About Us

Bangladesh Youth Environmental Initiative (BYEI) is a youth nonprofit organisation working to raise awareness about the ongoing ecological and climate crisis and inspire youth environmental actions to protect and improve the life-supporting nature and ecosystems.

BYEI was established in 2009 by a group of university students keen to improve awareness and engagement among their peers. BYEI has established itself as a key youth organization in the environmental sector of Bangladesh, run by youth, for youth.

Our Approach

Vision

Our vision is to build a more just, fair and resilient Bangladesh through nurturing enlightened leaders and active citizens.

Mission

Our mission is to empower Bangladeshi youth with consciousness, knowledge and leadership capacity needed to tackle emerging socio-economic and environmental challenges.

Values

We are a values-driven organisation. The basic foundations of our work ethics are formed by:

Accountability

Integrity

Justice

Shared leadership

Advisory
Board

Mr. Chowdhury is a Member of the Parliament of Bangladesh and the former President of the Bangladesh Cricket Board. He was also the President of the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU). He currently chairs the Bangladesh Parliament’s Parliamentary Committee on the Environment and Climate Change. He is also a Member of the Commonwealth Parliamentary Union’s Task Force on Climate Change and the Advisory Group of Parliamentarians for Disaster Risk Reduction.

Dr. Huq is the Chairman of Board of Directors at Bangladesh Center for Advanced Studies and also the Director of the International Center for Climate Change and Development at the Independent University in Dhaka. He is also a Senior Fellow with the UK based International Institute for Environment and Development and a Visiting Faculty at the T. H. Huxley School of Environment at Imperial College in London, where he teaches a course on global environmental policies. In the past, he served as a consultant to the World Bank, UNFCCC, and Global Environment Facility.

Dr. Ali is a renowned Bangladeshi scientist and former Professor of Dhaka University. He was the Director of Atomic Energy Center, Dhaka. Dr. Ali was elected as President of the Bangladesh Academy of Sciences for the period between 2004 and 2012. He was also the founding Vice Chancellor of Bangladesh Open University and Southeast University Bangladesh.

Dr. Chowdhury is the Program Director at the National Science Foundation, USA. She served as a tenured Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Louisiana, Lafayette, LA, where she held the W. Hansen Hall and Mary O. Hall Endowed Chair in Computer Engineering. She has also held academic positions at Michigan Technological University, Southern University (Baton Rouge), Louisiana State University (Baton Rouge) and Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (Dhaka, Bangladesh).

Board of Trustees

Naser Alam is an Advocate of the Supreme Court of Bangladesh since 1995 and a Barrister at the Bar of England and Wales since 1999. He is currently the Head of Chambers of MNA, Barristers & Advocates. He is an international arbitrator and mediator with specialisation in international commercial and investment arbitration. He previously worked with Huq & Co, a prestigious Bangladeshi corporate law firm; the Permanent Court of Arbitration, The Hague; international arbitration group of Freshfields Brcukhaus Deringer in their Paris office.

Shamir Shehab is an aspiring social and environmental justice advocate. He has more than 10 years of experience in the intersection of climate change and international development. His involvement with community service and environmental activism at home and abroad inspired him to found the BYEI.

Shamir received several national and international recognitions for his work, including the Queen's Young Leaders Award from Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, an excellence award and an innovation grant from the US Department of State. Shamir has consulted for projects and programmes on climate finance, governance and resilience for international development organizations such as the World Bank, FCDO/DFID, GIZ, GCF and others. He holds an MPA with specialisation in environmental policy from Cornell University. He read politics and international affairs as a Yenching Scholar at Peking University and leadership at the University of Cambridge. 

Syed Muntasir is a development professional working for resilient and environmentally sustainable food systems. Ridwan is the CEO of the Catalyzing Sustainable Transformation (CaST) Network, an action and policy research and advocacy institution. He  previously worked as the Country Coordinator of the Scaling Up Nutrition Business Network of the Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition (GAIN) and World Food Program.. He is a trained economist with speciality in environmental resource management and one of the founding members of BYEI. Ridwan has been focusing on interventions that generate institutional accountability, transparency and sustainability. His niche is designing sustainable market systems programs based on sector based economic and behavioral insights.

Enamul Siddique is a development professional with more than 10 years of experience. He is trained as a sociologist and specialises in project management, partnership, and advocacy. He has worked with a number of international organizations including Oxfam and IUCN on environmental advocacy and policy dialogues. He is passionate about environmental justice and current work focuses on rights-based approaches to social-ecological resilience in the face of climate emergency and ecological crisis.

Dr. Sadeque Ahmed is a climate change expert with more than 30 years of experience. He is currently the Director (Environment and Climate Change) at PKSF and an Adjunct Professor at Independent University of Bangladesh. He was previously a Director of climate change and international negotiations at the Department of Environment of the Bangladesh Government. Dr. Ahmed represented the Bangladesh Government in the international climate change negotiation and advised on matters related to the Green Climate Fund. He holds a PhD in soil and environmental sciences from the University of Aberdeen, UK.

Executive Advisory Board

Enamul Siddique is a development professional with more than 10 years of experience. He is trained as a sociologist and specialises in project management, partnership, and advocacy. He has worked with a number of international organizations including Oxfam and IUCN on environmental advocacy and policy dialogues. He is passionate about environmental justice and current work focuses on rights-based approaches to social-ecological resilience in the face of climate emergency and ecological crisis.

