Binayak Sen is a former Director General of the Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies (BIDS)—the country’s premier public think tank. He earned his MA in Economics from Moscow State University in 1982 and his PhD in Economics from the Institute of Oriental Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences in Moscow, Russia in 1985.

His major areas of research include inclusive development, poverty, inequality, labor market, social protection, human development, governance and political economy issues. He has published more than 70 research papers in peer reviewed journals and/or as chapters in edited books. In his professional career, he has led over 30 research projects in the above-mentioned areas (for more information on his published works, see his CV here).

He served as Senior Economist (regular staff with HQ-based posting) at the World Bank in Washington D.C. from August 2004 through December 2009. While at the World Bank he accumulated considerable international experience, working on poverty and human development problems in India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. While on leave from BIDS, he worked as a Senior Research Fellow at the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) in Washington, DC from September 2016 to September 2018. While at IFPRI he specialized in labor market issues.

Binayak has extensive consultancy experiences over the past three decades, especially involving impact evaluations, having worked for the World Bank, the ADB, WHO, UN-ESCAP, UNDP, JICA, GEZ and DFID both at national and international levels.

Binayak has played an active role in various high-level national committees and commissions for the government of Bangladesh during the last two decades. Most recently, he has served as a Member of the Panel of Economists for the Eighth Five Year Plan (FY2020/21-FY2024/25). Earlier, he was a Member of the Panel of Economists for the Seventh Five Year Plan (FY2015/16-FY2019/20) as well as the Sixth Five Year Plan of Bangladesh (FY2010/11-FY2014/15). He was a Member of Pay and Service Commission 2013 (2013-14) and Member of the Public Expenditure Review Commission (2002-04). He was Lead Consultant for the preparation of the Interim PRSP (2001-03). He was a Member of the Macroeconomic Consultative Committee to the Ministry of Finance – a Consultative Body to the Finance Minister, Govt. of Bangladesh – from 1997- 2001. He has also led the Governance Task Force for PRSP (2003-04).

For his contribution to research on development problems of Bangladesh, he has been awarded the Mercantile Bank Bangladesh award in the field of development economics in 2011.

Binayak also loves teaching. He has taught ‘economic development’ and ‘economic & moral philosophy’ courses at the undergraduate and graduate levels in the Master’s in Development Economics (MDE) program at BIDS, in partnership with Dhaka University, North South University, BRAC University, and National University, over the past two decades.