Talat Mahmud

Presently overseeing a 100 million USD Early Childhood development portfolio for Rohingya Response in Cox’s Bazar in partnership with BRAC, IRC, NYU, UNHCR, SCI, TdH, RI, PLAN, WVI, JCF, CODEC, and more I/NGOs across the Rohingya Response program. I have over 20 years of experience and worked in technical, managerial, and leadership/SMT positions in both development and the humanitarian context in Education, Child Protection, TVET, and DRR. I have managed and overseen EU, USAID, WB, DFAT, DFID, GAC, Lego, Dubai Cares, and some other donor-funded projects. I also have worked overseas in Laos, and provided technical support to SCI Darfur and Nepal besides my long experience in Bangladesh with good rapport with the Ministries, I/NGOs, and NGO networks. I am highlighting below some of my acquired skills from this long experience: • Large Scale Budget, Partnership, and implementation management: I have also managed multi-donor, multi Sector Projects of up to 20 million USD annual budget from EU, DIPECHO, UNHCR, DFID, USAID, DANIDA, SIDA, GAC, NMFA, World Bank, Dubai Cares, IKEA Foundation, Porticus, Chevron, C&A Foundation, Nere Foundation, Sponsorship funding and acquired skills of financial management, risk assessment & management, program evaluation, and maintaining donor and government compliances. I worked extensively in the areas of Partnership with NGOs, INGOs, UNESCO, UNHCR, Government, and civil society networks in Bangladesh and Laos. • Multi-sector project proposal development: I have been engaged in new program design and proposal writing for the last 15 years. In recent years I was the technical lead for EU, WB, and USAID proposal development in Laos and Bangladesh and awarded all 4 of them. Also developed 6 proposals for Rohingya Response for GAC, NMFA, DFAT, EU, and some corporates. • Fundraising: Cultivated donor relations with major donors e.g. EU, DFAT, WB, DFID, USAID, and corporates) for fundraising and portfolio strengthening through consistent and professional communication with different donors and Save the Children members. • Policy Advocacy, networking, and representation: I was engaged in advocacy for the Right to Primary Education law, Multi-lingual education, ECD, and NFE policy. I lead the effort of establishing an evidence-based model of non-formal primary education of SCI, published in the EFA 2015 National Report, and finally accepted by the government to scale up nationally. I also worked closely with several line Ministries and was the Chair of the INGO Education Forum in Bangladesh in 2015-2016 and was the Co-chair of the Basic Education Focal Group of ESDP of the Ministry of Education and Sports in Laos for more than two years. • Strategic planning, documentation, and reporting: Led Education Country Strategic plan development process of Save the Children International of 2012-2014, 2015-2017, and 2018-2020, Contributed to PEDP III and IV in Bangladesh, contributed to Education Sector Development Program (ESDP) implementation and assessment in Laos, reviewed and finalized donor reports for all donors mentioned above, and published case studies and success stories. I worked closed with UNESCO Dhaka on the NFE delivery mechanism pilot, NFE policy, Equivalency framework, and NFE Plan, and with BNCU on the GMR Report as Editor of the Bangla version and presented nationally from 2012-2016 and 2019 And on APMEd in Bangkok. • Team management (including Expatriates) and capacity strengthening: In Bangladesh, I had been directly managing a team of 5-12 Senior Managers, Program Directors, and COP including nationals and expatriates, and oversaw a team of about 500 staff including field teams from 2007-2016. I have trained more than 100 Senior Managers in Asia as an Asia Regional Trainer for Managing High Performance (MHP) training of SCI since 2012. • MEAL: I lead the development of a robust M&E system with the application of real-time data management and commissioned several research and evaluations and also lead a research project funded by DFID. I have also experience in ensuring Accountability and Learning mechanism built in during program design and subsequent implementation. Having two master’s degrees in Economics and Education, I have attended a year-long course on Education Quality and Leadership at Harvard University, completed a four-month course on Adult Literacy at Reading University-UK, and completed a Diploma in Child Rights & Classroom management from Lund University, Sweden.