Fellows

Abida has four years of experience in the nonprofit sector, and earned a Master’s degree in Economics from the University of Peshawar in Pakistan. She has diverse work experience as a program support personnel in planning, monitoring, evaluation, research, reporting, and knowledge management. Abida has worked with host communities, internally dislocated people as well as with refugees, in development and emergency contexts. While working as a Monitoring and Evaluation Officer with the Sarhad Rural Support Program, she helped in providing social mobilization support to the Community Driven Local Development policy of the government of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, under the funding of the EU. Abida has also helped in providing opportunities to the rural women of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, in their homes, through the provision of skill development and microfinance trainings, under the AUSAID-funded livelihood strengthening project. Previously, Abida worked as a Monitoring, Evaluation, and Reporting Officer with the Danish Refugee Council in Pakistan to support sustainable solutions for Afghan refugees living in different parts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, by creating livelihoods and improving general living conditions. Through these experiences, she has acquired strong monitoring and evaluations skills, which are applicable across different areas. Abida enjoys focusing on the topics of women empowerment, economic development, promotion of Civil Society Organizations and rural development.

Host Organization:  Empowered Women International

 Role at Host Organization: As EWI relies heavily on monitoring and evaluation of our program impacts for use in fundraising and communications with potential clients and donors, Abida will be helping shape the continued improvements to Monitoring & Evaluation by both assessing and updating the current systems, and researching & implementing a new Customer Relationship Management system by late 2016.

Ali Zain Ul Abidin has more than 5 years of diverse experience in human resources, talent management, and capacity development of youth in for-profit and non-profit sectors. Ali earned his Master’s in Management Sciences from Baluchistan University of IT, Engineering and Management Sciences (BUITEMS), a leading public sector university, in Quetta, Pakistan. Ali has worked with BUITEMS, closely engaging with local, national, and international stakeholders for promoting employability. In this capacity, Ali has developed a talent pool of graduates from a diverse range of academic disciplines, assessed their profiles, and referred outstanding and qualified profiles to employers for jobs, training, and internships. Ali is also proficient in mentoring students for personal and professional career development. As Talent Coordinator Fellow at Partnership with Chldren, Ali assists the Chief Equity Officer and Talent and Equity Manager in managing talent acquisition goals, overseeing the PWC school intern program, and involves himself in overall performance management. He has also worked as HR Executive with a multinational logistics corporation (TCS Holdings), leading the Baluchistan Region, and Ali extended his expertise in talent acquisition and HR operations. Through these experiences, Ali has gained a firm grip on youth capacity building, peer education, HR operations, and management. He is avidly interested in broadening his perspectives on HR international practices, leadership, capacity development, talent acquisition, job training, and civic engagement.

Host Organization: Partnership with Children

Role at Host Organization: As the Talent Coordinator Fellow at Partnership with Children, Ali will assist the Chief Equity Officer and Talent and Equity Manager in managing talent acquisition goals, overseeing the PWC school intern program, and the overall performance management. The Fellow’s responsibilities include developing and implementing a strategic recruitment plan; facilitatig the hiring process for all program and administrative roles; and ccordinating and managing intakes for all new opportunities. The Fellow will also prepare and support managers to facilitate performance management process, including an annual review and goal setting; and support managers in addressing performance issues in conjunction with the Director of Human Resources.

Arsalan is a development professional with nine years of experience in the nonprofit sector. He holds a Master’s degree in Statistics from Quaid-i-Azam University, Islamabad, Pakistan. His core functional and sector expertise include research, evaluations, program coordination and management, proposal writing / resource mobilization, microfinance, enterprise development, and post disaster recovery. He brings hands-on experience of managing donor funded projects for microfinance, enterprise development, livelihood, social mobilization, education, nutrition, and food security. He started his professional career in 2006 with National Rural Support Program (NRSP) when it launched the post earthquake operations in Azad Jammu & Kashmir. In a career spanning over 7 years, Arsalan, established the NRSP Microfinance portfolio and later introduced innovative micro loan products.

