Sustainable Development, Human Dignity and Choice

Dr Greeley has researched and published extensively on poverty and public policy in Africa and Asia and has worked with the World Bank, European Investment Bank, European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, African Development Bank and Asian Development Bank as well as several UN agencies and many bilateral donors. He has recentlyled an ESRC research project on psychological wellbeing and extreme poverty. Previously, he worked for WFP and the EC-ECHO in Pakistan on the role of food assistance in transition settings and in sustainable livelihood development. He has also led a seven-country study for UNICEF on Real Time Monitoring of the Most Vulnerable. He has worked extensively in fragile states, with a focus on aid effectiveness for which he developed an analytic framework in joint IDS-World Bank research. He has published several papers on microfinance, leading a USD 2.5 million research programme funded by the Ford Foundation on social performance and also worked with the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development on microfinance, identifying opportunities to incorporate social performance indicators that straddle transition and development objectives. In addition, he has worked on poverty and public policy in several other countries including Tanzania, Afghanistan, Uganda, Palestine, and Ethiopia.


At IDS, he has held several senior positions including head of graduate programmes, member of Governing Body and, for the University of Sussex, Chair of the Research Degrees Examination Board. He was previously on the Board of MISFA (Microfinance apex Afghanistan) advising on impact assessment and is currently on the Board of Afghanaid.

Dr. Asif M. Shahan is currently working as an Associate Professor at Department of Development Studies, University of Dhaka. He has worked on difference issues related with administrative system, government performance, accountability, social protection and governance of Bangladesh for more than 10 years. He has provided consultancy services to different agencies of the Government of Bangladesh (including the Prime Minister's Officer, Cabinet Division, Ministry of Women and Children Affairs, PKSF) and international organizations including World Bank, UNDP, UNFPA, UNICEF, WFP, IDS (University of Sussex), Agropolis France, Swiss contact Bangladesh, BRAC Institute of Governance and Development, The Asia Foundation, The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, Centers on the Public Service, George Mason University etc. As part of his assignment, he analyzed the institutional capacity of different institutions of accountability (e.g. Election Commission, Office of the Comptroller and Auditor General of Bangladesh, Judiciary, Public Service Commission), analyzed the overall governance scenario of Bangladesh, assisted in developing activity plans for different government ministries (e.g. activity plan for Ministry of Women and Children Affairs in implementing the National Social Security Strategy), designed policy advocacy plan (e.g. policy advocacy plan for UNFPA), evaluated the performance management system and National Integrity System of Bangladesh, conducted strategic review to understand the current status and future challenges of Bangladesh in the domain of food security and nutrition, evaluateddiff