Abdullah Shakil is a global health professional with experience in immunization, gender and health, strategic planning, and social innovation. He has more than 6 years of experience in research and policy advocacy in multinational interdisciplinary work. He is working on ensuring equitable access to healthcare for the marginalized populations. With immense enthusiasm he intends to promote environmental health and conservation to the youth populations of Bangladesh.

Joy Bhowmik is a Lecturer-cum- Research Associate at University of Liberal Arts and an expert in disaster risk and vulnerability reduction, post-disaster recovery, climate change impact and adaptation, environment-induced migration, capacity development and sustainable development. His interest is in using strategy to leverage an organization's resources in reaching out to target audiences.

Sufian is a business professional with keen interest in youth empowerment and the environment. His experiences revolve around educational program development, facilitation, stakeholder engagement and partnership. Sufian had also been a young journalist working on Childrens’ Rights and Education, had been a part of British Council’s Global ChangeMakers program and has represented Bangladesh in multiple national and international youth summits.

Ashek Mahmud is a development professional in the humanitarian sector with more than seven years of experiences. He is now working as National Information Management Officer of IOM-UN Migration and leading the Information Management activities of Shelter-NFI Sector/Cluster of Rohingya Refugee Response. Prior to that, he worked on MEAL at the Save the Children International. He also has the experience of working in the area of good governance at the municipal corporation level, sponsorship programming for slum dwellers, non-formal education programming for hill tracks adolescent girls, coordination, and cooperation to ensure accountability to affected population (AAP) principles, and so on. He was actively involved and held leadership positions with many youth-led organizations during his university days.

Management Team

Shamir Shehab is an aspiring social and environmental justice advocate. He has more than 10 years of experience in the intersection of climate change and international development. His involvement with community service and environmental activism at home and abroad inspired him to found the BYEI. Shamir received several national and international recognitions for his work, including the Queen's Young Leaders Award from Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II,, an excellence award and an innovation grant from the US Department of State. Shamir has consulted for projects and programmes on climate finance, governance and resilience for international development organisations such as the World Bank, FCDO/DFID, GIZ, GCF and others. He holds an MPA with specialisation in environmental policy from Cornell University and studied politics and international affairs as a Yenching Scholar at Peking University.

Syed Muntasir is a development professional working for resilient and environmentally sustainable food systems. Ridwan is the CEO of the Catalyzing Sustainable Transformation (CaST) Network, an action and policy research and advocacy institution. He  previously worked as the Country Coordinator of the Scaling Up Nutrition Business Network of the Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition (GAIN) and World Food Program. He is a trained economist with speciality in environmental resource management and one of the founding members of BYEI. Ridwan has been focusing on interventions that generate institutional accountability, transparency and sustainability. His niche is designing sustainable market systems programs based on sector based economic and behavioral insights.

Tasbir Ul Islam is the Senior Program Associate at BYEI. He leads the program implementation of BYEI and provides thought leadership in design and innovation for achieving excellence in the programs. He also leads the public communication of BYEI in its social media handle, press, and electronic media.

 

Tasbir is a lifelong activist for a fair, equal, humane, and ecologically sustainable world. He desires a world free from all forms of exploitation, with justice being upheld everywhere. He is an alumnus of the University of Rajshahi, where he studied English Language & Literature and Cultural & Media Studies. Currently, he is pursuing a Master’s in Governance & Development Studies at Jahangirnagar University.

 

He profoundly loves literature, music, chess, and natural justice.

Moyury Tabassum Mowry is the Senior Program Monitoring & Learning Associate at the BYEI. She is responsible for improving the experiential learning and program quality of BYEI through systematic evidence generation. She currently completing her BSc in Zoology from National University Bangladesh. She dreams of a world where all life, including nature, is treated with justice.

Kazi Toqi Yasir is the Partnership and Resource Mobilization Associate at BYEI. Toqi leads the new program design and partnership development. He is deeply empathetic and keen to learn about the life experience and aspirations of others. He is committed to creating a world where nature and humans coexist in harmony without any exploitation and injustice.
He is an undergraduate student of Biotechnology at Brac University
In his free time, he enjoys listening to music and finds solace in the beauty of songs.

Fayaz Anam Shonon is working as the Program Associate at BYEI. He is responsible for planning and implementing BYEI’s major programs. Shonon is passionate about promoting community actions that can prevent environmental degradation, particularly soil, water and air pollution in Bangladesh. In 2021, he successfully implemented a small-scale project in his locality to ensure better waste management. Shonon studies sociology at the University of Dhaka and is a graduate of BYEI’s Earth Champions Program. He is a music connoisseur, who loves singing, playing the Ukulele, and traveling.

Halima Akter is the Admin and Finance Associate at BYEI. In the past, she worked in different plastic recycling and tree plantation campaigns and volunteered for youth-led organizations. She is very eager to use her skills to raise public awareness regarding environmental pollution. Halima studies Botany and a graduate of BYEI’s Earth Champions Program. In her spare time, she likes to take solitary walks, especially in the morning.

Partners

BYEI has a strategic focus in contributing to SDGs 4, 6, 7, 11, 12, 13 and 17 with a specific focus on engaging the youth in environmental actions. BYEI seeks partnerships and alliances with the Government, Civil Society, Development Partners, Academia and Private Sector to scale up and strengthen its youth engagement toward long-term and systemic change in environmental actions.

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