Population Council Research that makes a difference

Arshad Mahmood, Ph.D.

Associate

Arshad Mahmood is the director of research, monitoring, and evaluation in the Population Council's office in Islamabad. His responsibilities include evaluation, operations research, knowledge management, and monitoring and evaluation (M&E) capacity building of the district staff in the USAID-sponsored Pakistan Initiative for Mothers and Newborns (PAIMAN). Mahmood has professional experience in designing specialized monitoring systems to track quality, measuring the effect of quality improvements in reproductive health services, and designing and evaluating social and economic development programs. He has designed and conducted several household baseline surveys such as that used for the PAIMAN project in ten districts of Pakistan during 2005–06. More recently, after the devastating earthquake in Pakistan, Mahmood conducted the Earthquake Vulnerability Assessment for populations living in planned and spontaneous tented camps in earthquake areas. This assessment is being used as the basis for the preparation of the Government of Pakistan’s rehabilitation plan for the vulnerable people.

Mahmood has designed comprehensive M&E systems for different organizations. In addition to creating the M&E plan for PAIMAN, he has designed M&E systems for Pakistan's National Commission for Human Development. Mahmood has more than 20 years of public and private working experience in different aspects of the population, health, and education sectors.  He also has served as an author and discussant in several conferences and publications on population and health issues in Pakistan and South Asia.