constraints to women entrepreneurship, Covid-19 impact on households’ catastrophic health expenditure, and female participation at the tertiary level of education.

Dr Mohammad Mainul Islam is a Professor and former Chairman of the Department of Population Sciences of the University of Dhaka, Bangladesh. He was also former Project Director of the Strengthening the Capacity of Teaching and Research Facilities at the Department of Population Sciences, University of Dhaka (Second Phase, funded by the United Nations Population Fund-UNFPA and the Ministry of Education, Government of Bangladesh). In addition, he had 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. Dr Islam received his Ph.D. in Demography from the Institute of Population Research at Peking University, China, specializing in Population Health, in 2009. Dr Islam got his Bachelor's and Master's degrees in Sociology from the University of Dhaka. He completed a Global Health Research Capacity Strengthening Program (GHR-CAPS) Postdoctoral Fellowship at McGill University, Canada, between 2013 and 2014. Dr Islam also got training at the Johns Hopkins Fall Institute in Barcelona, Stanford University, University of Laval, the University of Quebec at Montreal, Brown University, the University of Bergen, and the University of Maiduguri.He received the First Prize of Academic Excellence Award 2008 from Peking University, China. Later, he was named the Nick Simons Scholar of the New Investigator in Global Health program of the Global Health Council, Washington, DC, the USA, in 2010. He is a two-time winner of the New Voices in Global Health program, receiving these accolades in 2014 and 2016 at the World Health Summit in Berlin, Germany. He was recognized as the Academician of the Social Sciences- the highest honor bestowed by the International Academy of Social Sciences (IASS), USA, 2014. He has presented his research at more than 100 international and academic conferences. He was invited to keynote and invited plenary speakers at various international and national scientific meetings. Dr Islam has contributed to over 70 peer-reviewed publications, including publications of research findings to the first author in The Lancet, Lancet Global Health, Lancet Regional Health- Western Pacific, Journal of Global Health, Journal of Population and Social Research, PLOS ONE, BMC Women's Health. His lead-authored article is among the top 10% of most-cited PLOS ONE papers published in 2017. He is the Associate Editor of the Journal of Population and Development. Also, he is a Topic Editor of the Frontiers in Public Health (RT: 33512-Access and use of Sexual and Reproductive Healthcare Services among forcibly displaced populations and refugees). Professor Dr Islam has been 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. He was a member of the Task Team of Action Report on Population and Development of Bangladesh. Furthermore, he represented the Government of Bangladesh as a Member of Delegation at the Midterm Review of the Asian and Pacific Ministerial Declaration on Population and Development, ESCAP, Bangkok, November 26-28, 2018. Repressing the academia as a member of the Bangladesh Delegation, he also attended the Nairobi Summit on ICPD25: Accelerating the Promise, which took place from 12 to 14 November 2019 in Nairobi, Republic of Kenya. As an invited panelist, Dr Islam attended the Expert Group Meeting on Monitoring Implementation of the Asian and Pacific Ministerial Declaration on Population and Development, UNCC, Bangkok, Thailand, 23-24 September 2019. In addition, he worked as a member of various national-level technical committees, including the Bangladesh Population and Housing Census- 2021 Project; Strengthening Environment, Climate Change, and Disaster Statistics (ECDS) Project; Monitoring the Situation of Vital Statistics of Bangladesh (MSVSB) 2nd Phase Project; Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey (MICS) of Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS).

Dr Nazrul earned his PhD in economics from Harvard University and MSc in economics from Moscow State University. He taught at Dhaka University, Harvard University, Emory University, Kyushu University, and St John's University and joined the United Nations in 2006. Dr Nazrul earned international reputation for his contribution to several areas of economics, including growth, transition, sustainable development, and political economy. He has published twenty books and numerous articles in reputed international journals. He founded Bangladesh Environment Network (BEN) in 1998 and initiated the formation of Bangladesh Poribesh Andolon (BAPA) in 2000.

Mr Md. Saiful Islam is currently working as Lecturer of Department of Economics at University of Dhaka. He was working as Research Associate at Brac Institute of Governance and Development (BIGD) before joining as lecturer at Department of Economics at University of Dhaka. He completed his Bachelor and master’s degree in Economics from University of Dhaka.

