Dr. Morseda Chowdhury

Dr. Morseda Chowdhury is the Director of BRAC Health, Nutrition, and Population Programm and leads the largest, nationwide, community-based health interventions in Bangladesh. She holds an MBBS degree (Dhaka Medical College – 2001), a Master in Health Economics (2005) & Master in Public Health (2011) from The University of Dhaka & James P. Grant School of Public Health. She obtained her Ph.D. from The University of Sydney (2018). Her current portfolio consists of 26 projects, programs to RCTs, covering a wide range of topics such as reproductive health, communicable & non-communicable disease, and nutrition worth USD 38 million in funding. Previously, she has managed large-scale projects funded by DFID, AusAID, and the Embassy of the Netherlands like ‘Improving maternal, neonatal and child survival project’ (USD31 million), & Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation funded ‘Manoshi – Maternal, neonatal and child health care for the urban poor’ (USD28 million). She was a part of the World Health Organization’s ‘Integrated Antenatal Care Protocol development team. She actively contributed to the development of ‘Bangladesh National Strategy for Maternal Health 2014-2024’, ‘Maternal and Neonatal Health Standard Operating Procedures, and ‘National Neonatal Health Strategy and Guidelines for Bangladesh (2009)’. She worked closely with policymakers in developing the Routine Health Information System and Civil Registration and Vital Statistics system of Bangladesh. As part of her Ph.D. research, she recently completed a randomized controlled trial in Bangladesh to assess the impact of a maternal nutrition intervention on fetal growth and the feasibility to implement in low-resource settings. She is also leading BRAC’s COVID-19 response by executing community fort projects, community support team initiatives, sample collection booths, COVID-19 risk awareness campaigns, and other projects. She is also a member of the executive committee of CSA for SUN, a movement to address malnutrition and hunger across the globe.