Mirza M. Hassan, PhD, is Advisor, Governance and Politics cluster, at BRAC Institute of Governance and Development (BIGD), BRAC University. Dr Hassan’s research largely focuses on political development, state-business relations, urban governance and local governance, the justice sector and human rights, and related issues in South Asia, the Pacific region, and North Africa. He has more than 20 years of consulting experience on these issues for DFID, The Asia Foundation, The World Bank, UNDP, CARE Bangladesh, and other development agencies. He is well versed in conducting political economy analysis, institutional and stakeholder analysis, and using mixed methods. Dr Hassan received his PhD in Development Studies from the Institute of Commonwealth Studies (ICS), University of London, and completed his Master’s in Urban Studies and Planning from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Cambridge. He is also an honorary Academic Fellow of the Institute of Development Policy Management (IDPM), University of Manchester, UK.
