Nazmul Hossain Avi is a Research Director at DataSense unit of iSocial. Avi is also currently working as a Labour Market Specialist with the Industrial Labour Relations (ILR), Cornell University in some of their research initiatives on climate and labour market and trade and decent work in South Asia and East Asia. He Worked as a Senior Programme Officer at the International Labour Organization (ILO) Country Office in Dhaka, within the programming unit for around 5 years. He is an Economist with specialization in the field of Labor Economics and International Trade. He has more than 10 years of experience economic policy research, policy evaluation, monitoring and evaluation, designing and leading research projects, decent work country programmes, private sector engagement, and resource mobilization. Mr. Avi was the UN M&E and UN Data Group Focal for the office responsible for UN Cooperation Framework (UNSDCF) reporting and decent work country programme reporting. He was also the focal for Trade Unions, ACTRAV, the Labour Ministry, ERD and the Ministry of Planning. He was the lead for Research and Academic Institution and initiatives at the ILO Dhaka, and the focal for Employment, labour market, wage and macroeconomic policies. HE was seconded to the ILO Suva Office, Fiji for the Pacific Region as an Employment Specialist where he worked in formulation of the National Employment Policy of the 5 Pacific Island Countries and co-authored in few policy briefs of ILO.

His previous work experiences include skills development, private sector engagement and employment programs and agriculture market systems development program for Swisscontact Bangladesh and the South Asia Regional Office where he Served as Manager: Employment and Private Sector Team. He also worked as a Senior Research Associate at the South Asian Network on Economic Modelling (SANEM), a prominent South Asian think tank. He worked as a graduate research fellow at the Employment Policy Analysis and Programme (EPAP) of ITC-ILO in Turin, Italy. He is currently a Ph.D. candidate in Economics from Université libre de Bruxelles (ULB), Belgium where and worked as a graduate research assistant for European Center for Advanced Research in Economics and Statistics (ECARES). Labour market impact analysis, econometric modeling for international trade and quasi-experimental modeling are among his interests and skills. He has significnalty contributed to the Labour Force Survey’s Statistical Standards and Definition upgrading according to ICLS. Mr. Avi, represented Bangladesh in 21st International Conference for Labour Statistician (ICLS) at the ILO HQ in Geneva contributing to the process of updating LFS definitions and standers of Bangladesh as a senior ILO Official.