Team
Dr Jeroen Warner
Dr Jeroen Warner is Associate Professor, Sociology of Development and Change Group at Wageningen University and research Centre (WUR). He did his MSc in International Relations from University of Amsterdam; PhD in Disaster Studies from Wageningen University.
Dr Warner teaches, trains and publishes on domestic and transboundary water conflict, participatory resource management, and governance issues. His main research interests are in social resilience and the disaster studies domain. He has long experience of working in Bangladesh. Dr Warner’s expertise is in Disaster Studies, Politics, Water Management, and Risk Analysis.
Dr Jivanta Schöttli
Dr Jivanta Schöttli is Assistant Professor in Indian Politics and Foreign Policy at the School of Law and Government, Dublin City University (DCU) and Deputy Director of the Ireland India Institute, also at DCU. She is Principle Investigator for the Project.
She holds a PhD in Political Science (Summa Cum Laude) from Heidelberg University in Germany, a Masters in Economic History and a BSc in International Relations & History, both from the London School of Economics and Politics, UK.
Her research has explored the interconnections between domestic politics and international relations in India's foreign policy, with a focus on geopolitics in South Asia; maritime governance in the Indian Ocean, and the emerging strategic construct of the Indo-Pacific. Publications include Maritime Governance in South Asia (Ed.) World Scientific, Singapore, 2018; Power, Politics and Maritime Governance in the Indian Ocean (ed) Routledge, London 2014; Vision and Strategy in Indian Politics with Routledge, London 2012. She has written articles for Asian Survey, the Institute of South Asian Studies in Singapore, Journal of Asian Public Policy, Journal of the Indian Ocean Region and Irish Studies in International Affairs.
Dr Samiya Selim
Dr Samiya Selim is an Associate Professor and the Director of Center for Sustainable Development (CSD). She has studied and worked in the UK the past 12 years in the field of environment conservation, climate change and sustainable development. Her specialization is in the areas of ecosystem-based management, sustainable livelihoods, socio-ecological systems, climate change adaptation and resilience, ecosystem services, and science-policy interphase.
Dr Selim has Masters’ degrees in both in Sustainable Development and Conservation Biology from the University of Leeds and a PhD in Marine Ecology from Animal and Plant Sciences Department, University of Sheffield, United Kingdom. She also has 10 years working experience in research, project management and policy advocacy in the NGO Sector in Bangladesh and England. She has been engaged in collaborative interdisciplinary research projects with DFID, SEI, BUET, and USAID and has several publications in peer-reviewed journals.
Dr Selim is interested in pursuing further research on ecosystem based management and building a green economy that focus on solutions for biodiversity, ecosystems and people.
Dr Oliver Scanlan
Dr Oliver Scanlan is a Research Fellow at ULAB’s Center for Sustainable Development. He has a PhD in Politics and International relations from Dublin City University, and a Master’s from the University of Amsterdam, both focusing on customary land and forestry rights in India and Bangladesh. His research interests include how customary tenure regimes relate to climate change resilience and adaptation measures. He is a Fellow of the Oxford Research Group’s Sustainable Security Program, specializing in climate change and its implications for global security.
He is a member of the UN Environment Program’s Geneva-based Science Policy Platform, in which capacity he presented at the Munich Security Conference in 2018. He has worked for several International NGOs and multilateral organizations, including Oxfam, Save the Children and UN Environment.
Dr Markus Pauli
Dr Markus Pauli is Lecturer in Public Policy and Sustainability in the School of Law and Government, Dublin City University. He has held positions in the Political Science Department at the National University of Singapore, Yale-NUS Singapore, Singapore Management University, and Heidelberg University, Germany.
His current research focuses on the political economy of decarbonization in a comparative perspective in Asia and Europe. His earlier research projects focused on financial inclusion and microfinance in India, governance of global food value chains in Southeast Asia, global governance and sustainable development.
