Dr Alam Chowdury
Dr. Chowdhury has been involved in education and international development for over two decades. His expertise covers a wide range of areas, including policy planning, governance and management, institutional capacity development, monitoring and evaluation and restructuring of education systems. He was in Bangladesh until March 2008 as EfC’s long-term Lead Adviser in Governance and Financial Management under contract with DFID.
During his 16-year career (1988-2004) with the Asian Development Bank (ADB), he was appointed principal Task Manager responsible for designing, appraising, negotiating and supervising the implementation of about two dozen investment and technical assistance projects in the Asia-Pacific region. The projects supported major investments and policy reforms in basic and secondary education, technical education and tertiary education. Dr. Chowdhury was commended by the ADB’s Board and Management for breaking new ground and for adopting innovative approaches in many countries. Between 2000 and 2004, he was the principal officer managing a portfolio of six investment projects valued at over US$500 million in social sectors in Indonesia.
In the mid 1980s, he undertook several short-term consultancies for the World Bank and UNESCO. These included education sector review, institutional capacity assessment and project identification in Sudan and Tanzania and preparation of research materials for UNESCO publications. Concurrently, he worked as Chief of Education Planning for the Government of Bangladesh (1985-1988), responsible for overall sector planning and policy directions. He was previously Director of the National Academy of Education Management in Dhaka (1983-1985).
Dr Chowdhury has also worked in Europe where for three years he was with Birmingham City Council’s Social Development Division as a policy analyst (1979-1982. He was a visiting lecturer in international education and development in Finland (1978)and a visiting fellow at UNESCO’s International Institute for Education Planning in Paris (1977).
Prior to his recent engagement in Bangladesh, his consultancy assignments included institutional assessment and capacity-building planning for East Timor’s Ministry of Education, funded by the World Bank (2005), and education and public finance in Indonesia for the European Union (2006).
Dr Chowdhury has been associated with EfC for several years. He was a consultant in 2005 on the EfC-led evaluation of UNESCO’s support to member states in national planning for ‘Education for All’.
Dr.Chowdhury has published three books on education planning, finance and labour markets.