Manzoor Ahmed appointed Professor Emeritus of BRAC University. Until now Senior Adviser at the BRAC University Institute of Educational Development (BRACU-IED), Dr. Ahmed was the founder-director of the Institute.
Dr. Ahmed has served for over two decades in senior positions in UNICEF including Senior Education Adviser, and country director in China, Ethiopia and Japan. Earlier he also served as senior researcher at the International Council for Educational Development in Connecticut, USA.
Dr. Ahmed was involved in pioneering work led by Philip Coombs on non-formal education that led to seminal publications and internationally adopted concepts and practices in this area. He helped in shaping UNICEF’s education strategy in 1980s and 90s and was involved in planning the World Conference on Education for All in 1990 in Jomtien and the launch of the global EFA movement.
He has been Chair of the Bangladesh Early Childhood Development Network (BEN) since 2007,Convenor, 2003-6, of Education Watch Bangladesh and currently the vice Chair of Campaign for Popular Education (CAMPE).
He was the co-manager of four-country research (Bangladesh, India, Ghana and South Africa) CREATE (Consortium for Research in Education Access, Transitions and Equity, 2005-11). This research led to the publication of the book titled Education in Bangladesh, Overcoming Hurdles to Equity with Quality, edited by Dr. Ahmed and published by BRAC University Press. He was the principal writer of Education and Training for Rural Transformation - Skills, jobs, food, green future to combat poverty,a study for UNESCO Institute of Research and Training on Rural Education (UNESCO-INRULED) in Beijing, China. He is the author of several other books on education and development, educational planning, and non-formal education.