Dr Hasneen Jahan has more than 18 years of research and teaching experience in the broader field of agricultural economics, socioeconomics, gender, and policy research. She secured first class first position with Gold Medal in her Bachelor (Hons.) degree in Agricultural Economics from the Bangladesh Agricultural University. Afterwards she did two Masters, one is in Agricultural Economics from Bangladesh Agricultural University and another one from the Ritsumeikan Asia Pacific University, Japan in Development Economics. She was awarded Japan Development Scholarship (JDS) for the later one. She pursued her PhD from the University of Sydney, Australia in Agricultural and Resource Economics. She was an Endevour Research fellow of Australian Government and worked a Research Fellow at the School of Economics of Sydney University. She has a wide range of research interest that include Agricultural Economics, Climate Change Studies, Gender and Livelihood Studies, Economics of Food and Nutrition Security, Environmental and Resource Economics, Development Economics, and Policy and Institutional Analysis. Besides her teaching profession, she is engaged in multidimensional research activities that include several ACIAR SDIP research projects in partnership with different Australian universities, CSIRO, and cross country organizations. She is a SANDEE (South Asian Network for Development and Environmental Economics) fellow and conducted research with them. At national level, she got projects from NATP (National Agricultural Technology Programme) funded by World Bank, KGF (Krishi Gobeshona Foundation/ Agricultural Research Foundation), Ministry of Science and technology, etc. She is working as national consultant at the Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nation (FAO) where she covers many aspects including policy analysis, macroeconomics and behavioural economics, socioeconomic and gender, etc.

Professor Rounaq Jahan was a Senior Research Scholar and Adjunct Professor of International Affairs at the School of International and Public Affairs at Columbia University, USA. She was a Professor of Political Science at Dhaka University, Bangladesh and headed the women’s programme at the UN Asia-Pacific Development Center, Kuala Lumpur and the International Labour Office, Geneva. She was a Research Fellow at Harvard, Chicago and Boston universities in USA and Chr. Michelsen Institute in Norway. She was the Rajni Kothari Chair of Democracy at the Center for the Study of Developing Society (CSDS) Delhi, India Professor Jahan received her PhD in Political Science from Harvard University. She is the author of several internationally acclaimed books and numerous articles. Most of her research is focused on issues of politics, governance, gender, development and health.

Dr Md. Farid Uddin Khan is currently working as a professor in department economics, Rajshahi University. has obtained his Ph.D from Curtin University, Australia in 2015. He completed his MSS degree from Rajshahi University in 2001. He also obtained another master’s degree in Development Studies from International Institute of Social Studies at Erasmus University in 2010. His research interest lies in Agricultural Economics, Applied Econometrics, Health Economics, Behavioural Economics and Development Economics.

Towfiqul Islam Khan is an Economist. He is the Coordinator of CPD’s Independent Review of Bangladesh’s Development (IRBD) programme. He has undertaken research and published in a number of areas including macroeconomic policies, fiscal policy and fiscal transparency, governance, financing for development, inclusive development and sustainable development goals (SDGs). Khan is currently a member of the ‘SDG Working Team’ constituted under the Prime Minister’s Office, Government of Bangladesh. He is also a member of the ‘SDGs NGO sub-committee constituted under the NGO Affairs Bureau of Bangladesh. Khan received Australian Leadership Award (ALA) in 2008 to carry out his post-graduation academic degree at University of Melbourne, Australia. Khan also obtained his Masters and Bachelors in the area of Economics from Jahangirnagar University, Bangladesh.

