Consultant
M B AKHTER
Development Professional and
Freelance Consultant
6/4A Sir Sayad Road (Ground Floor), Mohammadpur,
Dhaka 1207, Bangladesh
Cell Phone: +88 01711 592862
Email: [email protected], [email protected]
Skype: M B Akhter
I have been involved in the development sector as a development professional since 1991 and provided organizational development and project/program development support to local and midlevel organizations in Bangladesh. My professional career started with a local NGO in Dinajpur, Bangladesh with a local woman-headed organization and gradually worked with national and international NGOs. From May 2001 to November 2018 I used to work with Oxfam in different positions in Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, and Afghanistan. From August 2015 to November 2018, I was the Program Director of Oxfam in Bangladesh and looked after the long-term development programs, humanitarian programs, and advocacy interventions including also playing the Interim role of Country Director in Bangladesh and Sri Lanka.
I have been skilled to analysed gender from an economic perspective, market trends and market actors, social and cultural perspective, disaster management and preparedness perspectives, Women Transformative Leadership etc. Since April 2019 I have been working as a freelance consultant focusing on organizational development, gender, and climate analysis, program designer and evaluator, producing organizational policy documents The major assignments that have been completed related to Gender Analysis are;
Completed Master’s Degree (MSc) from the University of Rajshahi in 1987 and in 1995 accomplished the Diploma in Gender & Rural Development from Birmingham University. During my 32 years of a development professional, I have received several courses of training on Organizational Development, Rural Development, Urban Poverty and Intervention Strategy, Gender Development and Analysis, Women’s Transformative Leadership, Women’s Economic Empowerment, Market Development, Gender, and Humanitarian Interventions, Development Management, Collective leadership, and Team Management, etc.
From May 2001, started my career with Oxfam Great Britain (OGB) as Capacity Building and Gender Program Coordinator, and up to June 2009, I was responsible as Gender Program Manager. Apart from that, I have had 18 years of working experience with Oxfam GB in a different portfolio; also provided technical and expert support to Afghanistan, Pakistan, India, and Sri Lanka to develop their gender justice projects and strategy. From August 2015 to November 2018 I was the Program Director and managed all the development programs which are climate adaptation-related livelihood programs, gender justice programs, disaster risk management, humanitarian programs, policy, and advocacy interventions. From February 2016 to November 2018, I was a member of Oxfam’s Global Gender Justice Platform.
Design and implement comprehensive gender-based climate adaptation projects: I have initiated one integrated program in Bangladesh to address climate change in comprehensive ways through focusing on Women and Gender, Climate Adaptation, Disaster Risk Management, Women Access to Market, and Government Services. The project title is REE_CALL (Resilience through Economic Empowerment, Climate Adaptation, Leadership, and Learning). The project was initiated in 2010 and now it is the successful flagship program all over the world and covers around 250,000 families in 9 districts of Bangladesh and thousands of women Entrepreneurships who have emerged within the disaster-prone areas. The project has been funded by DFID, EU, DepECHO, DFAT, SDC, etc. also reviewed by UNWOMEN and found it successful and replicable model. Beside this during 2017-18 Akhter was involved to initiate the national level study and dialogue on „International Finance Institution‟s (IFI) role to enhance the women led enterprises through using „Renewable Energy‟.
Design and implemented mass campaign on Gender and Development: Initiated the campaign on Gender Equality and Ending Domestic Violence campaign titled „WE CAN Campaign‟ in 2004 and the campaign is from 2011 the campaign is running independently with many donor support and its membership is around one million-plus. The campaign was designed based on the findings of the Knowledge, Attitude, and Practice (KAP) study on gender and the prevalence rate of violence against women in Bangladesh. The Campaign is now active in 16 countries in South Asia, Africa, and the Netherlands. I was assigned to launch the WE CAN campaign in Afghanistan, Sri Lanka and successfully done it also assigned to review the WE CAN campaign achievements in India and Pakistan. Based on my findings and recommendation all the countries have had brought some changes in order operational strategies.
