Qazi Kholiquzzaman Ahmad

Qazi Kholiquzzaman Ahmad (কাজী খলীকুজ্জমান আহমদ; born c. 1943) is a Bangladeshi economist and development thinker and activist. He is currently the chairman of Dhaka School of Economics (DScE), a constituent institution of the University of Dhaka, devoted to post-graduate studies in economics and related subjects. He is former chairman (November, 2009 to September, 2023) of Palli Karma-Sahayak Foundation (PKSF), which is largest rural development funding, skill development and management support agency in Bangladesh. He received the highest national civilian award Independence Award 2019; and Ekushe Padak 2009, presented by the Government of Bangladesh.

Early life and education
Ahmad was born in c. 1943 to a Bengali Muslim Qazi family in Sylhet District, Assam Province. His father, Mumtazul Muhaddithin Moulana Qazi Muhammad Mufazzal Hussain of Karimganj, was an Islamic scholar who served as a member of the Assam Legislative Assembly from 1946 to 1952, and later as a college professor. Ahmad was taught by his father until he went to school at the 8th grade. He achieved outstanding results in both secondary and higher secondary levels. He studied at the University of Dhaka, obtaining BA (Hons) in economics and MA (Econ.) degrees in 1961 and 1962 respectively. Later, he went to the London School of Economics (LSE), University of London, on a national merit fellowship and obtained MPhil (Econ.) and PhD (Econ.) degrees.

He was active in promoting Bangladesh's nationalist aspirations during the 1960s and a participant in the Bangladesh Liberation War in 1971, as a Planning Cell member of the then Bangladesh government-in-exile.

Career
Ahmad spent 23 years in a research career at Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies (BIDS) and its predecessor Pakistan Institute of Development Economics (PIDE), having been a Research Director for a number of years. He left BIDS in 1987 and then worked as the chairman (chief executive) of Bangladesh Unnayan Parishad (BUP), which he helped, set up in 1980. He left BUP on taking over as chairman of the Governing Body of PKSF in November 2009. He is the founder chairman of Dhaka School of Economics -DScE, established in August 2010. He was elected president of Bangladesh Economic Association (BEA), the apex body of economists of Bangladesh, for consecutive three terms from 2002 to 2010.

He was coordinating lead author and lead author of the Third and the Fourth Assessments respectively of Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), published respectively in 2001 and 2007. He was president of the Kuala Lumpur-based Association of Development Research and Training Institutes of Asia and the Pacific—ADIPA (which is now renamed the Asian Political and International Studies Association—APISA) from 1979 to 1983 and vice-president of the Rome-based Society for International Development (SID) from 1988 to 1991. He led many UN FAO/WFP food and crop assessment missions during the 1990s and early 2000s to food deficit African and Asian countries facing food crisis due to natural disasters and civil strife.

In addition to his other responsibilities, he has been the Coordinator of Bangladesh Climate Change Negotiation Team within the framework of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). He represented Bangladesh in the UN Open Working Group (OWG) on Post-2015 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). He was also, until January 2015, a member of the executive board of Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) of the Kyoto Protocol, representing non-Annex-1 countries. He is also the Chairman of the National Committee of the Bangladesh Economics Olympiad.

Publications
His publications and research and other works include 40 books and over 250 articles, research reports and unpublished papers. He has also contributed numerous columns in newspapers. He is a well-known expert on water and climate change issues. Some of Ahmad's publications are listed below:



Awards
He received many national and international awards including the following:
 * 2005: Received Mercantile Bank Award-2005.
 * 2007: Is a Member of the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize winning UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change -IPCC Team.
 * 2009: Was awarded the Ekushey Padak 2009.
 * 2012: He was awarded Bangladesh Economic Association (BEA) Gold Medal.
 * 2019: National Environment Award 2019 by the State.
 * 2019: Independence Award 2019, the highest Civilian Award by Government of Bangladesh.