Dr Sheikh Tawhidul Islam has extensive, field-based experience in conducting research in different problem domains such as poverty and inequality, environment, disaster and climate change, digitalization and cross-cutting issues. This section lists selected 60+ research works undertaken by him for international and national agencies including academic and knowledge management agencies. Apart from academic research undertakings, Dr Islam carried out impact evaluation assessments (e.g., baseline surveys, mid-term and terminal evaluations) of project interventions implemented in different geographical areas in Bangladesh and abroad. The professional research exercises are grouped into five categories and listed in the following sections.

Poverty and inequality

Position – Team Leader (2022 and continuing)
Agency – Institute of Development Studies (IDS), University of Sussex
Title – Child Labor Action Research Innovations in Southern and South Eastern Asia
Type of work – Spatial mapping action research
Reference – Dr Jody Aked. Email: jody.aked@gmail.com

Position – Team Leader. 2021
Agency – BRAC/UNICEF
Title – Labor Markey Survey (LMS) in the contexts of humanitarian response.
Type of work – Labor Market Survey (LMS) for Rohingya and Bangali host communities in Coxs Bazar
Reference – Bebek Kanti Das, Project Manager, Child Protection (BRAC/UNICEF). Email: bebek.kd@brac.net

Position – National Consultant. 2013
Agency – Swiss Contact
Title – Terminal Evaluation of their Skills Mark Project
Type of work – Terminal Evaluation
Reference – Mr Belayet Hossain. Programme Manager. Email: belayet.hossain@swisscontact.org.bd

Position – National Consultant (Team Leader). 2013
Agency – CAFOD, United Kingdom
Title – Improved Food and Livelihoods Security Project
Type of work – Terminal Evaluation
Reference – Miss Paula Nyunt. Programme Officer. Email: pnyunt@cafod.org.uk

Position – Consultant. 2012
Agency – Diakonia, Sweden
Title – Environmental Lens Project
Type of work – Mentor and Facilitator

Position – National Consultant. 2014
Agency – Concern World Wide
Title – Coastal Contextual Assessment
Type of work – Assessment of poverty and ecosystems vulnerability in Sunderbans mangrove forest contexts.
Reference – Mr Shakil Ahmed. Email: shakil.ahmed@concern.ne

Position – National Consultant. 2014
Agency – Concern World Wide
Title – Baseline Survey on Sundari (SEALS) Project
Type of work – Baseline survey
Reference – Mr Shakil Ahmed. Email: shakil.ahmed@concern.ne

Position – National Consultant. 2014
Agency – Concern World Wide
Title – Mid Term Review on Sundari (SEALS) Project
Type of work – Mid project evaluation
Reference – Mr Shakil Ahmed. Email: shakil.ahmed@concern.ne

environmental issues

Position – Team Leader (2022)
Agency – International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD, Nepal)
Title – Cities Study on Exposure and Impact of Air Pollution in the HKH Regions.
Type of work – Air pollution study in Chittagong City Corporation area.
Reference – Dr Amina Maharjan. Email: Amina.Maharjan@icimod.org

Position – Team Leader (2022 and ongoing)
Agency – Brunel University London, United Kingdom.
Title – HYDROUSA project replicability in Bangladesh
Type of work – SEA study
Reference – Alban Echchelh. Email: Alban.Echchelh@brunel.ac.uk

Position – Senior Consultant (Geo-spatial). 2022
Agency – International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD, Nepal)
Title – Needs assessment exercise with BARC, BARI, DAE and other relevant stakeholders. Conduct tracer surveys of BARC, FFWC, BMD, JU based on SERVIR-HKH.
Type of work – Assessment of institutional gaps and data and model needs towards improvements of public services
Reference – Rajesh Bahadur Thapa (Theme Leader), Geospatial Solutions, ICIMOD. Email: rajesh.thapa@icimod.org