In 2009, he visited Thailand & Philippines for an ‘exposure cum learning visit’ to bring back learned lessons and new ideas for USAID/SBI funded Advancing Microfinance for Post-Disaster Economic Reconstruction (AMPER) project. In 2012, he was selected as one of the 15 fellows of the prestigious Emerging Leaders of Pakistan (ELP) program, launched by the South Asia Center of Atlantic Council, USA. The ELP program is aimed at creating an in-person and online networking forum for engagement and collaboration of civil society leaders from Pakistan. In 2013, Arsalan made a career move to development consulting and joined an international development consulting entity, where he lead the projects & partnerships development unit.

Host Organization: Disaster Accountability Project

Role at Host Organization: Arsalan will help DAP build relationships with civil society organizations (CSOs) and NGOs in the U.S. and globally, train representatives of CSOs and NGOs to complete SmartResponse surveys, manage aspects of SmartResponse program and development, and assist with outreach efforts to “disaster donors,” the media, student groups, and diaspora networks.

Avais has six years of experience with development projects implemented by international nonprofit organizations. Avais has a Master’s degree in Business Administration, and Bachelor’s Degree in Marketing from Iqra University Islamabad, Pakistan. In Avais’s most recent assignment with The Asia Foundation, he developed the organization capacity of civil society organizations partnering with USAID Citizens’ Voice Project. In his previous position with Winrock, Avais promoted renewable and alternate energy technologies including biogas and biomass. He worked with dairy farming communities, and advocated for the installation of biogas plants for energy generation. He successfully piloted eight medium size biogas plants for electricity generation. Avais also worked with medium size industries to identify biomass energy potential, and enabled two industries to obtain donor support for implementation of their renewable energy projects. While implementing renewable energy projects, Avais contributed towards highlighting environmental issues and promoting environment protection by identifying carbon financing opportunities available through the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM).

Host Organization: Center for Environmental Health

Role at Host Organization: Avais will serve as the lead coordinator for CEH 2015 annual Fracking and Health Symposium which will bring together scientists, academia, and community members to share information on the effects of hydraulic fracturing on community health.

Aziz Ullah has four year of experience in learning and development, entrepreneurship, business development and public speaking; working with non-profit and for profit both in private and public sector. He earned an MBA from National University of Modern Languages Pakistan, and B.Sc Civil Engineering from University of Engineering and Technology Peshawar Pakistan. He is a certified trainer from School of Leadership Pakistan and has earned multiple
national and international certifications. As an Acumen fellow Pakistan, he is working on creating sustainable solutions to enable the graduates from unprivileged areas receive training, improve their entrepreneurial and employability skills to be socially and economically stable and live a better life. Aziz has for four years of experience as a Co-Founder and CEO for the Center for Awareness Training and Development Pakistan, which is a training and management consultancy working with public and private sector to develop market needs based skills in individuals and employees, promote entrepreneurship and build capacity of startups and entrepreneurs, and fill the skill gap between job sector and academia. As a trainer, learning and development profession, he helps people and organizations reach their goals and perform with greater impact. Aziz Ullah facilitates learning programs nationally and internationally for corporate, nonprofits, academia and youth to enrich their leadership values, employee efficiency, team performance and creativity and entrepreneurship skills. He has designed and delivered
professional training modules & courses for 30 + local, national and international organizations during the past four years and has facilitated more than two hundreds learning programs, workshops and training conferences. Aziz has akeen interest is working with non-profit and for profit sector on promoting and developing entrepreneurial ecosystem, capacity building of graduates, startups, entrepreneurs and employees to help organization and individual be more effective, more efficient and more productive in creating greater impact with the work they do.

Host Organization: The Resolution Project

Role at Host Organization: Aziz will learn about and map Resolution’s 100 existing social entrepreneurship ecosystem partners (known as Pathway Partners) and plan a new activation framework for Pathway Partners through a public-facing online platform.

