Dr. Mirza M. Hassan is a political economist and the Head of the Governance and Politics Cluster of BIGD, BRAC University. Dr. Hassan’s research largely focuses on political development, state-business relations, urban governance and local governance, justice sector and human rights, and related issues in South Asia, Pacific region and North Africa. He has more than 20 years of consulting experience on these issues for DFID, The Asia Foundation, The World Bank, UNDP, CARE Bangladesh, and other development agencies. He is well versed in conducting political economy analysis, institutional and stakeholder analysis, and using mixed methods. He completed his PhD in Development Studies from the Institute of Commonwealth Studies (ICS), University of London, UK and his MA in Urban Studies and Planning from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Cambridge, USA. He is also an honorary Academic Fellow of the Institute of Development Policy Management (IDPM), University of Manchester, UK.