Salman Sabbab

Salman is a Strategic Design Analyst for UNDP.

I started my career in the social innovation space working for BRAC, one of the world’s largest NGO’s. I found BRAC a theatre of development in addressing social problems, constantly searching for new recipes of designing new innovations while implementing proven and cost-effective solutions at scale. Many possible solutions, despite having great potential, don’t achieve scale due to lack of government adoption - a practical challenge that I experienced while working with social entrepreneurs.

I left my seven-year stint at BRAC Social Innovation Lab to pursue a Master of Public Policy (MPP) programme at LSE. It was my first time experiencing living abroad, but I never felt like a stranger in London. It was quite a shift to concentrate on academia while leaving behind my professional life. Getting used to the lifestyle of London - its public transportation system and walkable roads, adjusting to the weather, making new friends, testing diverse cuisines - synchronized well in tandem with campus time attending rigorous lectures and seminars of intellectually heavyweight professors. I started attending LSE talks in the evening regularly which became a newfound love. It was meaningful to experience first-hand how a university can shape new knowledge or challenge deep-seated worldviews with its academic rigor and intellectual curiosity.

One of the gifted experiences was learning from a diverse bunch from my cohort, and my rich interactions with the wider SPP community. It was refreshing when you discover that there are so many distinct personalities beyond borders, yet you can discover common grounds in people’s attitude, aspirations and even culture.

The fast-paced MPP programme equipped me with analytical frameworks, toolkits and most importantly, confidence that can be useful in designing meaningful initiatives in the public sector. I also gained a clear view on what evidenced-based policy is and learnt practical applications of advanced tools. Chasing for sweet spots where good economics intersects with good politics was a great practical lesson from the programme. I like how LSE’s motto, to know the causes of things, is deeply embedded into its curriculum and teaching practices. It holds a strong soft power to make sense of a wide-range of problems- from societal problems to all the polycrises that the world is currently grappling with.

While completing the MPP, I secured an internship offer to complete a six-month long internship stint at the Headquarters of WHO in Geneva. It was my first foray into discovering the UN system and experiencing how multilateral organizations operate. My role was supporting the WHO Innovation Hub in crafting case studies to portray the challenges and opportunities of promoting internal innovations within multilateral settings. Finally, the tales of both cities - calm Geneva and lively London - ended and I returned to my hometown Dhaka.

I joined UNDP Bangladesh as a Strategic Design Analyst where my current role is setting up innovation lab for the city governments. My day-to-day job is coordinating with different government agencies and finding the right niche to work together by designing and implementing data-driven social experiments. For example, we are currently working on a project with the Department of Environment(DoE) to generate public awareness on air pollution, sharing health alerts to citizens to reduce their exposure from poor air. My LSE experience has always served as a strong inspiration to navigate complexities within the government system and try hard to look for simple solutions that are inclusive, sustainable and evidence-based.