Expertise
Eight areas I have worked in over three decades, each with the research, teaching or advisory work that stands behind it.
Expertise
What I work on
Eight areas, each with work behind it that has a name and a date. If your question sits next to one of these rather than inside it, write anyway.
Policy research and political-economy analysis
Research that explains why a reform does or does not travel from a policy document to the ground — designed, led and written up for governments and development partners.
- Political settlement analysis of education quality reform, with the University of Manchester (ESID)
- National research on ‘Changing Rural Society in Bangladesh’ at BIGD
- Principal investigator on studies funded by DFID/FCDO, the World Bank, Sida and UN agencies
Education policy and school governance
Primary and secondary education seen from both ends: the national plan and the individual school. Three decades of it, from non-formal schools in the 1990s to the Five-Year Education Plan.
- Policy formulation and technical guidance for the Five-Year Education Plan (2020–2025)
- Education sector mapping and upazila-level school budget analysis
- Studies of school quality in hard-to-reach areas, including the river islands of the north-west
Mobile financial services and financial inclusion
Digital finance treated as a question of inclusion rather than technology: who is still outside the system, and which rules and institutions keep them there.
- Board-level governance, policy strategy and risk oversight at Nagad
- Mobile Financial Service in Bangladesh (2017): bottlenecks, interoperability and consumer protection
- Advisory work for the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation on scaling MFS for the unbanked
Monitoring, evaluation and qualitative research
Evaluation built on fieldwork and participation — the method I trained in at Swansea and at IIRR, and have used ever since.
- Monitoring frameworks for non-formal primary education and social mobilisation
- Research and monitoring frameworks for multi-donor programmes
- Grassroots rights assessments for Save the Children, ActionAid, Plan International and NETZ Bangladesh
Local governance and civil society
Decentralisation, accountability and the role of citizens' organisations — as a researcher, and as an organiser of the coalitions that argued for them.
- Local Government in the New Century (2002), co-edited with Hossain Zillur Rahman
- Institutional mapping on human rights and governance with Manusher Jonno Foundation
- Work on NGO governance, accountability and transparency
University teaching and research mentorship
Teaching at four universities since 2004, to undergraduates and postgraduates, with the classroom kept close to the field.
- Qualitative Research Methodology, Development Studies and Civil Society Innovations at BIGD
- Bangladesh Studies and Development Economics at United International University
- Sociology, Environmental Sociology, Social History and Research Methodology at ASA University and City University
Editorial work and policy communication
Getting research read by the people it concerns: editing a journal, producing policy briefs, and taking knowledge out of institutions and into public view.
- Nine years as Executive Editor of Protichinta, Prothom Alo's journal on society, economy and politics
- Knowledge translation, policy briefs and publications at BRAC Development Institute
- The Gayanmela (Knowledge Fair) model for opening policy research to citizens
Working together
How a piece of work runs
The same four steps whether it is a short review or a multi-year study.
- 1
Start with the question
A message or a call about what you are trying to find out or decide, who it is for, and what already exists on it. A clear question saves more time than a long terms of reference.
- 2
Agree the scope
What the work will cover, the method, the timeline and what is delivered at the end — settled in writing before anything begins.
- 3
Fieldwork and analysis
Evidence gathered where the policy actually lands — schools, upazilas, communities, institutions — and read against what is already known.
- 4
Findings that travel
A report written to be used, and where it helps, a policy brief, a publication or a public discussion — so the findings reach the people who can act on them.
Approach
Four ideas the work keeps returning to
They run through the research, the teaching, the editing and the civic work alike.
From the bottom up
National policy is easiest to understand from the place it lands. Most of this work begins in a school, an upazila or a community and reasons upward from there.
Evidence first
Empirical fieldwork before recommendation. Qualitative and participatory methods are the foundation of the research, the teaching and the evaluations alike.
Research and policy in one conversation
Academic rigour and policy formulation belong together. The same findings should be able to stand in a journal and in a ministry meeting.
Knowledge is public
Research that stays inside an institution has done half its job. The journal, the policy briefs and the Gayanmela all exist to put it in front of citizens.
Questions
What people ask before writing
What do you work on?
Four areas, for three decades: education policy and school governance; social protection and poverty; local governance and civil society; and mobile financial services and financial inclusion. Across all of them the method is the same — qualitative, field-based research and evaluation, written up so that it can be used in policy.
What can I get in touch about?
Research collaboration, policy and advisory assignments, evaluations, guest lectures and teaching, editorial work, and requests to speak or comment. Write with what you are trying to find out or decide and who it is for — that is enough to start a conversation.
Which organisations have you worked with?
As a researcher: the Power and Participation Research Centre (PPRC), BRAC Institute of Governance and Development, BRAC Development Institute, Unnayan Shomonnoy, Grameen Trust and Gonoshahajjo Sangastha. On studies funded by DFID/FCDO, the World Bank, Sida, the Swiss and Netherlands embassies, the Canadian High Commission, UNDP, UNICEF and UNESCO, and for Save the Children, ActionAid, Plan International and NETZ Bangladesh. In digital finance: Nagad and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
What is your work on mobile financial services?
A book and a body of advisory work. The book is Mobile Financial Service in Bangladesh: Achievement, Opportunity and Challenge (Riverside Press, 2017), on the sector's institutional bottlenecks, interoperability and consumer protection. I have served on the Management Board of Nagad, and I advise the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation on scaling mobile financial services and digital payment infrastructure for people who are unbanked.
Where can I find your publications?
The publications page lists everything in full — eight books and edited volumes, four book chapters, two journal articles and nine policy papers, monographs and working papers — in MLA format, followed by my essays, poetry and newspaper columns. If you cannot locate a title, write to me.
What is Gayanmela?
Gayanmela — a ‘knowledge fair’ — is a concept I introduced in Bangladesh in 2000. It is a way of opening public policy research to ordinary citizens: taking what is usually discussed inside research institutions and putting it in front of the people it is about, so that academic work and grassroots experience can meet.
Do you work in Bangla or English?
Both. I write, teach and publish in Bangla and in English, and a report or a lecture can be in either.
Where are you based?
In Gulshan, Dhaka. The research itself has been carried out across Bangladesh — in upazilas, in schools and in the river islands of the north-west — and with partners abroad, including the University of Manchester.