Systemize the women domestic workers employment process: Domestic workers have been recognized as a disadvantaged, underprivileged and neglected section of the society even though domestic work itself is one of the oldest and most important occupations for millions of people particularly women around the world. According to statistics of the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics through its Labour Force Survey (LFS 2006), there are 331,000 domestic service providers of age 15 and above in the country. Considering the Urban Migration of women due to the impact of climate change and disaster I had designed a project in 2014 to address the rights of Home Service Workers (in Bengali we usually call them Bua) and covered around 500 home service workers. The focus of the project was to systemize their employment options also develop their skill to that increase their income/salary and ensure their safety and security through establishing a systematic monitoring mechanism. The project was supported by Regional Agency Safer City and after implementing 2 years of the project Oxfam had received lots of positive impacts and found the model is effective. The success of that project inspired Oxfam higher management and other affiliates like Oxfam-Netherlands and Oxfam-Canada to buy in the project concept and scale up the project areas by engaging private sectors, campaigning entities, and linking up the project with government policy. The project is now being supported by Global Affairs Canada and it will cover 20,000 Home Service Workers in Dhaka City by the next 4 years.
Use digital tools for women empowerment: In the year 2014, I have designed a project in collaboration with Monash University, Melbourne, Australia by using mobile phone technology and focusing on women leadership, market link with livelihood, and disaster risk reduction. The name of the project is PROTIC and it has been implemented in the two most vulnerable Upazilas1 of Bangladesh. Number five hundred women farmers and entrepreneurs are using a mobile phone and reducing their vulnerability and risk on disaster, increase agriculture production. Through that project 7 Ph.D. students are conducting their research also some national universities are using the learning on disaster and climate change. Organisational Development and Capacity Building: During decade of 80s and 90s in Bangladesh numbers of local NGOs were evolved and they had to face competitive challenges 1 Dimla upazilla of Nilphamari district, Shyamnagar upazilla of Satkhira district. specially on vision development, developing their leadership, organizational and staff competencies and skill which ultimately provided them knowledge and strength to design projects and mobilize resources. As development practitioner I used to work with local NGOs, with the local leaders and tried to understand communities acute and felt needs. I also provided my focus on organizational development on „Organizational vision creation and strategic planning development in simple way‟. Therefore working with local NGOs, Networks or International NGOs I was not only keen to provide financial assistance rather provided lots of knowledge building and technical support. Therefore at 20 NGOs in Bangladesh who were started with 2-3 staff now employing more than 2-5 hundreds staff.
Developed disaster management-based women leadership training module: I have developed a Women Leadership Training Module within the disaster and climate change context. That module has been accepted by the DepECHO in 2012 and several national and international NGOs are using that module for the development of women’s leadership development.
Develop women leadership project and implemented: In 2012 I had designed an innovative approach to develop women transformative leadership within challenging contexts like a disaster, family instability, and climate change. The name of the approach was “Let Her Decide and Participate”. It was a completely informal approach, women having fun, play and learning about their own life like men‟s are sitting in the tea shop for chit-chat. For that approach developed several materials, tools, and strategies are also well accepted by the different international communities of gender practitioners.
Flood Insurance project for women living in Char: In Bangladesh, around 7 million people are living in river-island (Char) and every year faces flooding and disaster. In Char around 26% of households are led by women also men are mostly having seasonal migration. Therefore all challenges have to manage by women and considering that context I have designed a project on „Disaster Micro Insurance for Women‟ in 2013. It was piloted and the model was successful during 2014 and 2015, now that model has been accepted by World Food Program and included in their strategy. Oxfam and WFP now designed a new project jointly and implemented it in Sirajgonj and Kurigram district.