Dr Bazlul Haque Khondker is a Professor at the Department of Economics, University of Dhaka and Chairman of the South Asian Network on Economic Modeling (SANEM). He holds a PhD degree in Economics and MSc degree in Quantitative Development Economics from the University of Warwick, England. He has more than 27 years of experience in the field of development economics and planning. His areas of expertise include analysis of poverty and social protection; micro, meso and macro data analyses for impact assessment and policy formulation; estimating economic cost of violence against women and girls; identification of regional disparities as well as promoting broad based inclusive growth; assessment of the distributional impacts of tax policy (including social protection) reforms using static as well as dynamic macro models as well as micro-simulation models; and assessing the trends in inter-generation equity using the National Transfer Account (NTA) methodology. He has also formulated the technical framework for the Five Year Plans for Bangladesh involving growth projection, macro consistent projection for sectoral growth, employment and poverty. He has constructed Social Accounting Matrices (SAM) and Computable General Equilibrium Models for several countries for analysis of poverty and income distribution impacts of trade and tax policy reforms. He has produced several reports and published articles, books on social issues including poverty and social protection, economic cost of violence against women and girls, regional disparity, economic and welfare impacts of public policy reforms.He has presented his analytical works in conferences held in Dhaka, The Hague, Quebec City, Kampala, Bangkok, Phnom Penh, Ulan Bator, Singapore, Kathmandu, Colombo, Nairobi, Abuja, Yaoundé, Maseru (Lesotho), Caracas, Mexico City, Hawaii and Boston organised by organisations such as UNDP countries offices, UNDP regional centres in Asian and Africa, the World Bank, the Asian Development Bank, the International Labour Office, East West Centre and the Central Bank of Venezuela. He has also worked in Mongolia (with UNDP/ADB); Indonesia (ILO); Sri- Lanka (UNRBAP); Bhutan (UNDESA); Morocco (the World Bank); Lesotho (UNICEF); Vietnam (UNDP); the Philippines (HelpAge International); Myanmar (HelpAge International); Hawaii (East West Centre); and Venezuela (the Central Bank of Venezuela).

After retiring as Professor of Economics, University of Dhaka, Dr Barkat-e- Khuda joined as DrMuzaffar Ahmed Chair Professor at the Bangladesh Institute of Bank Management (BIBM), Dhaka. His research interests include economics, population and development, health systems research, nutrition and related fields. Professor Barkat-e-Khuda has BA (Honors) and Masters in Economics from University of Dhaka and PhD from The Australian National University, Canberra. He has been holding senior teaching, research leadership, and management positions for almost four decades: Professor (since 1984) and former Chairman of the Department of Economics, University of Dhaka; Regional Director for South Asia, URC; Senior Associate of Population Council (1994-97); and senior research and management positions, including that of Acting Director of ICDDr, B (1997-2004). Also, he served as Visiting Fellows at The Australian National University and other universities and research institutes in the US, Canada and Europe. Prof. Khuda’s major areas of expertise include Economics, Population and Development, Family Planning and Reproductive Health, Health Systems, and Nutrition. He provides consultancy services to various international organizations, UN agencies, The World Bank, etc. He contributes to program design, sector reforms and institutional capacity building; and participates in technical committees and evaluation teams. He has published several books and monographs, many articles in leading international journals and many chapters in edited books.

Dr Mansur started his career as a Lecturer at Department of Economics at Dhaka University in 1976. He left for Canada for higher studies in economics in the same year. As a graduate student and research assistant, he was also offering regular economics courses at the undergraduate level at the University of Western Ontario, Canada (1978-81). Dr Mansur joined the International Monetary Fund under its Economist Program in 1981, and thereafter completed his PhD in Economics (on general equilibrium analysis) from the University of Western Ontario in 1982. During his long career at the IMF, Dr Mansur has worked in Middle Eastern, Asian, African and Central American countries. He worked in important functional departments (Fiscal Affairs and Policy Review and Development departments) and area departments (Middle East and Central Asia and Asian departments) of the IMF. He also served as the IMF Senior Resident Representative to Pakistan during 1998-01 and as the 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 in Bangladesh in 1991. 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. After taking early retirement from the IMF, with a view to establishing an institute aimed at policy analysis, in coordination with other professionals, Dr Mansur joined the Policy Research Institute of Bangladesh as its founder Director and Executive Director. 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. His most recently edited book (with Fernando Delgado) is Stock Market Developments in the Countries of the Gulf Cooperation Council, published by Palgrave Macmillan in its Finance and Capital Markets Series, November 2008.

Dhaka University, lectured in the Department of Economics since 1982. As a lecturer from 1982 to 1988, as an assistant professor from 1988 to 1994, on study leave for PH.D. Research from 1994 to 1996, join again and working as an associate professor from 1997 to 2001. He had been working as professor since 3rd june 2001. He had also been the chairman of the department of economics from 2020 to 2022. Moreover, he had also chaired the Bureau of Economic Research. He had also involved in different works with the ministries of Bangladesh

Dr Mustafa K. Mujeri joined Bangladesh Bank as the chief economist in 2007. In 2009, he joined Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies as the Director General. Now, he is working as an executive director at Institute for Inclusive Finance and Development (InM).

