Subrata Dhar joined the GPE Country Support Team as a Senior Education Operations Officer and Country Lead for Ethiopia, Nigeria, Rwanda, and Sudan. Prior to joining the Global Partnership, Subrata worked at the World Bank for the last 19 years of which more than 11 years were in the Education Sector. He was the task team leader for a number of projects, programs and analytic activities in the areas of inclusive education, girls’ education, higher education and policy lending in education. Subrata brings the experience of leading dialogues on education with governments, development partners and other stakeholders like civil society groups and think tanks. He also worked in External Affairs of the World Bank for about seven years both in a field office and at the World Bank Headquarters. Subrata was the head of the Secretariat for the Promoting Basic Services (PBS) III Program in Ethiopia, which is the largest multi-donor program in Africa with some 67% of the resources of the program going to the Education Sector.

Subrata has a PhD in Education from the University of New England, Australia for which he has been awarded the Chancellor’s Medal. He also has another PhD in Political Science (with distinction) from the University of Hawaii and three Masters in Political Science (Hawaii), Communication (Hawaii), and Mass Communication and Journalism (Dhaka). Before joining the Bank he taught at the University of Dhaka for 12 years and was adviser to the second largest NGO in Bangladesh for about four years. Subrata was also a member of the Advisory Board of the Education Watch published regularly by the Campaign for Popular Education (CAMPE) in Bangladesh.