Hi everyone, my name is Zahangir Alam and I am the Database Officer in the Innovation, Monitoring, Learning and Communications (IMLC) Unit of CLP. I live in Tarash in the North West of Bangladesh with my wife and two children, as well as my three siblings and my mother. I am the eldest of three brothers and I have an elder sister. My son, Tahmid is just one year and two months old and my daughter Ayon is three years of age. I began my career as a Data Entry Operator, working on the ‘Sustainable Integrated Livelihood Programme’ (SILP) implemented by GKS and funded by Oxfam Novib. A temporary opening became available with GKS, working on the CLP and GKS asked me to support them with data entry and data cleaning. I took the assignment and, as a result of that work, CLP offered me a full time position working with them at GKS. This is where I began my journey with CLP, back in August 2007. I worked with GKS from 2007 to 2010 of which 70-80% of my work was for the IMLC Unit. CLP phase one came to an end in 2010 as did their projects in Sirajgonj, where GKS was located. When CLP-2 began I was offered a job at POPI, another CLP IMO, based in Nilphalmari. Here, much of my work was also with the IMLC Unit and working closely with CLP’s Young Professionals on data collection, entry, cleaning and analysis. In November 2012 an opportunity came up in the Secretariat as a Monitoring Officer so I applied and was offered the job. I started the role on 1^st November 2012. The CLP Secretariat is a good place for learning and although I enjoyed my previous position, I felt very pleased to have moved up to the Secretariat. Since then I have learnt a lot in all areas of livelihoods such as food security, women empowerment, WASH and graduation. I also really enjoy my work. I enjoy database management and wish to continue on this path in the future. Following CLP I would like a job in monitoring and evaluation, either in Bangladesh or elsewhere in the world; wherever I can find the best opportunities. I would say my biggest success, after getting the job at the CLP Secretariat, was working on the women empowerment side of the Programme. I remember sitting drinking tea with my colleagues and talking about the women on the chars and how we could find out whether they were really empowered or not. A few of us went out to the field and conducted focus group discussions with women and found some very interesting initial results. Soon after, a study was conducted by CLP to understand how to monitor women’s empowerment and, throughout this, I was very much involved. I conducted focus group discussions and carried out data analysis. One of the best parts of my job is going into the field and facilitating research because I get the opportunity to talk with data collectors and participants, which I find interesting. Aside from work I have lots of interests and I am involved in many activities. I own a piece of land on which I grow rice and trees and I own a pond where I have different varieties of fish. I am also part of a Community Based Organisation (CBO). Our CBO is made up of eight people from my village, including teachers, business men, a doctor and a barrister. We each contribute money every month and with this we invest in various business opportunities. Each year, from the profit we make on our ventures, we donate 20% to the poorer people in our community. Myself and a friend came up with this idea because we wanted to do something for our own village. A lot of the time you see rich countries helping and giving money to poor countries, but we wanted to do something from within the community. In the past we have given out blankets during months of cold weather or have donated money to families who can no longer afford their child’s education. We have many plans for the future, one of which is to buy a plot of land and build a school. We hope that our wives can work as teachers which will give them good work opportunities as well as providing benefits to the community. So far the CBO has been running for four years and I hope that it will continue so that we can achieve this. Thank you.

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