Trans-Boundary River project and integrated gender content: Based on the disastrous impact of the Trans-Boundary Rivers Oxfam Regional Centre has been designed a project in 2016 called TROSA. I was one of the members in the designing process and assigned to mainstream the gender and women leadership aspect in the project especially from the disaster and livelihood aspect. The project is now funded by SIDA and implemented in India, Myanmar, Nepal, and Bangladesh.
Conducted Gender Audit: In 2016 the Gender Audit for all programs and management of Oxfam in Bangladesh was initiated by me. It was a huge task and involved several international consultants. Based on the findings of the report Oxfam country management had taken some corrective measures to projects and organizational management especially on internal and external investment in the women empowerment process.
Lead different humanitarian responses and mainstream gender: I was involved with all the responses taken to address impact or preparedness on natural disasters during my 18 years career with Oxfam like in 2004 I was assigned to manage the relief work in Sirajgonj, Kurigram, and Gaibandha district and manage the food and Non-Food support for the 40,000 families. I was involved in the 2007 flood, 2010 Haor Flash Flood, 2014 Cyclone, 20015, and 2017 Flood. As Manager, I was not only involved or lead the projects but also ensure gender mainstreaming from assessment to evaluation process by using a simple gender mainstream tool which was designed by me.
Lead the Rohingya Response at an early stage and introduce gender and protection content: In September 2017, I was interim Country Director of Oxfam in Bangladesh and led the huge Rohingya Response for 2 months directly. At that time I could mobilize around USD 10 million and manage 150 staff including 30 expatriate staff. Later on, I used to provide knowledge and advisory support to the Rohingya Response team on Gender and Protection. Due to my strong motivation and contribution in September 2018, Oxfam Bangladesh produce a special report on the Gender and Protection situation of Rohingya refugees.
Engaged with government policy people: I was directly involved in the number of the policy change process with national-level civil society and government likewise the Domestic Violence Prevention and Protection Act 2011, Disaster Management Act 2014, Domestic Workers Rights Policy 2016, etc. Very much engaged with the All-Party Parliament Group (APPG) influence to negotiate the national budget.
Team and Capacity Building: One of the specialized areas which gave me the recognitions in development sector in Bangladesh as „Friends of Local NGOs‟. Developing capacity is a longterm process, one that cannot be led from the outside that is why I follow the strategy to work with the NGOs closely with time bound objectives and milestones and received success. I have gather skill on vision development process, theory of change and strategic planning therefore NGOs are more willing to discuss with me during any field visit to learn about organizational and programmatic sustainability.
Understanding Gender Equality: Special passion grown since I joined in NGO sector in 1990. I received several training courses on gender from Bangladeshi specialized NGOs like BRAC, and USHA also completed a diploma course on PRA along with Gender Equality from Birmingham University, the UK in 1995. I specialized skill in analyzing gender in non-traditional and nonconflicting ways which helped the participants and audience to internalize from his/her context.
Engagement of Gender and Laws to Protect rights and entitlements: I am fully aware of the local and international laws and protocols that are being enacted to protect women’s rights and entitlements also engaged in several law reform processes like „Women and Children Protection and Prevention Act 2000 (amendment in 2003)‟, formation of „Domestic Violence Protection and Prevention Law 2010,‟ revision of „Women Advancement Policy 2011‟ etc.
Gender Training and Mainstream approach: I have produced several training materials on gender and women leadership, and gender mainstreaming which are completely linked with disaster preparedness and response works. After the „Rana Plaza‟ demolition with the support of the EU, I produced a learning electronic learning documentary that also addresses the gender perspective. At this moment I am leading the largest campaign to end violence against women in Bangladesh called WE CAN. Also contribute to publishing books on Gender Kosh, Feminist Story of South Asia by Selina Hossain, Socio-Economic Context of plain land Indigenous women by Dr. Abul Barakat, etc.
