EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE
8 November 2020-7 November 2023
PRESIDENT
Professor Habib Zafarullah, Ph.D.
Dr Habib Zafarullah is currently an Adjunct Professor in the Discipline of Sociology and a former Chair of the Public Policy Program at the University of New England, Australia. Formerly, he was at the University of Dhaka (Bangladesh) as Professor and Chair in the Department of Public Administration. He obtained his PhD from the University of Sydney in 1986, and his interests are in democratic governance, public policy and administration, and international development. Dr Zafarullah has published extensively in these areas. His recent books include Colonial Bureaucracies (Universal-2014), Managing Development in a Globalized World (CRC Press/Taylor & Francis-2012) and International Development Governance (CRC Press/Routledge/Taylor & Francis-2006). His publications have appeared in several international peer-reviewed journals and edited volumes. He has been a manuscript reviewer for several top journals and international publishing houses. His forthcoming co-edited volume, Handbook of Development Policy (Edward Elgar) is expected to be published in mid-2021. From 1980 to 2004, he served as the editor of Politics, Administration and Change, a multi-disciplinary social science journal(Bangladesh/Australia) and as a regional editor of the now-defunct Development Policy Newsletter (Policy Studies Organization, USA). Currently, he is the Editor-in-Chief of Governance, Security & Development, published by the Centre of Governance Studies, Bangladesh. He has been a member of several professional bodies, including the American Society for Public Administration, American Political Science Association, Society for International Development, the Commonwealth Association for Public Administration and Management, International Political Science Association and many more.
FIRST VICE-PRESIDENT
Professor R. Lalitha S. Fernando, Ph.D.
Dr. R. Lalitha S. Fernando serves as a Senior Professor and the Chair of the Department of Public Administration of the University of Sri Jayewardenepura in Sri Lanka. Currently, she serves as the Coordinator of Ph.D. in Management Program, the Coordinator of M.Sc. in Public Policy and Management Program offered by the University, the Director of Centre for Governance and Public Policy and the Chief Editor of International Journal of Governance and Public Policy Analysis (IJGPPA) published the University of Sri Jayewardenepura. She received the prestigious Commonwealth Academic (internal) Scholarship and awarded a Master's in Development Administration and Management at the University of Manchester, U.K. Also, she received a full-time scholarship to pursue a Ph.D. at the Graduate School of Public Administration, National Institute of Development Administration (NIDA) Thailand. Dr. Fernando served as the Head of Department of Public Administration, the Director of the External Degree Programs and Extension Courses Unit, and also the Chairman of the Research Committee of the Faculty of Management Studies and Commerce and Coordinator of Masters of Public Management of the University. She has also served as the General Secretary of the Network of Asia- Pacific Schools and Institutes of Public Administration and Governance (NAPSIPAG) from 2016 to 2018. She has published several papers, book chapters, conference papers, articles, and co-edited books in the field of Public policy and Public Management, Solid Waste Management, Disaster Management, and Educational Management at both national and international levels.
SECOND VICE-PRESIDENT
Professor Akhlaque Haque, Ph.D.
Dr. Akhlaque Haque is a Professor of Political Science and Public Administration at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, USA. Dr. Haque is a Fulbright Scholar who is active in national and international development initiatives through his research on ICT and public administration. He is a regular participant in national and international research forums. In 2015, Dr. Haque was an expert panel advisor in a US Congressional Briefing in Capitol Hill, Washington DC.
Dr. Haque serves the Editorial Board of the Public Administration Review, Economic Development Quarterly, Journal of Indo-Pacific Affairs, and the Journal of Governance, Security & Development. He is the Chair of the Research and Data Science Committee for the National Network of Association of Schools of Public Affairs and Administration (NASPAA), USA. Currently, He serves in an elected position in the National Council of the American Society for Public Administration (ASPA) and president of the Alabama Chapter of ASPA.