Dr Pauli currently holds a Rising Talent Fellowship at Dublin City University, and previously had scholarships from the Cluster of Excellence ‘Asia and Europe in a Global Context’, Heidelberg University, where he did his PhD and from the Friedrich Ebert Foundation. He studied at the Free University, Berlin and the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE).
Dr Pauli has co-authored work on India´s democracy, socio-economic development, citizenship, and human security as well as on financial inclusion and collaborative governance for the Sustainable Development Goals. His forthcoming book is titled The Political Economy of Microfinance in South Asia in a Comparative Perspective.
Dr Dik Roth
Dik Roth is a social anthropologist and Associate Professor at the Sociology of Development and Change Group of Wageningen University, Wageningen, the Netherlands. He is specifically interested in anthropology of law, policy and development, development studies, land and water rights and policies, and the politics of natural resources governance. Before re-entering academia, he worked as a consultant on land reform and irrigation development in Indonesia. In the same country he did research on land and water rights, irrigation, ethnicity and regional autonomy.
More recently he became increasingly involved in water issues in South Asia (India, Nepal, Bangladesh; land and water rights; technology and institutions in irrigation; urbanization and peri-urban areas), as well as the Netherlands (flood risk management policy; ‘Room for the River’). Between 2014 and 2018 he coordinated a project on water conflicts and climate change in four South Asian peri-urban areas in Bangladesh, India and Nepal, funded by the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO) and the UK Department For International Development (DFID) under the research program Conflict and Cooperation in the Management of Climate Change (CCMCC).
Project advisors
Mita Rahman
Mita Rahman has been working as an Area Manager (Operations) for Uttaran since 2013. During this time, she was responsible for SALE project activities in Jamalpur Upazila, working in the field of land governance, khas land allocation, digital land surveying, and settlement. She has participated in many national and international training workshops and seminars on land issues. She is extensive experience in public communications and liaising with government and non-government stakeholders and the media. Is presently working in Dumuria Upazilia, running a project focusing on the agricultural food value chain. She holds a bachelors degree from the National University of Bangladesh.
Sheikh Mamun Ur Rashid
Mamun has nearly twenty years’ experience working in the development sector, with specific technical knowledge concerning land administration and survey and settlement operations. Between 2013 and 2017, he was Project Co-ordinator of the SALE project at Uttaran. Before this he worked for a number of international organisations, including VSO, HelpAge International, and the United Nations Development Programme. He is currently Senior Programme Manager at Manusher Jonno Foundation. He has a Masters’ degree in Social Science, Political Science and Government from the University of Dhaka, and is a member of the Bangladesh Political Science Association.
Apurbo Mrong
Apurbo Mrong has been Regional Director for Caritas in Mymensingh for the last six and half years, managing 244 staff across 19 sub-districts, and responsible for an annual turnover of $1.5 million in project spending. Flagship projects have included the establishment of a United Council of the Indigenous Organizations of Greater Mymensingh (UCGM) as a common advocacy platform for the IP’s of Mymensingh, Bangladesh and the Greater Mymensingh Adivasi Development Cluster (GMADC) in order to strengthen Traditional Social Organizations (TSOs). Mr Mrong also launched the first ever digital land mapping project in Bangladesh specifically addressing Indigenous Communities and successfully completed community based land demarcation/mapping of around 10000 acres of Indigenous Peoples’ land in 87 villages of across three sub-districts.
Dr Samina Luthfa
Dr Luthfa is an activist researcher interested in studying environmental justice movement, political ecology, gender and media. She uses qualitative and mixed method research, with a general geographical focus is on South Asia. She is currently working on labour rights in Ready Made Garment industry, feminist analysis of voices of theatre actors, and Mandi peasants, popular culture and youth preference in Music, creative musings in political protests and so on.