Dr Kanti Ananta Nuzhat is a development economist. Her research interests are economics of education, health economics, political economy, and social network and risk sharing attitude of farmers. She is interested in research that has policy recommendations for Bangladesh. Her research particularly focused on female stipend program in Bangladesh and its long-term effects on education, marriage, fertility and the labor market outcomes. She has also looked at how economic development is closely related to political dynamics of Bangladesh. Currently, she is involved in experimental research measuring farmers’ attitude towards uncertainty and their group effects in new technology adoption. She is also working on mental health and its socio-economic effects on university students during the COVID-19 pandemic in Bangladesh.

Dr Atonu Rabbani is an Associate Professor in the Department of Economics at the University of Dhaka. He is currently on leave from DU and holding Mushtaque Chowdhury chair in Health and Equity at the James P Grant School of Public Health at the BRAC University. He has academic affiliations with JPAL (MIT), International Growth Centre (IGC, based at LSE and Oxford), Centre for Evaluation and Development (C4ED, Mannheim) and Centre for Development Economics and Sustainability (CDES, Monash University). He is also an advisor at South Asian Network for Development and Environmental Economics (SANDEE). Previously, he has worked as a full-time Research Fellow at the Institute of Microfinance (InM). Before that he has worked as a Post-Doctoral Fellow with the Department of Medicine and Center for Health and Social Science (CHeSS) at the University of Chicago. 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 behaviours. Recently, he has also worked on evaluating an employer-based mandatory health security scheme to understand how incentives can alter households’ health seeking behaviour. He is also increasingly interested in climate change, energy use, and environmental issues. 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.

Mr Rabiul Islam Rabi received his Master in International Trade and Development from the University of Adelaide, Australia under the Australia Awards Scholarship. Prior to that, he obtained his bachelors and masters in Economics from Dhaka University. He has more than seven years’ research experience with public and private organisations. He previously worked with Bangladesh Fisheries Development Corporation (BFDC) under the Ministry of Fisheries and Livestock. He developed the SDG action plan of the BFDC and was the SDG focal point of the organisation. He has been involved in projects supported by The Asia Foundation, UNDP,, UNICEF, CUTS International, amongst others. He is an Associate Editor of Development Letters, a quarterly periodical published by RAPID. He has published in several peer reviewed international journal articles. His published work includes income inequality, labour market issues, international trade and development, LDC graduation etc. He is currently an adjunct faculty at the Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman Maritime University. He can be reached at eco.rabi@gmail.com

Dr A. K. M. Atiqur Rahman is an acclaimed professor of the Department of Economics in the School of Business and Economics at North South University. He has been with NSU for almost 24 years. Moreover, he has served as the Chairman of the Department of Economics and also as a Dean of the School of Arts and Social Sciences. His research interests are in the field of Monetary and Financial Economics, Economic Development and International Economics. In addition, he worked as an Economist at The World Bank. He was also the Assistant Director at Bangladesh Bank.

Dr Ashikur Rahman is a Senior Economist at the Policy Research Institute [PRI] of Bangladesh and a Member Secretary of Bangladesh Economists’ Forum (BEF) – a leading association of eminent economists from Bangladesh. Prior to this, he completed his Ph.D. in Government {Political Economy} at the London School of Economics. Mr. Rahman also 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 organizations, including the Planning Commission of Bangladesh, World Bank, UNDP, DFID, IRRI, and JICA. His research interest is in the field of political economy – focusing in areas such as institutions, public policy, economic history and long run determinants of economic performance. Mr. Rahman is specialized in undertaking microeconomic program evaluation and institutional diagnosis – and has contributed to the formulation of flagship national policy documents for the Government of Bangladesh, namely – The Eighth Five Year Plan [2021-2025], The Seventh Five Year Plan [2015-2020] and the National Social Security Strategy. Mr. Rahman has taught graduate level courses in Bangladesh’s leading private university – the North South University – and has previously worked at Bangladesh Institute of Governance and Development (BIGD) and Centre for Policy and Dialogue (CPD). He is a frequent contributor to electronic media, national and international newspapers, such as The Daily Star, Dhaka Tribune, Ittefaq, New Age, The Financial Express, The Business Standard and The Indian Express. He is also a coordinator of the citizens platform – Citizens for Responsible Democracy (CRD).