Gender and Women Transformative Leadership: The concept has emerged during the last couple of years focusing to develop women’s leadership to bring transformative change, especially at the decision-making level from the family to the national context. I have received special training on it and introduced it to different programs and projects. Also, develop a clear analysis of how to utilize the challenging disaster context as a potential opportunity to build women’s resilience.
Strategic Leadership, Direction & Motivation: At Oxfam, I have successfully led, managed, and provided strategic direction to a highly competitive and multi-skilled program team in Bangladesh. As Program Director/2nd person of the organization, I had been representing Oxfam GB (ACD status) to the external audience and stakeholders also contributing to the Bangladesh Country Leadership Team (CLT) and leading the SMS/Oxfam 2020 (Future Director) initiatives and developed different documents like Joint Country Analysis, Country Strategy, and Operating Model, etc. From December 2011 to February 2012 I was Acting Country Director (December 2011-February 2012) in Sri Lanka and in 2008 in Sri Lanka, I had to manage the big post Tsunami winding up projects successfully. From April 2017 to the last day with Oxfam, I was the Global Gender Justice Steering Committee member and contributed to shaping the gender goal, strategies, and approaches of Oxfam International.
Program Designing and Evaluation: Last 29 years in the development sector I had to develop more than 150 project proposals and I would say around 50% successfully received funds from donors. Therefore most of the projects ended up during this period and I was fully engaged in Evaluation TOR development, coordinating the Evaluation Process, and Reviewing the inception, draft, and final reports. During my 29 years career mostly I was involved with Projects and programs, therefore, most of the time Internally I was responsible to review the project output, outcome, and project trends by using a different methodology. I had to do it because before submitting any project proposal those review findings were helpful and provided authentic information and data.
Public Engagement and Relationship: As senior Manager, I had to represent Oxfam on different platforms/forums at national also global levels. I had played as a core member of the Civil Society-led SDG group of Bangladesh, participating in different national-level dialogues and discussions at Civil Society events and TV Channels link with climate change, gender, livelihood, and the insurance sector in Bangladesh. Therefore I have acquired the skill to talk with government officials at a different level, able to ask difficult questions diplomatically, understand how to influence and receive real information from the Local Elected Representatives, etc.
September 2023: As consultant of Manusher Jonnno Foundation, designed the project on “Women‟s Voice and Leadership (WVL) – Bangladesh, Phase 2” which is funded by Global Aid Canada (GAC).
August 2023: Engaged as consultant with CPD and Citizen‟s Platform for SDG, Bangladesh and drafted the policy brief on “Effective implementation of laws and judicial process for eradicating gender-based violence and discrimination”.
July – August 2023: Review the project “Advancing Women‟s Rights of Access to Information in Bangladesh (AWRIB) from the Gender and Inclusive Development aspects which is funded by USAID and implemented by The Carter Centre (TCC) and MJF.
March – May 2023: Contributed in the study titled “Participation of Persons with Disabilities in Disaster Risk Reduction: developing theoretical model for gender responsive resilience and intersectionality”. The study was launched by GRRIPP, Dhaka University, and CDD, Dhaka.
01 June – 15 October 2022: Conducted the final evaluation of the project “Strengthen civil society and public institutions to combat gender-based violence and build community resilience to adapt climate change” which funded by SIDA and implemented by Manusher Jonno Foundation (MJF).
15 Nov – 31 January 2022: Total 25 days consultancy with UN Women, Dhaka, Bangladesh office to contribute in developing „National Resilience Program – II (NRP-II)‟ implemented by 5 lead ministry including MoDRM, MoWCA, Local Government, Planning and Housing.
October 2021: Short-term (15 days) consultancy to revise the submitted Project Document (PD) on Early Childhood Development Project Education project funded by UNICEF and implemented by Plan International Bangladesh, project value around USD 4 million for one year.
October-November 2021: Producing Gender-Sensitive Toolkit and Communication Strategy for the MJF which is funded by DFID. The assignment is accomplished along with Prof Gitiara Nasreen, Dhaka University and involvement time is 16 days.
