About us

From a humble beginning almost 25 years ago, Unnayan Shamannay today stands as a pro-people research and advocacy organization acclaimed nationally as well as internationally. It is now collaborating with both local and international partners. In Bangladesh, this organization has pioneered research and research-based-advocacy in the fields of pro-poor public expenditure, environment and climate change, sustainable development, financial inclusion, and social innovation. Over the last two decades, while this organization has managed to retain some of its core staff who now have invaluable experience in the relevant fields, human resource developed here have also spread over to government, non-government and even international development organizations. In brief, Unnayan Shamannay as an organisation has made critical intellectual contributions to the overall process of socio-economic development of Bangladesh.

Unnayan Shamannay has a proven track record in the field of development research. It has been effectively and efficiently applying both qualitative and quantitative research techniques in evaluating development projects, market research, stakeholder analysis, political economy analysis, impact assessment, process documentation, action research, and process monitoring. The study teams engaged utilize state of the art tools including ICT based solutions for efficient and accurate data collection and analysis. Capacity of the organization is not limited to research only, rather it also focuses on effectively communicating the research outcomes through carefully designed evidence based advocacy campaigns. The communication team of Unnayan Shamannay has vast experience in conducting sub- national and national level advocacy campaigns.

Major achievement so far

Pioneered mainstreaming environmental concerns in development thinking in Bangladesh.

Research and advocacy on participatory budget making initiatives resulted in changes in respective government policies.

Succeeded in reducing targeting errors in SSNP implementation and contributed in formulation of NSPS.

Policy level changes in regional trade & connectivity complementing national efforts.

Succeeded in effectively incorporating the ‘Extreme Poverty’ agenda in the 7th FYP of GoB.