Position – Climate change and DRR Specialist. 2021
Agency – ActionAid Association (India)
Title – Threats and conservation challenges in Sundarbans: A case study from Hingalganj Block of North 24 Parganas, West Bengal, India.
Type of work – Environmental assessment, ecosystem services and examination of environmental degradation
Reference – Mr Surajit Neogi. Email: surajit.neogi@actionaid.org

Position – SEA Expert. 2019
Agency – Oxfam
Title – Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA)
Type of work – SEA study in the contexts of implementation of PROTIC project in the southwestern coastal areas of Bangladesh.
Reference – Tapas Ranjan Chakrabarti. Email: biocontapas@yahoo.com

Position – National Consultant. 2017
Agency – UNESCAP and Department of Environment (DoE)
Title – Environmental Data Needs Assessment and Indicator Reporting Information System (IRIS) Delivery Potential Evaluation
Type of work – Study in progress to identify environmental, disaster and climate change data gaps in relation to SDG targets and different MEA (Multilateral Environmental Agreements)
Reference – Mirza Sawkat Ali, Director, Climate Change and International Convention, Department of Environment (DoE). Email: mirzasa1@yahoo.com

Position – National Consultant. 2012
Agency – United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)
Title – Coastal Water Biodiversity Management Project (CWBMP)
Type of work – Terminal Evaluation
Reference – Michael J B Green.

Position – National Consultant. 2017
Agency – Department of Environment (DoE), Bangladesh
Title – Biodiversity National Assessment Report (Fourth National Report submitted to CBD, Convention on Biological Diversity of the UN)
Type of work – National Report for Submission to CBD (Convention of Biological diversity)
Reference – Md. Solaiman Haider. Director, DoE. Email: haider.doe@gmail.com

Position – National Consultant, 2018
Agency – UN Habitat (Bangkok Office)
Title – Ecosystem Based Adaptation in Khulna City
Type of work – The report presented environmental and climate change impacts in southwestern coastal city Khulna and showed how ecosystem based adaptation could help to address problems more sustainably
Reference – Ms Joyce Lee. Email: joyce.lee@unep.org

Position – Team Leader (2022)
Agency – Bangladesh Inland Water Transport Authority (BIWTA)
Title – Strategy and action plan for ensuring pollution free water ways in Bangladesh
Type of work – Conduct investigation based on primary data and develop strategic and action plans in accordance with Mujib climate Prosperity Plan – decade 2030.
Reference – Commodore Golam Sadek, NGP, NDC, Chairman, BIWTA.

Position – National Consultant. 2016
Agency – Water Integrity Network (WIN, Germany) affiliated agency of Transparency International
Title – Evaluated Water Sector Integrity in Bangladesh
Type of work – Integrity assessment carried out for water sector focusing on Bangladesh Water Development Board (BWDB) and Dhaka WASA
Reference – Md. Mahfuzul Haque, Programme Manager, TIB. Email: m.haque62@yahoo.com

Position – Researcher. 2002
Agency – Asiatic Society of Bangladesh
Title – Forest and Wetland Change in Dhaka
Type of work – Unban environment study
Reference – Prof. Nazrul Islam. Email: cus@dhaka.net

Position – National Consultant. 2017
Agency – United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)
Title – Study carried out on ‘Lessons Learned for Adaptive Livelihoods in Southwestern Waterlogging Areas of Bangladesh’.
Type of work – The study critically examined the waterlogging problems and learned lessons from both success and failures of interventions implemented by different agencies.
Reference – Arif Abdullah Khan, Programme Specialist, Climate Change and Disaster Risk Management, UNDP (Bangladesh). Email: arif.abdullah@undp.org

Position – National consultant
Agency – Action Aid Bangladesh
Title – Strategic Environmental Assessments (SEA) of Climate Change Adaptation Interventions in Bangladesh
Type of work – Strategy Environmental Assessment (SEA)
Reference – Md. Abdul Alim. Manager. Email: abdul.alim@actionaid.org

