Country Director, WaterAid Bangladesh

Hasin Jahan

Hasin Jahan, Country Director at WaterAid Bangladesh is a pioneer in the development sector with decades of experience in water, sanitation, and hygiene. She is recognized as an influential WASH leader who promotes gender equality and youth empowerment. She has made a special mark in the development sector due to her practice of providing innovative learning platforms to youth through mentorship for professional development.

Hasin has progressive career in WASH sector which started with Local Government Engineering Department (LGED), and subsequently moved to Danish International Development Assistance (DANIDA), WSP, The World Bank deputed to ITN-BUET.

In the academic domain, she is well appreciated for her graduation in Civil Engineering from Bangladesh Engineering University of Technology (BUET). As a part of her further desire for academics, she has completed MSc in Water and Environmental Management from Loughborough University of Technology, UK followed by a PGD on Disaster Management from the University of Dhaka.

Her areas of interest include promotion of ICT based platforms, communication campaigns, gender sensitive enabling environment and youth engagement. She is a TEDx speaker and, recently earned the tagline of being an author by publishing her book, “Hasin Kherokhata”. In the past, she has anchored TV talk shows on WASH and made distinguished presence in the national media and policy dialogues.

Director Policy and Advocacy, WaterAid Bangladesh

Partha Hefaz Shaikh

Mr. Partha Hefaz Shaikh is the Director Policy and Advocacy at WaterAid Bangladesh. He has over 24 years’ of work experience in the development sector in the senior management positions and also as a consultant with different renowned organisations namely CARE, ActionAid, WaterAid, Chars Livelihood Programme, ICCO-Cooperation etc . He has consulted for Department for International Development (DFID), European Union, WaterAid, Christian Aid, Plan International – Cambodia, UNDP – Bangladesh and Save the Children among others. Until joining WaterAid Bangladesh he worked as the Head of Programme – Humanitarian Crisis Management Programme (HCMP) with BRAC stationed in Cox’s Bazar.

In his professional journey, Partha managed large scale development programmes and evaluations in a wide range of sectors and institutional contexts. His programmatic experience includes Food Security, Livelihoods, Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH), Entrepreneurship Development, Natural Resources Management (NMR), Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR), Emergency/Humanitarian Response and Policy Advocacy. Partha bhai’s past assignments have focused on understanding and enhancing the capability of different organisations to comprehend the change processes of development projects implemented in challenging environments. His consultancy work is varied and includes Reviews, Evaluations of development programmes, Baseline, Country Contextual Analysis and Strategy formulation.

Partha bhai’s approach stems from the belief that participation is central to making positives changes, understanding changes better and achieving more. His country experience includes Bangladesh, Afghanistan and Cambodia.

Director Programmes, WaterAid Bangladesh

Hossain Ishrath Adib

Hossain Ishrath Adib has been working with WaterAid as Director Programmes since October 2020. He started his career with BRAC in year 2000 and spent 15 years on multiple roles, especially in the fields of Microfinance and Public Health. Internationally, he was instrumental in designing and implementing BRAC development initiatives in Uganda, Tanzania and Aceh (Indonesia). Adib served as the Country Programme Manager of BRAC in Tanzania between 2008 and 2009 where he headed BRAC mission with a portfolio of over 100 branch offices, around 1,200 staff and over 1.5 million beneficiaries.

Over the years, Adib’s professional engagements expanded towards piloting and scaling up of development projects in the fields of WASH, waste management, resilience building and integration of digital services with multi-sectoral engagement both in rural, urban and humanitarian contexts. He briefly worked with WaterAid Bangladesh and James P Grant School of Public Health (BRAC University) between 2015 and 2017. Before joining WaterAid, Adib served Practical Action Bangladesh Country Office for 3 years as Head of Programme Implementation.

Adib has a Masters in Development Economics from The Australian National University (ANU) and a Bachelors in Economics from North South University (NSU).

Technical Advisor – WASH, WaterAid Bangladesh

Md Tahmidul Islam

Mr Md Tahmidul Islam has around ten years of experience working with academia, development sector, and consulting services. In the recent past, he has been working with Department of Sustainable Development, Environmental Science and Engineering (SEED) of KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Sweden and supporting multifaceted programme for Bangladesh focused on hydrogeological assessment, and policy formulation for enhancing safe water access in coordination of different governmental, intergovernmental, multinational and local collaborators. He was also involved in teaching of different courses offered by SEED e.g. Environmental Data, Environmental Chemistry and Risk Assessment, Applied Hydrogeology, and endeavours with Tanzania and Bolivia with the development of affordable removal technologies for arsenic and fluoride from drinking water, aquatic pollution and remediation, and surveillance of COVID-19 with Wastewater Based Epidemiology (WBE) for Sweden, India and Bangladesh.

Prior to KTH, Mr Islam had worked with WaterAid Bangladesh, BETS Consulting Services Ltd. By training he is a Civil Engineer, graduated from Ahsanullah University of Science and Technology (AUST), Bangladesh. Later on he pursued Post-Graduate Diploma on Disaster Management from BRAC University, Bangladesh and Masters in Environmental Engineering and Sustainable Infrastructure from KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Sweden.

