Biswas Akhteruzzaman has been working in the survey-based social research sector for approximately 25 years, with experience at both the field and management levels. Akhter started his career with DATA at the field level in 1997. He transitioned to the management level in 2012, taking on the role of Field Coordinator. In 2016, he was promoted to Survey Monitoring Coordinator, a position he continues to hold today. In this role, he is involved in survey management, coordination, and monitoring.

As a Survey Monitoring Coordinator, Akhter has extensive knowledge and experience in survey management, coordination, and monitoring. He ensures the quality of data collection at the field level, documents work progress, and provides reports based on field findings, which are then recorded into the M&E system.

In addition, he is involved in facilitating enumerator training, participating in Training of Trainers (ToT), and contributing to formative research for questionnaire development for survey projects.

Akhter also contributes to the enumerator assessment process by evaluating their level of understanding, question-asking patterns, and identifying their strengths and weaknesses. This assessment helps to pinpoint areas that may directly impact data quality, allowing for targeted support to those enumerators who need improvement before participating in data collection.

As a Survey Monitoring Coordinator, after completing the training sessions, Akhter regularly organizes discussion sessions with supervisors and monitors. These sessions provide guidelines and techniques for data collection, discuss the roles of supervisors and monitors in the field, address surprise management, and cover potential issues that may arise during field-level data collection.

In 2014, Akhter was assigned by the management of DATA to lead and coordinate the Bangladesh Fish Value Chain Survey 2014 for the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI). Later that year, he was also tasked with leading and coordinating the Education and Women’s Development Study 2014, conducted by the University of Kent, UK, and funded by University of Kent and AUSAID.

From 2015 to 2016, he led and coordinated the enumerator training for the Safety Net Systems for the Poorest Study in Bangladesh (Baseline and Endline Survey), funded by The World Bank. In 2015, Akhter was also assigned to lead and coordinate the Agriculture Nutrition Gender Linkage (ANGeL) Study from November 2015 to June 2016, conducted by IFPRI.

In 2022, he coordinated the enumerators’ training for the Feed the Future Zone of Influence (ZOI) Midline Survey, also conducted by IFPRI.

Apart from these assignments, Akhter has been actively involved in the enumerators’ training and survey management processes for most of the surveys undertaken by DATA over the last few years.

Akhter has experience working at various stages of both hardcopy and device-based surveys. He possesses in-depth knowledge of agriculture, food intake, and has expertise in questionnaire delivery patterns, as well as survey management and monitoring. Akhter holds a Master’s Degree in Social Science from Dhaka University.