Dr Atiur Rahman is an honorary Professor of Department of Development Studies in Dhaka University. He also served earlier as a Professor in this Department. He is now Bangabandhu Chair Professor at the Department of History of the same University. In addition, Professor Rahman is also the Chair of the Executive Committee of Center for Advance Research on Arts and Social Sciences of this University. Popularly known as the ‘Poor Peoples’ Economist’ and a ‘Green Governor’, Dr Rahman is many times awarded central bank governor. After a long spell of research tenure at the Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies he joined Dhaka University as a Professor of Development Studies in 2006. He was picked up as the tenth Governor of Bangladesh Bank in 2009 where he served about seven years. He is a Fellow of Bangla Academy and Life Member of Asiatic Society, Bangladesh and Bangladesh Economic Association. He is also a Special Adviser to Social Innovation Japan (SIJ) in Tokyo, a diverse platform of change-makers. He is currently serving as the Chairman of Unnayan Shamannay, a globally acclaimed think tank founded by him in 1994. He has more than seventy books both in English and Bengali to his credit.

Dr Hossain Zillur Rahman is an academic, economist and policy maker from Bangladesh. Combining degrees in economics (Masters, Dhaka University) and political sociology (Ph.D, Manchester University), Hossain Zillur Rahman is a leading policy voice on poverty, governance, social protection, education, social protection, urbanization and political development. He led the Drafting of the poverty reduction strategy of the government in 2005 and was a member of the Independent South Asian Commission on Poverty Alleviation (ISACPA). He founded the Dhaka-based think-tank Power and Participation Research Centre (PPRC) in 1996 and prior to that was for over twenty years a leading researcher at the Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies. On 9 January 2008, he was appointed as an adviser (cabinet minister) to the Caretaker Government of Bangladesh, led by Fakhruddin Ahmed and was entrusted with the ministries of commerce and education. He served in this capacity till evening of 6 January 2009. He was instrumental in Driving a political negotiation process between the Caretaker government and the army on one hand and the two major political parties, Awami League and Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) on the other that led to the successful election of 29 December 2008. For this, he is credited with a lead role in the successful return of Bangladesh to electoral democracy. He was an Inspire Fellow at the Institute for Global Leadership at Tufts University, USA and was awarded the Dr John Meyer Global Citizenship Award by the Institute in November, 2009. In 2013, he was awarded a Gold Medal by Rotary International Bangladesh. Hossain Zillur Rahman has been a regular resource person at the National Defence College in Dhaka since its inception in 1999. In 2011 Hossain Zillur established the research-based civic platform - Chittagong Research Initiative (CRI). He is the convener of two new civic platforms - SROTA (Safe Roads and Transport Alliance) launched on 8 October 2016 and HEALTHY BANGLADESH launched on 13 May 2017. Currently the Executive Chairman of Power and Participation Research Centre (PPRC) (www.pprc-bd.org), Hossain Zillur's newest area of engagement is sustainable health-care, urban poverty and urban innovations.

Mr Jillur Rahman is an Assistant Professor of Economics at the Jagannath University. He did his Bachelors and Masters in Economics from Dhaka University with excellent academic result. He has been working extensively on employment, labour migration and remittances, international trade and social safety nets. Over the past few years, he worked with IOM, ILO, UNDP, UNICEF, Commonwealth, RTI International, Asia Foundation and others. Recently, he co-authored a UNDP-commissioned study on Mid-term implementation review of the National Social Security Strategy (NSSS); an UNDP commissioned study on the Rohingya refugee crisis in analysing the impact on the host community: a Commonwealth Secretariat study on LDC graduation and its implication on RMG exports; an IOM study on Labour Market Information System (LMIS) in Bangladesh; and a Bangladesh Enterprise Institute (BEI) project on Trade and Investment.

