Certificate Course on Research Methodology in Social Sciences

Organized jointly by ERG and the North South University
Period: 17-21 January 2006.

Course Coordinator: 
Sajjad Zohir, Research Director, ERG

Short Description: 
The course had a number of focuses entangled into a single purpose of enriching participants in their ability to undertake socio-economic/development policy research. It had three interlinked tracks – a short (one hour every day) lecture on areas related to actual undertaking of research in Bangladesh by eminent economists and social scientists; an hour and half classroom lecture on basic statistics, survey instruments and data analysis tools; and practical exposure to undertaking some of the exercises in computer sessions. In addition, several groups was formed around such themes as, national income accounts/Bangladesh Bank data; Poverty analysis/BBS-HEIS data, and food and agriculture/FPMU data. Each of these groups were supervised by an expert in the field in their in-depth probing into the respective data source and for the preparation of group presentation during the concluding session.

Course Instructors/Resource Persons:
Wahiduddin Mahmud, Chairperson, Economic Research Group
Sajjad Zohir, Former Senior Research Fellow, BIDS and Executive Director, ERG
Ainun Nishat, Country Director, IUCN-Bangladesh; and Director, ERG
Syed Mainul Ahsan, Professor in Economics, Concordia University; and Director, ERG.
Jamshed uz Zaman, Executive Director, Bangladesh Bank
Naser Farid, FPMU
Md. Abdul Hakim, Ex-EDP Manager, BIDS

Total Participants: 26 Persons from: WorldFish Centre, TIB, University of Chittagong, CPD, Brac U, PKSF, International Network of Alternative Financial Institution (INAFI), NSU and BRAC.