Staff Profile

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Syed M. Hashemi

Dr Syed Hashemi is the founder and Director of the BRAC Development Institute at the BRAC University. In this capacity, he provides strategic and management guidance on the institute’s Development Studies Masters Programme and other certificate courses; the institute’s research programme covering poverty, livelihoods, social accountability etc; and for building South-South partnerships to instigate practical economic transformation programs.

He is a Professor of Economics and an established microfinance expert with over fifteen years senior experience working in this field. Prior to his role at BRAC, Syed Hashemi spent 9 years working at the Consultative Group to Assist the Poor (CGAP). As Senior Microfinance Specialist, he initiated a number of innovative tools and structures including the global Social Performance Taskforce. Before CGAP, Syed was the Director at the Grameen Trust and managed the Programme for Research on Poverty Alleviation and started a $3 million programme to promote research on issues of the poor and the powerless. He has also been a University Professor of Economics and is widely published in academic journals on a range of economic development issues including microfinance, social safety nets, poverty, empowerment and accountability.

Ferdous Jahan

Ferdous Jahan is the academic coordinator of the MDS program at BDI. She is also an assistant professor of Public Administration at the University of Dhaka, Bangladesh. She received a Fullbright scholarship in 1999 and obtained a Master's degree on government administration in 2001 and a PhD in political science in 2005 from the University of Pennsylvania. She worked under the supervision of renowned political scientist and public law expert Professor Rogers M. Smith and eminent criminologist Professor Lawrence W. Sherman who specializes in domestic violence. Dr Jahan is also post doctoral fellow of the Jerry Lee Center of Criminology, University of Pennsylvania. Her current academic and research interests include governance, legal empowerment of the poor, women’s empowerment issues in developing societies, governance and women, the role of NGOs in empowering women , conflicts between empowerment of women and traditional patriarchal social and cultural values leading to religious fundamentalism and or extremism.

Mirza M Hassan

Mirza M Hassan is the Lead Researcher of the Governance team at BDI. He is also faculty at the MDS program and teaches governance and right based approach. He has completed his PhD from the Department of Politics, Institute of Commonwealth Studies, University of London, UK. Mirza Hassan has both research and field experiences related to political development, private sector development, institutional analysis, national and local governance, justice, and related policy topics. His studies have concentrated in the area of qualitative and quantitative analysis of institutional and social change and political economy of governance both local and national.

Maheen Sultan

Maheen Sultan is Coordinator of the Research Programme on Pathways of Women’s Empowerment, South Asia Hub which is a part of BRAC Development Institute. She has been doing free lance consultancies on social development and gender issues for several years and earlier has worked in various multilateral/bilateral development agencies such as UNDP, UNICEF and the Swiss Development Cooperation. She has been working with programme appraisal, annual reviews and formulation missions. She is a member of  Naripokkho.

Sohela Nazneen

Sohela Nazneen has a PhD in Development Studies from the Institute of Development Studies (IDS), UK. She is a Research Fellow for the Pathways of Women’s Empowerment Research Programme Consortium (RPC). Sohela is a core faculty of the Masters in Development Studies programme where she teaches gender and development and research methodology. Her research and publications at the international and national levels, have mainly concentrated in the area of: NGO management, gender and governance, institutional and organisational change, feminist movement, and minority rights. She has worked as a consultant for UNDP, CARE, ICES and other organisations.

Sahida Islam Khondaker

Sahida Islam Khondaker is a Research Associate at Pathways of Women’s Empowerment Research Programme at BDI. She joined Pathways in May 2006 after completing her Internship at The Centre for Policy Dialogue. Prior to that, she completed her Masters in Women and Gender Studies from Dhaka University. Her research interests are on Gender, Sexuality, Culture, ethnicity and Religion. Sahida supports Pathways by conducting qualitative research, producing final reports and is in charge of project administration.

Samia Afroz Rahim

Samia is the Communications Officer and Research Associate at the Pathways of Women’s Empowerment Research Programme at BDI. She has been working at Pathways since January 2007. At Pathways, Samia is a member of the Changing Narratives of Sexuality research theme and also manages the communications initiatives of the South Asia Hub. Before turning to socio-cultural research, Samia was a Computer Support Specialist at the Technology Department at her alma mater and was an Information Systems intern at the economic consulting firm, NERA, in New York City. Samia has received her Bachelor’s of Science degree in Computer Science from Simmons College in Boston, USA.

Kabita Chowdhury

Kabita Chowdhury is a Research Associate at BDI working in the "Deepening Democracy Building Citizenship and Promoting Participation" research project since April 2007.

She has been involved in research since 1989, working mostly with BIDS, Population Council, Bangladesh, Save the Children fund, USA, UBINIG and Nagorik Uddyoug. She has experience of both qualitative and quantitative research.

She got her Master's Degree in Islamic History and Culture, from the University of Dhaka in 1991.  