Dr. Haque studies the complex social nature of the human enterprise related to information, technology, ethics and social justice, administrative decision-making, and urban and rural population health disparity. Dr. Haque has published widely in prestigious journals in social science and public policy and administration. He is the author of Surveillance, Transparency, and Democracy: Public Administration in the Information Age (U of Alabama Press, 2015). Dr. Haque received a Bachelor of Social Science in Economics from the University of Dhaka, Bangladesh, an MA in Economics, and a Ph.D. in Urban and Public Affairs from Cleveland State University, Ohio, USA.
SECRETARY-GENERAL
Mohammad Mizanur Rahman, Ph.D.
Based in Dhaka, Mohammad Mizanur Rahman is a civil service practitioner with over 23 years of professional experience. He holds a Ph.D. in political science. He published articles and book chapters on donor influence and policy ownership, civil service policy capacity, civil service reforms and local government. His primary research and academic interests include civil service, developmental states, international aid's political economy, policy ownership, and development effectiveness. He authored the book Development Agenda and Donor Influence in South Asia: Bangladesh’s Experiences in the PRSP Regime, published by Routledge in 2018. He worked for the UNDP, Bangladesh as a policy specialist for more than four years.
TREASURER
Mahfuzul Haque, Ph.D.
Dr Mahfuzul Haque, a former Secretary of the Government of Bangladesh has been teaching for a decade and half as an Adjunct Faculty in the Department of Development Studies, Department of Sociology at Bangladesh University of Professionals; Dhaka University; and Bangladesh Institute of Governance and Management. His areas of interest are sustainable development; natural resource management; combating climate change; biodiversity conservation; natural disaster management; dams and development; development-induced displacement; development disaster: faulty projects; environmental laws and enforcement etc.
Dr Haque did his Masters and PhD in International Relations and his thesis dealt with the insurgency and integration of the ethnic communities in Bangladesh, India and Sri Lanka. During his stint at the Bangladesh Ministry of Environment and Forests and Climate Change for more than a decade, he gained hands-on training and experience on issues related to environment and development. He led official Bangladesh delegation at the Conference of Parties of various conventions, including UNFCCC, CBD, Montreal Protocol, Ramsar Convention etc. He served as the President of Montreal Protocol Implementation Committee for four years; and Vice President of CBD Bureau for two years with headquarters in Montreal, Canada.
He is a prolific writer and extensively contributed book chapters in edited books, published by Springer-Nature; Routledge; and Palgrave Macmillan. His latest book titled, Environmental Governance, Emerging Challenges for Bangladesh published in 2013 looked at the crises of environmental governance in Bangladesh. His contribution on “Environmental Governance” has been published online in June 2017 in The Global Encyclopaedia of Public Administration, Public Policy, and Governance both in print and online versions. The encyclopaedia is a Springer Major Reference Work, which is a continuously updated edition of a Living Reference Work. He has so far consulted for the Government of Bangladesh in collaboration with many development partners, like, UNDP, UNICEF, FAO, ILO, DFID, ETI, OXFAM, European Union, Basel Convention, Practical Action and NSU.
He is actively involved with research and networking organizations, like, SANPA; NAPSIPAG; PRC.bd and Social Responsibility Asia, Bangladesh. He could be reached at drmahfuzulhaque@yahoo.com
DIRECTOR (RESEARCH & STUDIES)
Professor Niaz Ahmed Khan, Ph.D.
Niaz Ahmed Khan, Ph.D (Wales), Post doc. (Oxford) is Professor and former Chair at the Department of Development Studies, University of Dhaka; Senior Academic Adviser, BRAC Institute of Governance and Development (BIGD); former Senior Program Coordinator-CHT, UNDP-Bangladesh; Distinguished Visiting Researcher, The American University of Cairo (AUC), and Country Representative-Bangladesh, International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). He pursued higher education and research in the University of Wales Swansea, University of Oxford, and Asian Institute of Technology. His career reflects a rich blend of academic and practicing development management experiences gained in Bangladesh, Thailand and the UK. He has published prolifically (more than 170 refereed publications including some 40 in Web of Science and/or Scopus indexed journals) on such broad fields as environment, natural resource management, and social/community development.