Professor Mustafizur Rahman is currently serving as Distinguished Fellow at the Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD), a leading think tank in South Asia. Prior to this he was Executive Director of the CPD (2007-2017). Professor Rahman started his career as an Assistant Professor at the Department of Accounting and Information Systems (AIS) of the Faculty of Business Studies, University of Dhaka. Having taught for twenty-five years, he took voluntary early retirement from the University in 2012 to work full time at the CPD. He was awarded the prestigious Ibrahim Memorial Gold Medal by the University of Dhaka for excellence in research. Professor Rahman is a member of the Dhaka University Senate (2009-2013 and 2018-present). He is a member of the Board of Trustees and Syndicate member of the BRAC University. After having completed his secondary and higher secondary education from Mirzapur Cadet College, Professor Rahman went to the then Soviet Union for higher studies, where he was trained as an economist. He did his Masters in Economics, with Distinction, from the Kharkov State University, Ukraine and Ph.D in Development Economics from Moscow State University, Russia. His Ph.D dissertation dealt with issues of structural impediments to Bangladesh’s economic growth. He has continued to remain interested in this and related themes, particularly from the perspective of designing appropriate policies and adDressing implementation related challenges in developing country contexts. At the same time, his academic interests and professional pursuits have led him to a range of other areas of contemporary relevance to Bangladesh and other low income economies, in national, regional and global settings. Professor Rahman has undertaken post-doctoral research at several reputed academic institutions including the University of Oxford, UK (1994) and the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies (ISEAS), Singapore (1998) as Visiting Fellow, Yale University, USA (2003) as Senior Fulbright Fellow and Warwick University, UK (2006) as post-Doctoral Fellow. Professor Rahman has carried out research works in collaboration with a number of international organisations and institutions including the UNDP, UNCTAD, UNESCAP, The World Bank, ADB, Overseas Development Institute (ODI), London, RIS (New Delhi), WTO Secretariat, IDrC (Canada), Commonwealth Secretariat, European Commission and the ILO, among others. Professor Rahman’s areas of current research interest include Bangladesh’s fiscal-monetary policies and macroeconomic performance, trade policies and trade reforms, globalisation, regionalisation and regional trading arrangements, connectivity in Southern Asian region, WTO, multilateral trading system and interests of low income countries, implementation challenges of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in Bangladesh, and graduation challenges of the LDCs. He has published widely in professional journals both in Bangladesh and abroad, and has authored books and monographs in areas of interest and expertise. Dr Rahman is a Series Editor of South Asia Economic Policy Studies published by Springer and Member of Editorial Board of the Rising Powers and Global Governance, Turkey. At different points in time Professor Rahman has served as a member of various important national bodies and committees set up by the Government of Bangladesh. These include WTO Advisory Committee, National Coal Policy Review Committee, Regulatory Reforms Commission, Committee to review National Sustainable Development Strategy, National Task Force to Monitor the Impact of Global Financial Crisis, Consultative Group of the Economic Relations Division (ERD), Core-committee on Transit and Connectivity and Study Team for BCIM-Economic Corridor. He is a member of the Advisory Committee of National Human Development Report. Dr Rahman has served as member of the Panel of Economists for Bangladesh’s Sixth and Seventh Five Year Plans, and was a member of the Panel of Experts for the Second Perspective Plan of Bangladesh (2021-2041).He has served as a member of the T-20 for G-20 Task Force, set up to provide policy advice in view of the Japanese Presidency of the G-20 and has co-authored two policy briefs. He is a member of the Core Group of the Citizen’s Platform for SDGs, Bangladesh.

Dr Selim Raihan is Professor at the Department of Economics, University of Dhaka, Bangladesh and the Executive Director of the South Asian Network on Economic Modeling (SANEM). He holds a PhD from the University of Manchester, UK. He is the Honorary Senior Research Fellow at the University of Manchester, UK. He is the alumni of the Harvard University’s program on “Cutting Edge of Development Thinking”. Dr Raihan possesses vast expertise in empirical research on international trade, economic growth, poverty, labour market, macroeconomic policies, political economy, and climate change issues. He has worked quite extensively on applied economics, especially assessing impacts of trade and economic policies, using country-specific and global Computable General Equilibrium (CGE) models, and micro and macro-econometric modelling and estimation techniques. He has a long experience in teaching international trade, economic modelling, quantitative economics, econometrics, development economics, and poverty dynamics. He has more than 15 years of experience in conducting international and national training programmes on economic modelling in various countries, including Bangladesh, India, Nepal, Mongolia, Senegal, Sri Lanka, and Thailand. Dr Raihan has published several journal articles, books, book chapters and working papers. Dr Raihan is the editor of “Thinking Aloud” – a monthly digest from SANEM. He regularly writes columns in leading English and Bengali dailies in Bangladesh. Dr Raihan contributed extensively to the preparation of the Sixth and Seventh Five-year National Plans of Bangladesh. He led a research team to prepare the “SDG Financing Strategy: Bangladesh Perspective” -a flagship publication of the Planning Commission of Bangladesh. 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. He has led and has also been a member of a number of regional and international research projects on trade and regional integration issues. Also, he has been working on the political economy analysis of economic issues. The most recent ones are the studies on “Institutional Diagnostics of development in Bangladesh “, which are prepared under his leadership and supervision, for the DFID, UK.