September 2019 – June 2021 (5 days monthly) on behalf of BDPC working as climate resilience and gender adviser in the project “Gender Responsive Disaster Risk Reduction and Resilience”. The project is implemented by the Department of Women Affairs and supported by National Resilience Project (NRP) and UN Women.
January–April 2021: Conducted the Gender Audit (evaluate partnership approach, project operational strategies, organizational culture, human resource management style, etc. from a Gender perspective) of Manusher Jonno Foundation (MJF) and partners. The assignment was conducted through visiting 30 partners all over Bangladesh, organizing 40 FGD, and selfassessment interviews with more than 600 staff. The assignment has been extended to produce the „Action Plan‟ based on the audit findings.
October-November 2020; conducted the study and draw the best practices and lessons learned for the project titled „OCHA/CERF Anticipatory Humanitarian Action Framework pilot to reduce flood impact on women and girls in areas of SRHR, GBV, and Adolescent and Youth‟ which is funded by Plan International, Bangladesh, and UNFPA.
July-August 2020: conducted the final evaluation of the project „Dalit/Adibashi Rights, Empowerment and Access towards Mainstream (DREAM), funded by HEKS/EPER and implemented by ARCO, Naogoan.
May-July 2019; completed Mid-Term Review of the project “Strengthen civil society public institutions to combat gender-based violence and build community resilience to adapt climate change impact”. The project has been implemented by MJF and engaged 17 local partners and the project is funded by SIDA.
August-November 2019; conducted the study „Unequal Ground Breaking Reality Adibashi and Dalit living in North-West part of Bangladesh‟. The study was commissioned by HEKS/EPER, it is a Switzerland-based international NGO working in Bangladesh.
December 2019 – January 2020; conducted a study “Assessment of Disaster Readiness of Coastal Disaster Risk Reduction (CDRR) program in Bangladesh”. This project is implemented at Bagerhat and Patuakhali jointly by Red Crescent Bangladesh and American Red Cross.
During May-August 2020, I have produced 6 articles based on the effect and impact of COVID 19 within the life of poor people, women, and indigenous people, and all the articles have been published in different online news portals.
Pinash Akter, Fatema Jannat, Tapas Ranjan Chakraborty, and M. B. Akhter (2018) Participatory Action Researches for Sustainable Agriculture in Charland. Proceedings International Conference on Disaster Risk Management ICDRM 2019, BUET, Dhaka
Fatema Jannat, Tapas Ranjan Chakraborty, Pinash Akter, and M. B. Akhter (2018) Agrometeorological advice for sustainable and adaptive farming in climate-vulnerable areas of Bangladesh. Proceedings International Conference on Disaster Risk Management ICDRM 2019, BUET, Dhaka.
Tapas RanjanChakraborty, Priodarshine Auvi, and M.B. Akhter.(2017) Potential of Mobile Phone in Extension of Adaptive Agriculture for Community Resilience. Proceedings 1stGobeshona Conference on Climate Change in Bangladesh. ICCCAD, Dhaka.
Priodarshine Auvi, Tapas R. Chakraborty and M. B. Akhter (2017).Using ICT by the rural community for Knowledge Management to achieve SDG. American Journal of Agricultural Science, Engineering and Technology.Vol 4 No 2
Tapas RanjanChakraborty, AfrozMahal and M B Akhter (2014).Building Resilience to Climate Change through Adaptive Management of Natural Resources in Coastal Bangladesh. Proceedings Fifth National Research Conference on Climate Change. New Delhi. Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi
Disaster Risk Reduction and Women Leadership Training Module, Led the team M B Akhter and print Oxfam in Bangladesh and NARI Consortium in 2011.
M B Akhter
Development Professional and Gender Analyst
2A Index Pranter, 27-28 Janata Housing, Road # 02,
Ring Road, Adabor, Shaymoli
Dhaka 1207, Bangladesh.
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