Talha has four years of experience working in the nonprofit sector and has expertise in using technology for social impact. He has a bachelor’s degree in Computer Science from the COMSATS Institute of Information Technology in Lahore, Pakistan. While working with Chanan Development Association, he developed and implemented a digital strategy to optimize multiple projects in the sectors of sexual and reproductive health and rights, democracy and HIV/AIDS. He has also developed websites and mobile apps in the healthcare, medical, utilities and lifestyle sectors. He is passionate about solving world problems using technology and he has accomplished this by starting ibjects.com, a digital agency that leverages technology for social impact and innovation. He also co-founded and managed projects like Cafe Entrepreneurship, which engages young people to use technology in the development of solutions that can solve social issues of Pakistan.

Host Organization: Points of Light

Role at Host Organization: Talha will develop and manage a digital marketing and optimization strategy for the Points of Light Civic Accelerator (CivicX) program. He will further develop digital optimization skills and have the opportunity to implement strategy and create recommendations for senior program staff.

Ehsan is a sustainability enthusiast with a masters in Sustainability (Entrepreneurship and Innovation Management) from the University of Nottingham, UK. He holds a Bachelors in Environmental Sciences from Pakistan and has completed an exchange semester at SUNY Plattsburgh USA with mention on the Dean’s list. Ehsan shoots for the stars and is constantly thinking about new methods to generate effective engagement opportunities for the 1.8 billion global youth, rethinking the global Agenda 2030 of ‘leaving no one behind’. He has served as a youth member on UNDP’s panel for development of National Human Development Report 2016 in Pakistan and has been involved in over six social development projects in Pakistan in different capacities during his work at NUR Foundation for 3 years. He currently works as Technical Services Manager at Punjab Public Health Agency, Pakistan. He is also the module convenor for developing minimum viable product course at Startup School, MIT Enterprise Forum, Pakistan. Ehsan has also co-founded a social enterprise called, the Green Box; it is a youth led global think tank aiming to contribute towards creating routine attitudes, values and actions for sustainable development. The world is committed to achieving 17 Sustainable Development Goals by the year 2030. Through Green Box, he wants to ensure that people acquire knowledge and skills needed to promote sustainable development, including among others through education for sustainable development and sustainable lifestyles, global citizenship, and appreciation of culture’s contribution to sustainable development. He plans to do this all in a very unconventional manner.

Host Organization: International Youth Foundation

Role at Host Organization: Ehsan will work collaboratively with YouthActionNet team to support research and learning content development as well as the co-design of a new global initiative. He will gain a deeper understanding of the global social entrepreneurship, youth-led civil society, and youth advocacy sectors in addition to supporting a new global initiative focused on engaging the next generation of young people in demanding and delivering Sustainable Development Goals.

Fayyaz Yaseen is a development practitioner with four years of experience in the nonprofit sector. He earned his Master’s degree in Economics and completed several professional courses on monitoring and evaluation, learning and accountability, qualitative and quantitative research methods, report and project proposal writing, and project cycle management. In 2012, the IDRC-SDPI awarded Fayyaz a fellowship in governance, security and justice for his M.Phil. in International Development Studies. Throughout his career, he has gained diverse experience by working in remote areas of Pakistan in different fields such as education, health, voice and accountability, women’s participation in political process, violence against women, child labor, and conflict resolution. In September 2012, in Islamabad, Pakistan he was one of the coordinators of the South Asia Economic Summit organized by the Sustainable Development Policy Institute (SDPI). Fayyaz continued his work on the promotion of good governance in Pakistan with the help of civil society initiatives by establishing nationwide networks of CSOs known as Pakistan Social Accountability Networks (PSAN) to over 125 organizations. These diverse experiences in education, health, women’s participation in political processes, violence against women, child labor and conflict resolution provided him with various skills and competencies; such as project design and management, research tools design, donor liaison and reporting, resource mobilization, monitoring and evaluation and financial management. His hobbies include reading political analyses and reviews and traveling.

Host Organization : The Atlantic Council

Role at Host Organization: Fayyaz will serve as a Research Associate, and will conduct on-the-ground research for an issue brief on U.S.-Pakistan relations in terms of security, public policy, and economic development.