Project Manager • Programmes, WaterAid Bangladesh

Saief Manzoor

Mr. Saief Manzoor has more than 11 years of professional experience, mostly in the development sector. He started his career with House of Consultants Ltd as Junior Water Resource Engineer in 2009. Subsequently he worked with BETS Consulting Services Ltd., CHEVRON Bangladesh Ltd, WaterAid Bangladesh, Practical Action Bangladesh and latest, with BRAC. Among these, maximum time period i.e. 06 years, from 2013 to 2018, he was engaged with WaterAid Bangladesh as Programme Officer-Engineer. Prior to rejoining WaterAid Bangladesh, he has been working as Manager Operations for KfW-BRAC Climate Bridge Fund.

Academically Mr. Saief is an Engineer who completed BSc in Civil Engineering in 2009. He did Masters in Development Studies from Bangladesh University of Professionals, in 2019. He also did Post Graduate Diploma in Disaster Management from Institute of Disaster Management and Vulnerability Studies, University of Dhaka.

Programme Officer-Engineer, WaterAid Bangladesh

Nowrin Mow

Nowrin Mow is currently working as Programme Officer- Engineer in WaterAid Bangladesh. She received her Bachelor’s degree in Civil Engineering from BUET. She has more than 3 years of working experience in development, consulting, and research, broadly focussing WASH, Waste Management and Recycling, Climate Change, Computational Hydrology, and Risk Assessment.

Advocacy Officer—Water and Climate) WaterAid Bangladesh

Adnan Qader

Mr. Adnan Qader is currently working as an Advocacy officer for the Water and Climate Campaign at WateAid Bangladesh. He has been working in the climate change sector for the last 5 years as a social scientist and have experience working both in Bangladesh and in Canada. Mr. Qader, finished his master’s from the University of Waterloo specializing in Climate Change and Water Security and is a climate leader of the Climate Reality Waterloo chapter. His specialization and interest lie with climate migration, water security and climate change adaptation. 

Communications Officer, WaterAid Bangladesh

Arusa Rahim

Arusa I. Rahim is a young professional who graduated with honors from the University of South Florida, Tampa-USA in Quantitative Economics and Econometrics with a specialization in economic development, economic policy advocacy and statistics. Ms. Rahim is extremely passionate about raising awareness among the youth regarding contemporary issues focusing on political and social movements. She is currently working as the Communications Officers under the Water and Climate Campaign at WaterAid Bangladesh. She holds a keen interest in women’s rights and advocates profoundly for equal opportunities for both men and women. Through her role in WaterAid Bangladesh, she wants to ensure increased WASH amenities for the marginalized.

Ms. Rahim has a total of three years work experience in various organisations such as economic research firms, multilateral companies and media outlets where she has gained a significant number of skills and knowledge regarding research, policy development, analysis and communications.

Project Officer for Programmes - Climate Resilience, WaterAid Bangladesh.

Ankon Ivan

Since 2012, Mr. Ankon Ivan has been involved in the field of Climate Change and Environment, gaining direct working experiences at Educational Institutes, Advertising Agency, Consultancy Firms, Government Trusts, NGOs, and INGOs. Currently, he is working as a Project Officer for Programmes – Climate Resilience, at WaterAid Bangladesh. 

In brief, Mr. Ivan developed and implemented projects as a Senior Research Officer at Bangladesh Center for Advanced Studies (BCAS) in the Climate Change and Environment Department; maintained brand image as a Copywriter at FCB Bitopi; constructed in-depth renewable energy stakeholder maps at Christian Aid, Bangladesh; prepared policy implication matrix and GIS maps at the Center for Environmental and Geographic Information Services (CEGIS); and was a Teaching Assistant at NSU DESM, all while continuing freelance rapporteur work with national and international organizations.  

 In his academic career, Mr. Ivan graduated with the highest distinction both in his Undergraduate and Masters from the Department of Environmental Science and Management at North South University, Bangladesh.

Storyteller and Story Coach at Benaul The Piper

Hasan Md. Benaul Islam

Mr. Benaul Islam has 15 years of experience in the field of storytelling, journalism, report writing, creative writing, public relations, development communication, ICT for development, social media, content development for folk, print, electronic and social media, youth engaging campaign, TV anchoring, event management and training. He also has a unique experience of working with the government for 10 years as well as private entities.

Since October 2016, he has been working with World Bank Supported LICT Project under ICT Division as Industry Promotion Specialist. Before that he worked 6.5 years for a2i Programme, a UNDP supported programme housed at Prime Minister’s Office as Communication Expert. He also worked for Microcredit Regulatory Authority (MRA) as a Public Relations Associate. During his career with RTV, CSB News and Ekushey Television he got the opportunity to build a strong relationship with journalist form print, electronic and online media across the country.

He completed his BSS and MS in Mass Communication and Journalism from Rajshahi University. Also received several professional trainings on content development, film making, digital marketing and more from local and international agencies.

Mr. Benaul believes storytelling can move mountains and aims to solve real-life problems of his community through storytelling.

Executive Director, ESAB Innovation Center

Md. Arif Raihan Maahi

Md. Arif Raihan Maahi is a passionate Civil Society Leader with 10 years of pro-bono experience and 7 years of professional experience of policy advocacy, healthcare access, youth mobilization and policy reform activities in different capacities at different CSOs, government agencies, UN agencies, iNGOs, MNC. Mr. Maahi is the Founder of ESAB and ESAB Innovation Center. He also founded few other succesful civil societies in Bangladesh.