Anir Chowdhury

Academic Position

President and Digital Transformation Advisor, Digital Transformation Global Foundation

Ontario, Canada

January 2025 – present

  • Advise governments, development agencies, and philanthropies on digital transformation of public services and reform of public institutions to become 21st-century-ready to handle polycrisis and various divides exacerbated by digital and AI.
  • Having led design and deployment of national-scale people-centric digital systems over two decades, now developing fit-for-purpose models for digital public infrastructure (DPI) by extending the ID-payments-data layers by adding service and access layers to ensure inclusion and address organizational change management issues.
  • Developing an AI-assisted digital transformation planning and advisory approach for governments, development agencies, and philanthropies with a focus on DPI, DPG, institutional reform, operationalizing political will, ICT industry readiness, and financial sustainability of change
  • As a Resident Fellow of Rockefeller Foundation’s Bellagio Centre in Italy, I started distilling three decades of lessons from my US tech entrepreneurship and UNDP policy reform experiences to develop a methodology for digital transformation at a national scale. It will come out as a book cum digital companion for development actors and policymakers: “Only the unreasonable serve: Codifying Digital Transformation for the Marginalized.”

Strategic Advisor, The Institutional Architecture Lab (TIAL)

USA, Finland and UK

January 2025 – present

  • Guiding TIAL on institutional design advisory services for public agencies, development organizations, and consultancies seeking to update or establish new organizations or shape social ecosystems toward new capabilities.
  • Architecting an AI-enabled playbook for designing new public institutions by helping institution builders reimagine new possibilities of structure, relationships, and purpose.
  • TIAL seeks to improve the global practice and theory of designing institutions better able to address the great challenges of our times.

Strategic Advisor

Rangeet, Singapore and India

January 2025 – present

  • Advising the scale-up of Rangeet's innovative teacher guidance platform to reach 100 million children by 2030 through technological innovations, pedagogical maturity, community development and disruptive business models.
  • Ranget is a digital platform and curriculum for schools, caregivers & communities that measurably develops better learners, wellness, agency, and global stewardship in every child aged 6-16.
  • Rangeet enables anyone to teach in any socioeconomic, geographic or cultural context, in-person or remotely, at home, in schools and/or communities, even in conflict zones and refugee camps. It contains tools that measure impact on children and collects feedback from facilitators. If taught in schools, Rangeet allows teaching to be shared between educators and caregivers, helping “leapfrog” inequalities and alleviating pressure on schools.

Honorary Professor, Institute for Innovation and Public Purpose

University College London

June 2023 – present

  • Co-authoring the guidebook “Maturing Digital Transformation of Public Services for All: Technology, Policy, Capacity” with global practitioners and experts on digital transformation of public services. Developing complementary online guidance material for policy makers, government implementers and governance advisors.
  • Contributing to course material and direct teaching on digital transformation of public agencies towards greater citizen-centricity

Resident, Bellagio Center, Rockefeller Foundation

Italy

May 2024 – June 2024

  • Authoring the book “A Compass for Better, Faster and Cheaper for the Poor” codifying a framework for digital transformation of public services to increase transparency, accountability and efficiency and bridge digital divide based on lessons from developing countries like Bangladesh.
  • Important findings are that digital transformation of public services for the poor and marginalized is less about technology and more about nurturing a culture of innovation in civil service; catalyzing citizen-centric redesign, siimplication, and decentralization of services; ensuring motivation and recognition to internal champions; and rapidly developing indigenous technology capacity within the country rather than waiting for someone to cut-and-paste from a developed country.

Visiting Fellow of Practice, Blavatnik School of Government

University of Oxford

January 2022 – December 2022

  • Contributed to course material in MSc in Public Policy research
  • Contributed to the book on Digital Economy Kit by Stefan Dercon and Elizabeth Stuart
  • Developed manuscript of book on the Journey of a2i to Make Digital Work for the Poor

Policy Advisor, Prime Minister’s Office/Cabinet Division/ICT Division

Bangladesh and UNDP

Dec 2006 – Present

Technology Enabled Public Sector Transformationt :