CROSS-CUTTING DEVELOPMENT ISSUES

Position – National Consultant. Team Leader. 2019
Agency – DanChurchAid (DCA)
Title – DANIDA Single Grant Project, Implemented in Rohingya Refugee Camp and Surrounding Areas in Cox’s Bazar
Type of work – Final evaluation of the project

Position – Team Leader. 2019
Agency – Local government Engineering Department (LGED), Arc Bangladesh.
Title – Project titled “Review and update of Gopalgonj Master Plan”.
Type of work – Overall supervision of the work; quality control and responsible for deliverables

Position – National consultant. 2010
Agency – Plan International
Title – Baseline Survey on Education in Emergencies Project
Type of work – Baseline survey study
Reference – Khurshid Alam. Email: khurshid.alam@undp.org

Position – National Consultant. 2016
Agency – World Vision
Title – Baseline Survey on CBAS (SEALS) project
Type of work – Baseline survey study
Reference – Ms Elsa Carnaby. Program Officer. Email: Elsa.Carnaby@worldvision.com.au

Position – National Consultant. 2013
Agency – Concern Universal
Title – Enhancing Community Capacity to Reduce Vulnerability to Human Trafficking in Jamalpur District
Type of work – Terminal Evaluation
Reference – Sankar Paul. Program Manager. Email: shankor.paul@gmail.com

Position – National Consultant
Agency – Nabolok (national NGO)
Title – Final Evaluation of Village Project (the project was financially supported by Bread for the World, Germany)
Type of work – Final Evaluation
Reference – Kazi Zaman. Email: nabolok@nabolokbd.org

Position – National Consultant
Agency – CCDB (Christian Commission for Development in Bangladesh)
Title – Final Evaluation of Light House Project (climate change project)
Type of work – Final Evaluation
Reference – Imran Kibria. Email: imran@agnionline.com

Position – National Consultant
Agency – Dhaka Ahsania Mission
Title – Promotion of Human Rights for Preventing Violence and Discrimination against Women and Girls (PPVD) Project
Type of work – Terminal Evaluation
Reference – Shankar Paul. Email: shankor.paul@gmail.com

Position – National Consultant
Agency – Dhaka Ahsania Mission
Title – Final Evaluation on Violence Against Women Project, Patharghata, Barguna
Type of work – Terminal Evaluation
Reference – Shankar Paul. Email: shankor.paul@gmail.com

Position – National Consultant
Agency – Dhaka Ahsania Mission
Title – Preventing Violence against Women through Empowerment (PVAWTE) Project
Type of work – Terminal Evaluation
Reference – Shankar Paul. Email: shankor.paul@gmail.com

Conference presentations

Dr Islam has presented at conferences and workshops to a range of different audiences including academic and the public. Some of the presentation papers are also published in the conference proceedings. Major presentations are highlighted in the following sections.

Session Co-Chair in the International Symposium titled Disaster Resilience and Sustainable Development (DRSD) held on 24-25 June 2021, organized by AIT, Thailand. The title of my session was “Bangabandhu Chair Dialogue Panel (Technical Session 9)”.

Participated and contributed in the training programme (26-29 January 2021) titled “HydroSAR Training: Extracting Flood Information from Synthetic Aperture Radar”, arranged by NASA, ICIMOD.

Lecture given in the workshop (20-21 January 2021) titled “Humanitarian and Global Health Organizations at the Nexus of Planetary and Health and Climate Change related Extreme Weather Event: The Case of Bangladesh”, organized by Dahdaleh Institute for Global Health Research, York University, Canada.

Participated as a resource person in the “Asia Pacific Environmental Data Management Workshop, 22-25 July 2019’ held in Bangkok jointly organized by UNESCAP, UN Environment and UN Statistics Division.

Participated and contributed as a panel member on ‘Roles of Universities in Achieving SGD goals’ organized by Asian Institute of Technology (AIT), Thailand on 25 March 2019.