She read for her DPhil at the University of Oxford, looking at the local, national and transnational mobilization against a proposed open-cast coal mine in northern Bangladesh. She is working on social movements and livelihood vulnerabilities among female workers in RMG sector in Bangladesh. She is currently working at the University of Dhaka as an Associate Professor of Sociology. Before joining University of Dhaka, she taught Sociology at the Bangladesh Agricultural University and Independent University, Bangladesh. She has worked as the Athena Swan Gender Researcher at the University of Oxford.
Shazzad Khan
Shazzad Khan has worked in development for 29 years, leading several teams working on human rights and good governance. He has expertise on project cycle management, strategic planning, gender & development, policy advocacy, participatory approaches, human resource management, due diligence and the the SDGs.
He has two master’s degrees – in business administration (major in human resource management) and in public affairs (major in government and public policy), and has participated in training programmes on development programme management, rights-based approach, policy advocacy and participatory approaches.
He currently leads MJF’s ‘Tackling Marginalisation and Discrimination’ portfolio, channelling funding and technical support to 25 partner NGOs working with landless people, the disabled, Dalit and fisher-folk. He has worked with over 50 partner NGOs in his 14 years with MJF.
Fatima Halima Ahmed
Fatima Halima Ahmed is Coordinator (Resources Management, Communication and Partnership) at Uttaran, where she has worked since 1999. She obtained her Masters Degree from the Department of Public Administration of Dhaka University. She has substantial experience in programme design and management, resource mobilization and worked in a wide range of livelihoods and natural resources management programmes in Bangladesh.
Prior to joining Uttaran, Ms. Ahmad worked for Disaster Forum, a national level disaster preparedness network of seventy humanitarian and development agencies in Bangladesh. She also worked with the Bangladesh National Preparatory Committee towards Beijing NGO Forum’95, Women for Women and Family Development Services and Research. Currently she is working as a member of the Selection Committee of Start Fund Bangladesh.
Project researchers
Nasrin Siraj
Nasrin Siraj is an anthropologist. She has completed her first MA in Anthropology from Jahangirnagar University, Dhaka in 2000. Then, in 2010, she obtained her second MA in Anthropology from Vrije University, Amsterdam, where she is currently doing her PhD.
Region wise, Nasrin is focused on Bangladesh and its highland border areas. Thematically, she is focused on mobility and migration, violence and democracy, and the processes of exclusion and inclusion.
She has teaching experience in Asian University for Women in Bangladesh and in Martin-Luther-Universitat, Halle-Wittenberg, Germany. Her courses covered qualitative research methods, political identities in Asia and history and rights of ethnic and religious minorities in Bangladesh.
Ushwe Wen
Ushwe Wen is an independent social worker from the Rakhaine Indigenous Community of Bangladesh’s coastal areas. He is currently President of the Kalapara sub-district Boddha Bihar Samity (Buddhist Temple Council). Previously he worked for the Rakhaine Development Foundation (RDF) for six years. He has held roles as a Trainer for ActionAid Bangladesh, a Community Development Organiser for a sustainable agriculture programme funded by the Canadian Agency for International Development (CIDA), and as a Community Organiser for a Disaster Resilience intervention run by Muslim Aid Bangladesh. He holds a Bachelors of Social Sciences from Amtali Degree College.
Parag Ritchil
Parag Ritchil is an independent writer, poet and activist from the Garo indigenous community. He has been involved in research projects on Indigenous land and forest rights, labour rights and, most recently, a study of the impact of Covid-19 on Indigenous Peoples. He has published five books: three collections of poetry, one of traditional ballads and one monograph on the traditional Sangsarek religion of the Garo people. He has a Master’s degree in Government and Politics from Jahanginagar University.
Dilip Pahan
Dilip Pahan is a researcher, writer and activist from Chapai Nawabganj. A member of the Pahan indigenous community, he currently serves as a member of both Jatiya Adivasi Parishad and Adivasi Jubo Parishad. Previously he has held appointments as both Organising Secretary and General Secretary of the Indigenous Students Council (ISC). He holds a Master’s in Business Administration from the National University at Gazipur, and has written numerous articles that have appeared in national media outlets.