From Bangladesh to Colorado

I am very pleased to share our good fortune to host Touhidul Hoque Chowdhury, CSP Fellow of US Department of State, from Bangladesh for the next few months.

The US Department of State Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs (ECA) picked Touhid for his outstanding work in ensuring the responsiveness of public services in his country and the transparency & accountability of his local government budget planning and implementation process. This year, out of 1,500 applicants, Touhid was one of the 55 finalists from 30 countries.

As an Assistant Director at the Institute of Development Affairs (NGO) in Bangladesh, he works on the back end fundraising, communicating, and operating a large organization that is doing the hard risk reduction and climate change adaptation planning in a country that is among the first to feel the brunt of climate change. IDEA also supports programs that empower women, encourage healthy living, and expand education opportunities.

During his four months fellowship, Touhid will work closely with us at Colorado Common Cause to learn how civic engagement non-profits work in the US, and share his expertise in communications and fundraising with us.

Touhid’s goal in participating in this program is to develop knowledge of innovative tools to overcome the obstacles to good government process at the local level. Touhid wants to establish transparency and accountability measures for the local budgeting process in Bangladesh, to ensure quality life for the marginalized community people in Bangladesh.

We are excited to have Touhid with us, and we hope you’ll follow his progress on this Democracy Wire.