Sabina Faiz Rashid, PhD, is the Dean and Professor at BRAC James P Grant School of Public Health, BRAC University. She received her training in Medical Anthropology from The Australian National University, Canberra, Australia. She has been working in Bangladesh since 1993 and her areas of interest and expertise are qualitative and ethnographic research. Her research focuses on gender, reproductive and sexual health, sexuality and the emotional well-being of adolescents, women, men and marginalized populations. A significant portion of her research has focused on informal slum settlements. She is interested in how structural and social inequalities create greater vulnerability for the poorest and impact on their ability to realize their fundamental health and human rights. Dr Rashid has been involved in research for over 20 years and is actively engaged in translating knowledge into action at the grassroots and national level and is a member of several national and international policy and advocacy committees. At the School, she founded a Centre of Gender and Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights in 2008 and co-founded a Centre on Urban Equity and Health in 2013, focusing on generating evidence, capacity building/training and influencing policy.

Dr Mohammad Abdur Razzaque is an economist specialising in applied international trade, development and public policy issues with extensive senior leadership and management experience. He has led and managed numerous Bangladesh-specific and multi-country (involving sub-Saharan African, South Asian, Caribbean and Pacific economies) policy research and capacity-building projects. He has edited/co-edited several books/volumes and written extensively on trade, poverty, labour market, and migration issues, on which he is widely consulted by international and regional organisations. He is a Director of the Policy Research Institute of Bangladesh (PRI) and editor-in-chief of Policy Insights, a quarterly publication of PRI. During 2007-17, He held numerous positions at Commonwealth Secretariat, London, UK, including Head of International Trade Policy, where he was responsible for the Secretariat’s analytical, policy and global advocacy work related to such trade and development issues as WTO trade negotiations, regional trading arrangements, Brexit and its implications, Aid for Trade, global value chains, effective participation of small states and least developed countries in world trade, and trade capacity building of vulnerable countries and low income developing economies. Dr Razzaque has vast experience of working with senior government officials in many different countries. On several occasions, he made technical presentations before the G20 Development Working Group. He has also been called to provide evidence before House of Lords and House of Commons Committees of the UK Parliament. He has participated as a resource person in many workshops in different countries. He holds a PhD from the University of Sussex and was a faculty member in the Economics Department of Dhaka University, offering courses on, amongst others, international trade and econometrics for graduate students. During 1995-97, he worked at the Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD), Dhaka, Bangladesh.

Dr Masrur Reaz is the chairman and founder of Policy Exchange Bangladesh and chiarman and co-founder of Tri-info Tech Limited (OGGROW). He had also been the managing director and co-founder of the Thinkbig Solutions Limited (TREDX) and senior economist and progarm manager of World Bank group. He had also worked as an adviser of Department for International Development (DFID).

Dr Sattar's academic background is mostly in applied economics. He is an Associate Professor in the Department of Agricultural Economics at the Bangladesh Agricultural University. He completed one Masters in Agricultural Economics from Bangladesh, and another in Development Economics from the University of East Anglia in UK. He studied at MSU under the Borlaug Higher Education for Agricultural Research and Development (BHEARD) Program.

Dr Muhammad Shahadat Hossain Siddiquee is a part-time Senior Research Fellow at BRAC Institute of Governance and Development (BIGD), BRAC University. He is currently a Professor of Economics at the University of Dhaka. His interests include Health Economics, Development Economics and Econometric Modelling. Dr Siddiquee has been awarded PhD from the Global Development Institute, The University of Manchester. His current project is to ‘Evaluate Effectiveness and Impact of the Disability-Inclusive Graduation Model using Randomized Control Trial’, Funded by Humanity and Inclusion (HI), Bangladesh.