MEMBERS
Niaz Ahmed Khan, Ph.D (Wales), Post doc. (Oxford) is Professor and former Chair at the Department of Development Studies, University of Dhaka; Senior Academic Adviser, BRAC Institute of Governance and Development (BIGD); former Senior Program Coordinator-CHT, UNDP-Bangladesh; Distinguished Visiting Researcher, The American University of Cairo (AUC), and Country Representative-Bangladesh, International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). He pursued higher education and research in the University of Wales Swansea, University of Oxford, and Asian Institute of Technology. His career reflects a rich blend of academic and practicing development management experiences gained in Bangladesh, Thailand and the UK. He has published prolifically (more than 170 refereed publications including some 40 in Web of Science and/or Scopus indexed journals) on such broad fields as environment, natural resource management, and social/community development.
Fara Azmat, Ph.D.
Dr Fara Azmat is an Associate Professor in the Department of Management at Deakin University, Australia. Within the broader domain of social responsibility, her research interest includes: sustainable development with a focus on the UN SDGs alongside social inclusion and social entrepreneurship, and migrant/women entrepreneurship. She has published in Journal of Business Ethics, Business & Society, Entrepreneurship and Regional Development, Journal of Public Policy and Marketing, Australian Journal of Management, and Journal of Consumer Affairs. She currently serves as a member of the Editorial Board of Social Responsibility Journal, and a fellow member of the ESRC, Peer Review College UK. Fara was previously a member of Bangladesh Civil Service: Administration cadre (10th batch).
K M Kabirul Islam, Ph.D.
Dr. K M Kabirul Islam is a career civil servant of Bangladesh since 1993 and has worked in several ministries and divisions including the Ministry of Education, the Finance Division, the Cabinet Division and the Ministry of Social Welfare. He also worked in the field administration at sub-district and districts as well as local government institutions. Currently he has been working as a Deputy Director of National River Conservation Commission.
Dr. Islam is a graduate from the Institute of Social Welfare and Research (ISWR) at the University of Dhaka, Bangladesh and completed his second masters in Comparative Social Work from Nord University, Bodø, Norway. He has completed his PhD in Social Policy in 2016 from the Social Policy Research Centre (SPRC) at the University of New South Wales (UNSW), Sydney, Australia. His PhD research investigated the qualitative impacts of social safety net programs on ensuring food security of the rural poor people of Bangladesh.
Dr. Islam is a social policy researcher and he is a guest lecturer at the Department of Development Studies of the University of Dhaka. His area of research interest is poverty, social safety nets and food security. His recent research works include ‘Service mapping for basic social services at Zone-5 of Gazipur City Corporation, Bangladesh’ (2018) funded by UNICEF Bangladesh and ‘Identifying the extreme poor and poor households of Gazipur City Corporation area to provide common health card’ (2018) sponsored by CARE Bangladesh. He also supervised a research work funded by UNICEF Bangladesh titled ‘Developing education strategy for Gazipur City Corporation’ (2019). Currently he has been pursuing a research project sponsored by the Department of Social Services, Bangladesh on ‘Role of the Institute of Mentally Retarded Children in Child Protection in Bangladesh’. His master’s thesis ‘Safety Net Programs for Destitute Women: The Case of Bangladesh’ has been published by VDM Verlag Dr. Müller, Germany.
Aly Shameem, Ph.D.
Dr. Aly Shameem, alias Alysh is presently a visiting scholar/lecturer at Maldives National University and Islamic University of Maldives. Also, he is a community educator/motivator and practitioner of disciplines of Management, Pubic Administration, Politics and International Relations. He has been an experienced public administrator and bureaucrat as well as a diplomat. Dr. Shameem holds a PhD in International Development and Environment Relations, Masters in Political Science, and Bachelor’s degree in double major, Management and Politics.
