Research is only useful when the data can be trusted.

I am Md. Zahirul Islam, a Senior Project Associate at ARCED Foundation (Aureolin Research, Consultancy & Expertise Development) in Dhaka, where I have worked since 2013. Over that time I have managed more than 100 research assignments — baseline, midline and endline assessments, impact evaluations, randomized controlled trials, tracer studies and large-scale listing surveys — for partners including the World Bank, Oxfam, Stanford, Georgetown, UC San Diego, IFPRI, ILO, USAID and Innovations for Poverty Action.

My work usually begins before the first interview: contributing to research design and sampling, building the instruments, programming them in SurveyCTO or ODK with quality checks baked in, and training the teams who will use them. In the field I run the supervision, back-check and audio-audit routines that keep data honest, and report daily to principal investigators and clients. Afterwards I clean, document and analyse the data in Stata, R or Python, build the dashboards, and help write the report.

Since 2026 I also work with ARCED International, the group's international consulting arm, as Survey Design & Field Quality Assurance Specialist on evaluation and research bids in Kenya and East Africa — questionnaire programming, enumerator screening and training, high-frequency checks, back-checking and audio audits, consent registers and evidence ledgers. Before joining ARCED in 2013 I spent five years at Chowdhury Group as Senior Research Officer (R&D), which is where my habit of building systems for other people to use began.

I hold a Professional Master's in Development Studies from Jagannath University and an MBA in Human Resource Management. Outside work I build websites, tinker with data tools, and run a small mobile-accessories ecommerce business.