  • Founded and directing Digital Bangladesh’s flagship digital transformation, institutional reform and capacity development Aspire to Innovate (a2i) programme from Prime Minister’s Office, Cabinet Division and ICT Ministry
  • Developed a USD 150 million portfolio of multilateral, multi-stakeholder initiatives delivering across 50+ government ministries, 400+ agencies, 64 districts, nearly 500 sub-districts, thousands of local government institutions, and hundreds of development projects
  • Formulated technology-enabled national development projects valued at several billion US dollars
  • Guided the Cabinet through policy formulations for systematic transition to e-governance through adoption of technology driven public service delivery
  • Guided UNDP HQ in New York City on digital transformation of LDCs and developing countries through South-South Cooperation and development of UNDP “Signature Digital Solutions”
  • Facilitated scale-up of 9,000 Digital Centres as decentralized modules of access, connectivity, and data for systematic inclusion of the marginalized
  • Led a2i’s COVID-response in tech-based syndromic surveillance, essential service delivery, data-driven targeting methodology, vulnerability sensitive index development, analytics for automated of resource distribution, and decision-making support to the Government
  • Multi-stakeholder coordinator as member of DG Health’s Central Technical Committee for COVID-19
  • Spearheaded public-private funded entrepreneurship for localized and self-sustaining response to institutional and systematic inclusion of vulnerable demographics
  • Architected the country’s transformation to digital social safety nets, supported the underlying technology architecture and facilitated institutional adoption towards national scale-up by all relevant ministries
  • Formulated country’s first rural assisted e-Commerce to expand e-Commerce for rural producers and consumers
  • Directed the germination and propagation of institutional capacity building in data driven policy design
  • Spearheading adoption of Fourth Industrial Revolution technologies in govt. agencies and business associations
  • Directed education reform in collaboration with Ministry of Education and Ministry of Primary and Mass Education in creating multi-media classrooms, a customized social media platform for continuing professional education of teaches, and mass e-Learning platform
  • Directed market-driven skills reform in collaboration with 23 Ministries and 40 business associations and chambers
  • Drafted and formulated 30+ policy reformations and legislations in digital governance, digital financial inclusion, innovation capacity in civil service, digital public goods, blended education, cyber security, digital identity, civil registration, local governance, right to information, public health and artificial intelligence in the public sector
  • Launched Sustainable Development Goals Tracker (SDG Tracker) dashboard design, development, and launch for human development focused Governance
  • Designed and helped launch District Branding to brand specialized products and services of each district
  • Formulated and facilitated an Innovation Fund supporting over 250 innovation initiatives across the government, private sector, startups, academia and media
  • Formulated Human Development Media as a strategic unit for using 360 degrees communication for development
  • Hosted the country’s first Big Data in Health international workshop
  • Hosted the first International Blockchain workshop in Bangladesh and established Blockchain Users group (BUG) for identifying and scaling transparent and inclusive governance framework and business models
  • Host and moderate regular policy workshops with senior policy makers, politicians and industry leaders
  • Designing Bangladesh Civil Service 2041 Programme on “govpreneurship”

Technology for International Development :

  • E-governance leader of joint-government initiatives across countries and regions for cross-pollination of ICT-driven solutions
  • Co-founded and service as Board Member of South-South Network for Public Service Innovation (SSN4PSI) with 42 member countries and international organizations
  • Speak as keynote speaker/panelist/moderator at international forums multiple times a week on public service innovation and reform, digital financial inclusion, civil registration and digital identity management, SDGs, youth and community empowerment, educational transformation, public-private partnerships, and South-South Cooperation. Presented at TEDx Gulshan, World Economic Forum Davos Annual meeting, Astana Economic Forum, UN General Assembly side events, UN High Level Political Forum side events, ITU World Summit on the Information Society, UN World Data Forum, 17 Rooms, UNDP Innovation Days, UNESCAP and UNICEF CRVS conferences, UNOSSC Global South-South Expo, World Bank, Asian Development Bank, UNCDF, Better than Cash Alliance, USAID, ITU Telecom World, ID2020 Annual Conference, British Education Technology showcasing, Digital at Harvard Kenney School, Yale, Cambridge, Stanford, and Northwestern Universities, covering 40+ countries
  • As steering/advisory committee member, advise international organizations on digital transformation by governments and societies
  • Formulated Platform for Philanthropy, Investment, and Expert Affiliation (PIE) for international collaboration by Bangladeshi diaspora in national development

National Consultant, Prime Minister’s Office

Bangladesh and UNDP

Nov 2006 – May 2007

  • Designed and conducted multi-day leadership training for e-Governance for senior policy makers designated as focal points for change management as per the directive of the Prime Minister’s Office
  • Developed and implemented e-Governance project lifecycle management framework, vision setting, and case study practice
  • Developed monographs for UNDP for sensitization of professional engagement with Government of Bangladesh policy makers on ICT4D issues across thematic areas of poverty alleviation, localization, open source, open content, and open standards
  • Provided strategic guidance and framework to UNDP Bangladesh