Greetings! On behalf of the Executive Committee of the Bangladesh Development Initiative (BDI), I want to welcome you to the organization’s official page.
I hope you take some time to browse through these pages. You will discover a wealth of resources for students, scholars and others interested in research and policy issues related to the economic development of Bangladesh.
The vision of BDI is to build the organization, “as the premier research and policy advocacy group in North America with interdisciplinary skills dedicated to inform and influence the development of Bangladesh through intellectual engagement and policy advocacy.”
Since its inception, BDI has tried to achieve this in a number of ways including organizing conferences for academics and policymakers, publishing books with research papers with diverse perspectives, advocating policy positions, humanitarian work, advocacy on important issues of the day, and importantly nurturing scholarly work on Bangladesh through its flagship publication, the Journal of Bangladesh Studies (JBS). In working to achieve our mission, BDI has always been open and transparent seeking to partner with organizations such as the American Institute of Bangladesh Studies (AIBS), BRAC, PRI, DDBF, Bangladesh Institute for Development Studies (BIDS), CPD, among others.
The BDI executive committee members come from diverse backgrounds. The committee includes political scientists, economists, business professors, linguists, administrators, managers, IT professionals, and engineers. In recent months we have included a number of young scholars prominent in fields such as public administration, architecture, political science and computer science. This diversity is reflected in our mission and work.
Those interested in a more complete list of past projects may want to browse the entire site and check out Professor Saad Andaleeb’s (immediate past president) letter posted on the site, where he details many recent achievements and some of the future plans.
I do have a request! After you have familiarized yourself with our mission and projects, if you have ideas on improvement, or questions, or wish to partner in some way, please send me a note. I will love to hear from you especially if you found this site beneficial, or have an idea about a project that we have neglected, or wish to partner in a venture, or simply wish to join us. We can work together to build a more just and prosperous Bangladesh, which would play a leadership role in the community of nations to build a better world.
