Dr Fahmida Khatun is the Executive Director of the Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD), a leading civil society think tank in Bangladesh.
Before joining CPD, Dr Khatun served in several key research and advisory positions. She was a Research Fellow at the Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies (BIDS), an Environment Specialist at the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), and an Economist for the USAID Mission in Bangladesh. Alongside her policy work, she has taught economics at universities in Bangladesh and England and has served as a Visiting Fellow at various international research institutions.
Her research interests and areas of expertise include macroeconomic policy, climate change, environment and energy economics, aid effectiveness, international trade and WTO issues, the digital economy, youth employment, social development including health and education, issues concerning Least Developed Countries (LDCs), the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), and women’s participation in the economy.
Dr Khatun plays an active role in policy-making and advisory bodies at both national and international levels. She is a member of the Board of Bangladesh Bank, the High-Level Advisory Board on the Productive Capacities Index of UNCTAD, and the Board of BRAC, the world’s largest non-governmental organisation. She also serves on the Task Force on Climate, Development, and the International Monetary Fund (IMF), an initiative of Boston University, USA. In 2023, she was the Co-Chair of the T20 Task Force on ‘Accelerating SDGs: Exploring New Pathways to the 2030 Agenda’ under the G20.
She has authored numerous publications in Bangladesh and abroad on a wide range of economic and development issues. Dr Khatun is a regular columnist for The Daily Star, one of Bangladesh’s leading newspapers, and contributes to the East Asia Forum based at the Crawford School of Public Policy, Australian National University. She frequently appears in national and international media, including BBC World Service Television, Al Jazeera Television, and Voice of America Radio.
Dr Khatun holds a PhD and a Master’s degree in Economics from University College London (UCL), University of London. She completed her postdoctoral research at Columbia University, USA, where she conducted joint research with Professor Jeffrey Sachs, and she has also completed the Leadership Decision-Making Programme at Harvard University, USA.