Lopita Huq

Lopita Huq is a Senior Research Associate at BDI working in the ‘Deepening democracy, building citizenship and promoting participation’ research project since April 2007. She is an anthropologist who has, in the past few years, overcome her fear of numbers and been engaging in rigorous quantitative analysis, although it is qualitative research she is most passionate about.

She has been involved in research since 1994, working mostly with BIDS, The Population Council, New York and IDS, Sussex University. Her main areas of experience include qualitative research on adolescents, marriage, dowry and recently, on studying grassroots organizations, citizenship and rights.

She got her Master’s Degree in Political Studies from Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi in 1993 and a Master’s Degree in Cultural Anthropology (with a concentration on gender) from The New School for Social Research, New York in 1997.

Md. Saiful Islam

Md. Saiful Islam has been working as Research Associate in the 'Deepening Democracy Building Citizenship and Promoting Participation' research project, at BDI from April, 2007 under Simeen Mahmud.

He has been working for the last 22 years in different research projects in organizations such as BIDS, IDS-UK, DRC-Copenhagen, Manchester University and Dhaka University.

He has spent most of his time in the field where he most enjoys working. Saiful Islam has a degree in M.Sc in Geography from Dhaka University.   

Omar Faruque Siddiki

Omar Faruque Siddiki is a Staff Researcher at the BRAC Development Institute (BDI). He joined the Democratic Governance team at BDI in February 2009. Omar Faruque Siddiki supports BDI's projects by questionnaire development, team supervision, data analysis, quality control of qualitative research and producing reports. Omar Faruque Siddiki comes to BDI after two and half years working in the Research and Evaluation Division of BRAC. 

Omar Faruque Siddiki is a 2003 graduate of the Jahangirnagar University. He obtained a Master's degree in 2004 from the same University. He completed his Bachelor and Masters of Social Science degree in Anthropology.

Sandeep Kaur

Sandeep Kaur is a Research Associate on the CGAP- FORD Foundation Global Graduation Program at the BRAC Development Institute (BDI). She joined in January, 2009. Sandeep is a 2006 post graduate from the University of Sussex, UK. She received an Msc. in Social Research Methods for International Development.

Nicolina Lamhauge

Nicolina Lamhauge joined BRAC Development Institute (BDI) as a Research Associate in September 2008. Nicolina works on the CGAP-Ford Graduation Model. The model seeks to develop a strategy that links safety net projects and livelihood activities with financial services, to create a ladder for the poorest to graduate out of extreme poverty. The program is being piloted in nine sites in seven countries. In addition to providing technical assistance to pilot programs, Nicolina is also part of a team conducting qualitative research in India and Pakistan.

Nicolina graduated in 2007 from the Institute of Development Studies with an Mphil in Development Studies. She did her undergraduate studies at Simon Fraser University and received in 2005 a BA, with  double major in Geography and Economics.

Khondoker Shakhawat Ali

Khondoker Shakhawat Ali completed his Masters in Sociology from Chittagong University in 1994. He Studied at the University of Wales, Swansea, UK and International Institute of Rural Reconstruction (IIRR), Philippines as a fellow on ‘Participatory Monitoring and Evaluation’ between 1998 and 2001. He was a researcher in Grameen Trust, Program for Research on Poverty Alleviation (PRPA). Currently, Shakhawat Ali is a Research Fellow at the Power and Participation Research Center and also lead the education research team. He is also the Communication Coordinator at BDI.

Shakhawat is the editor of ‘Antonio Gramsci: Life and struggle’ (Prasanga, 1991) and co-editor of ‘Fatwa: 1991-1995’ (Shikkha-Sanskiti Kendra, GSS, 1996) and ‘Local Government in the New Century: A Search for New Frontiers’ (PPRC.2001). ‘Researching Poverty from the Bottom Up Reflections on the Experience of the Programme for Research on Poverty Alleviation 1994-2002’ (Grameen Trust and PPRC). He was also the editor of Halkhata, The state of primary education of Bangladesh, 2008, PPRC and Shushikkha Andolon.

Sakiba Tasneem

Sakiba Tasneem, Research Associate, is involved in the “Pathways of Women’s Empowerment” and the “Revisiting devaluation of Daughters in Bangladesh: Continuity or Change?” projects at BDI. She supports these projects by designing and conducting quantitative and qualitative research, cleaning and analyzing data and producing reports. Before joining BDI in February, 2009 she had been working at the BRAC Research and Evaluation Division (RED) for three years.

Sakiba has a Masters degree in Economics from the University of Dhaka. Her research interests include Women’s empowerment, child labour, extreme poverty, gender and health, poverty and health services.

Iqbal Ehsan

Iqbal has been working with Pathways of Women’s Empowerment Project of BDI as a Junior Research Associate from October 2009. He completed his Masters of Social Science degree in Anthropology from Jahangirnagar University, Dhaka. His areas of interests include socio-cultural change, gender issues, Human rights, social inequality, media, education and religion. He is currently involved in BDI’s research on Cultural History of Women in Bangladesh.