Study design & instruments
Sampling strategies, questionnaire development and translation, protocols and manuals, IRB and ethics compliance.
ARCED International ◆ ARCED Foundation · Dhaka, Bangladesh
Turning field data into evidence that decides.
I'm Zahirul Islam, Senior Project Associate at ARCED Foundation and part of the ARCED International team. For 13+ years I have designed, run and analysed surveys, impact evaluations and randomized controlled trials — 100+ projects for universities, UN agencies, governments and NGOs.
13+ yrsresearch & data practice
100+research projects managed
8,400students assessed in a single World Bank study
6,700garment workers surveyed for one endline
30+international partners served
What I do
From questionnaire to dashboard
I cover the whole evidence pipeline — so findings reach clients clean, on time and defensible.
Field & team management
Enumerator training, field supervision, back-checks and audio audits, daily reporting to PIs and clients — on CATI and in-person surveys.
Digital data systems
SurveyCTO, ODK and KoBo form programming with built-in quality checks; data pipelines, cleaning and documentation in Stata, R and Python.
Analysis & visualisation
Descriptive and inferential analysis, rubric-based evaluation scoring, Power BI / Tableau / Looker Studio dashboards and GIS mapping.
M&E systems & evaluation
Monitoring frameworks, indicator design and OECD-DAC evaluations for development programmes — from inception to final report.
Reporting & proposals
Evaluation reports, technical proposals and budgets for institutional tenders, plus web, graphics and document design.
Trusted by
Partners and clients
Research collaborations and consultancies delivered through ARCED Foundation and ARCED International since 2013.
World BankUC San DiegoStanford UniversityGeorgetown UniversityIFPRI & IFADNew York UniversityColumbia Business SchoolPrinceton UniversityInternational Growth CentreILOUSAIDIFRCOxfamSave the ChildrenInnovations for Poverty ActionNational University of SingaporeMITYale UniversityUniversity of YorkPlan InternationalSwisscontactActionAidAction Against HungerGAINBRAC UniversitySesame WorkshopDalbergUniversity of BremenUniversity of Minnesota
Selected work
All 94 projects
Featured projects
Demand for Clean Air in the Workplace
Randomized field study in ready-made garment factories linking workplace air quality to worker productivity — calibrated PM2.5 monitors, smart-plug systems, attendance and productivity data, worker surveys.
RCTSensor dataSurveyCTO
Brick Kiln Tracker — 43 districts
Technology-enabled randomized study to improve monitoring and enforcement of brick-kiln pollution: tracker and dashboard across 43 districts, workshops with Department of Environment officials, longitudinal follow-ups.
DashboardGISGovernment liaison
Impact Assessment of CDSP IV
Coastal char livelihoods impact assessment in Noakhali — Survey Solutions and SurveyCTO templates, listing/pilot/main surveys in Companiganj, Hatiya and Subarnachar, cleaned datasets to the PIs.
Survey SolutionsStataImpact evaluation
Skill for Growth — Human Capital & Labor-Market Frictions
Large-scale study of manufacturing firms, managers and employees in Dhaka, Gazipur and Narayanganj: questionnaire development and testing, enumerator training, daily high-frequency checks.
Firm surveyHFCsTraining
EZ-Bike Battery Market — Audit & Exit Surveys
Mixed-methods audit study of dealer price, information and reputation trade-offs in the electric three-wheeler battery market, with an incentivized consumer-preference survey.
Audit studyCircular economySPSS
Household Air Filter Project
Randomized evaluation of air purifiers on health outcomes and willingness-to-pay in Pallabi and Mirpur — 40-household pilot, 1,000-household scale-up and a 2,500-household follow-on survey.
RCTAir-quality monitoringPower BI
Reproducible Research Fundamentals
Completed the World Bank course on reproducible research and BIGD's crash course on research communications (2025), alongside a series on data science, analytics, Power BI and machine-learning basics with Cambridge International Qualifications.
Publications & reports
Peer-reviewed articles on economic growth in developing countries and on COVID-19 lockdowns and tobacco use; a preprint on urban mental health in Dhaka; study and evaluation reports for IFRC, USAID and others.