Our Mentors

Dr.Hamidul Huq is Professor and Dean of School of Humanities and Social Sciences and Director of Institute of Development Studies and Sustainability (IDSS) at United International University (UIU). Sustainable Development is his area of interest in teaching and research. His specialization is in the areas of sustainable livelihoods, poverty alleviation, integrated water resources management, and Interdisciplinary Research and Education. Dr.Huq has 25 years of working experience in NGO sector of Bangladesh before he joined university in 2007. He also worked as the Research Coordinator of “Crossing Boundaries – Regional Capacity Building on IWRM and Gender & Water in South Asia” project of Institute of Water and Flood Management, BUET and Wageningen University and Research (WUR) during 2007 – 2011.

Dr.Huq has a Masters with Honours in Social Welfare from University of Dhaka, and a PhD in Rural Development Sociology from Wageningen University, the Netherlands. He worked as postdoctoral researcher of UNESCO-IHE Institute for Water Education, Delft, the Netherlands in the field of IWRM. He has a good number of national and international publications. He is the author of the book People’s Practices: Exploring contestation, counter-development, and rural livelihoods (2001).

Contact: hamidulhuq@idss.uiu.ac.bd

Dr. Rokeya Khatun is Gender and Socio-Economic Analyst at United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization, Dhaka, Bangladesh. She has extensive experience in gender, capacity building, and climate change with specific expertise in results based management, training of trainers, and integration of population management in development planning.  She obtained a Ph.D. from Jahangir Nagar University, Bangladesh; and Masters in Development Economics from Williams College, Massachusetts, USA.  She is trained in gender mainstreaming by CIDA, Ottawa and the Chinese University of Hongkong.

Her extensive development, research and gender integration experience comes from her work in government agencies as well as international organizations.  She has worked as Research Officer in the Bangladesh Planning Commission, Assistant Chief in the Economic Relations Division of the Ministry of Finance and Planning, and was Chief Instructor of the National Academy for Planning and Development.  Rokeya spent one and half years in Afghanistan working for the UNDP as Gender Training Manual Development Expert and Trainer.  She has worked as Gender and Social Development consultant for four years for the Asian Development Bank, Bangladesh Resident Mission. She has also worked with CIDA as Gender Equality Advisor, and was their Senior Institutional Analyst and Capacity Development Advisor for the Policy Leadership and Gender Equality (PLAGE) Project.  Rokeya has several publications to her credit on a variety of gender-related topics including women’s contribution to the socio-economic development of Bangladesh, local governance as a means for women empowerment, and a review of the garment industry in Bangladesh.

Contact: rokeya1952@gmail.com

Dr Tanusree Paul is Assistant Professor, Centre for Women’s Studies, Visva-Bharati University, Santiniketan. A geographer by training, she holds a PhD from the Centre for the Study of Regional Development, Jawaharlal Nehru University, Delhi. She worked extensively on the complex issues of spaces, places and gender in the context of a globalising world. Paul’s research interests also span gender questions in development, health, the labour market and natural resources. She has also published widely on these issues.

Contact: paul.tanusree@gmail.com

Dr. Vishal Narain is Professor, Public Policy and Governance, MDI, Management Development Institute Gurgaon. He holds a PhD from Wageningen University, the Netherlands. His research and teaching interests are in the inter-disciplinary analyses of public policy processes and institutions, gender, rights and equity in water management, periurban issues and vulnerability and adaptation to climate  change and water insecurity. His research on these issues is widely published in peer -reviewed journals.

He has recently authored “Public policy: a view from the South (Cambridge University Press, 2018)” and co-edited several books on climate change adaptation and water governance. He has been involved with SaciWATERs for over a decade on several projects and initiatives and with the SAWA Fellows Programme for the last five years.

Contact: vishalnarain@mdi.ac.in