The official positions he held until July 2020 was the Head of Civil Service of Maldives and previously he had been a State Commissioner for Judicial Service Commission and Human Rights Commission of Maldives. He also had served the Maldives Parliament (People’s Majlis) as the Deputy Secretary General. Before joining the Parliament, Dr. Shameem served at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Maldives as a diplomat and foreign serviceman, where he was a delegate accredited to the United Nations on a number of occasions. He had represented his country at numerous international conferences and forums including the Commonwealth, South Asia Association of Regional Cooperation, Organization of Islamic Conference and Non-Aligned Movement.
Dr. Shameem is a climate campaigner, democracy and human rights advocate. He has been awarded in 2015 with Maldives National Award of Inspiration in 2015 for his social works while 2018 he received Asia’s Social Transformation Award given by Regional Alliance for Fostering Youth, Maldives. Dr. Shameem was also a Research Fellow at the Royal Institution of Singapore, 2016 and in 2019 he was awarded India Peace Prize by International Youth Committee, an NGO of India.
Current research interests of Dr. Shameem’s include Management and Public Administration Climate Politics and Policy, Ocean Politics and Policy, Islands Diplomacy, and Regional Security.
Professor Prabhat Datta, Ph.D.
Prabhat Kumar Datta who retired as the Centenary Chair of Public Administration in the Department of Political Science, University of Calcutta, India, had taught in the University of Calcutta for more than three decades Currently, he is the Adjunct Professor, Institute of China Rural Studies, Central China Normal University, Wuhan, People’s Republic of China and Visiting Professor , Xavier School of Law , St. Xavier’s University , Kolkata . A former DAAD Professorial Fellow at the University of Heidelberg, Germany, he worked as a member of the India’s University Grants Commission’s Sub- Committee officially called Panel in Political Science and Public Administration, and as a member of the Executive Committees of the Indian Political Science and Indian Public Administration Associations and served on the Board of Directors, AAPA for two consecutive terms. His academic collaborations with universities abroad include Heidelberg University, Oslo University, Deakin University, Danish International Institute of Development Studies ,Nanyang University, Jaotong University, Xhejiang University and Central China University, China He was member of the Editorial Board of Asian Journal of Rural Studies published from Indonesis, and is currently member Editorial Board, Indian Journal of Public Administration (Sage ). He worked for nearly two decades as the Honorary Advisor, State Institute of Panchayats and Rural Development and Institute of Local Government and Urban Studies, Government of West Bengal. He was also the chairperson of the State Level Technical Advisory Committee, Jawaharlal Nehru Urban Renewal Mission, Government of West Bengal. He has authored and co-authored 28 books, and has written a more than 80 articles published in reputed national and international journals .His papers have been translated into Chinese and published in the Third Sector Research, Jiatong University, Shanghai. He has contributed to the news magazines like Frontline, Mainstream and in weeklies like Economic and Political Weekly published from India. He also worked as member of the Advisory Committee of Participatory Research in India He is currently working as the Vice President of a leading Kolkata-based civil society research Organisation called
Trilochan Pokharel, M.Phil.
Mr. Pokharel is Director of Studies and serves as faculty of public policy and governance at Centre for Research and Development and Centre for Federalism Studies at Nepal Administrative Staff College (NASC). He is the lead author of “Nepal National Governance Survey 2017/2018” (https://www.nasc.org.np/nngs-2018) and “Quality of Public Service in Nepal- Further Analysis of Nepal National Governance Survey 2017/18” published by NASC and has led several research works. Recently, he has published 'Nepal’s Federal Governance' (in Nepali language). Mr. Pokharel is Gold Medalist in his Master’s Degree and batch topper in MPhil from Tribhuvan University. He also served to Tribhuvan University and Pokhara University as a lecturer. He is also a visiting faculty for 'Democracy and Inclusive Governance' at Nepal Open University. Mr Pokharel has provided several consulting services to the Government of Nepal and public organizations on public sector reform. He is also Managing Editor of Journal of Management and Development Studies, a peer reviewed journal published by Nepal Administrative Staff College. He has interest in public policy, governance, federalization and social research.