Invited Key note speaker in the regional seminar arranged by Bangladesh National Geographical Association (BNGA) titled “Bangladesh Delta Plan 2100”, the event took place in Jessore MM College on 4th April 2019.

Lecture given on “Climate change in Bangladesh: shifting understanding and application of ICT in filling up the knowledge gaps”, in the Second South Asian Conference on ICT and Action Research for Community Resilience (12 March 2019) jointly organized by Oxfam, Monash University (Australia) and Dhaka University.

Contributed as invited special guest in the ESRI user conference (September) 2018 took place in Singapore.
Paper presented in the 8th UN-Spider conference held in Beijing (China) in October 2018 on disaster preparedness in Bangladesh.

Address given as invited guest lecturer in the 65th anniversary of Beihang University (Beijing, China) in October 20th 2017.

Contributed as Government Panel Member in the Conference titled ‘State of Map Asia’, held in Kathmandu in September (23-24) 2017.

Conducted session in a workshop titled ‘Impacts of Climate Change Induced Disasters on Child Education’, held at Jaipur (India), 10th November 2009, organized by Aide-et-Action (India).

Attended and presented results (from Bangladesh) in the conference called ESPA, SA (Ecosystem Services and Poverty Alleviation in South Asia) held in Delhi from 15-23 February 2008. The programme was jointly organized by DFID (UK) and TERI (Dehli).

Paper presented in a Conference in June 2008 jointly organised by Bangladesh National Geographical Association and BARCIK titled “Strengthening Community Resilience as a Measure of Climate Change Adaptation in Bangladesh”. The paper is published in the proceedings.

Presented paper in Remote Sensing and Photogrammetry Society (RSPSoc) and NERC conference in Portsmouth (UK) on 7th September 2005, titled “Remote Sensing Application in Woodland Resource Assessment in Bangladesh: A Case Study of Deciduous Sal Forests”.

Paper “Forest Structure Analysis Using Quickbird Image”, was presented in the ForestSafe Conference on 14 October 2004 in Galway, Scotland.

My paper on “Potentials of Remote Sensing in Wetland Management in Bangladesh: A Case Study of Dhaka City”, presented in the 4th International Symposium on Remote Sensing of Urban Areas, 27-29 June 2003, Regensburg, Germany and published in the conference proceedings.

Paper Presented in Bangladesh Geographical Society (BGS) Conference in 2000 on “Riverbank Erosion and Associated Consequences: A Case Study of Chilmari Thana” in Dhaka.

Paper presented on “Study of Existing Leasing Out Process of Wetland Resources of Bangladesh and Its Impacts on the Community” in a seminar organized by the Faculty of Social Sciences, Jahangirnagar University on July 19, 2001.

Paper presented on “Spatial Data Quality and Need for a Metadata System in Bangladesh” on June 29, 2001 at the Young Geographers Research Conference organized by Bangladesh Geographical Society, Dhaka University.

Completed GIS certificate course from the Geography and Environment Department, Jahangirnagar University, Dhaka in 1997. The course included Arc/Info, ArcView, Idrisi softwares and the use of GPS (Global Positioning System).

Attended in a program on “Training Course on Remote Sensing and GIS for Watershed Management” at GIS Application Center (GAC), Asian Institute of Technology (AIT), Thailand. The course was conducted during 15-26 May, 2000.

Attended in a week long “Caravan Training on Flood Disaster Mitigation Using Remote Sensing and GIS” in July 1999, jointly organized by Asian Institute of
Technology (AIT), Thailand and LGED (Local Government Engineering Department), Bangladesh, funded by NASDA, Japan.

Attended in a workshop on “Application of GIS in Agriculture” under AEZ/GIS project, funded by FAO/UNDP, organized by BARC in Dhaka on October 28, 1998.

Membership

Life Member, Bangladesh National Geographical Association, BNGA.
Member, The International Association for Ecology, INTECOL.