Haroun Er Rashid

Haroun Er Rashid, a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society (FRGS) of the U.K., was educated at Karachi Grammar School, Aitchison Chiefs College and Government College in Lahore, Pakistan. He took his Tripos (B.A Honours) and M.A. in Geography from Emmanuel College, Cambridge University, U.K. in 1957 and later did another M.A., in Development Economics, from Williams College (Mass) U.S.A. After a brief period as a Lecturer at Dacca University, he was selected to join the elite administrative group - the Civil Service of Pakistan in 1959. At the district level, he worked in Mymensingh, Cox's Bazar, and Sylhet at the Secretariat he was with the Planning Department. During his tenure in the districts he prepared and published his first book; East Pakistan; A Systematic Regional Geography and its Development Planning Aspects, while posted as Joint Secretary in the Agriculture Department, in 1967, he was deputed as Project Economist, to the World Bank, Washington DC, where he was the first civil servant to defect and join the Government of Bangladesh and also to actively organize the Liberation War efforts in the U.S.A. from March 1971 onwards. Soon after Liberation, he went on to work for the World Bank and FAO on different projects in Southeast Asia and South America. In 1978 the Government of Bangladesh again deputed him to the FAO. He worked in many countries of Asia and Africa and resided in Tanzania for two years. Since returning to Bangladesh in 1983, he has worked on various projects for the Government and for CIDA, Asian Development Bank, and UNDP on Agriculture, Food and Environmental issues. Currently, he is The Team Leader, in the Ministry of Environment and Forests, for preparing. The National Environment Management Action Programme and is also the Resident Senior Advisor for the International Union for the Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources (IUCN - Switzerland). Mr. Rashid is a highly regarded ornithologist and his publication titled Systematic List of the Birds of East Pakistan (Asiatic Society of East Pakistan - 1967) is still the only one on this subject. He is now increasingly involved, as President, in managing POUSH - a private voluntary organization or NGO in local parlance - which is executing social forestry, coastal afforestation and fisheries projects with special emphasis on women's participation in these efforts.