Laila
Khondkar

As an international development practitioner, Laila Khondkar has designed and implemented programs and advocacy on Child Protection, Child Rights Governance, Health and Education for more than two decades. She has experience of working with Save the Children in technical, management and leadership positions in Bangladesh, Papua New Guinea and Liberia. She has also served in regional and global level roles in Melbourne and London offices. 

Laila has provided strategic leadership in designing and implementing programs in development and humanitarian settings, ensured program quality through monitoring and evaluation, managed teams, supervised and mentored staff. She also conduced operations research, led efforts for knowledge management, provided thought leadership, mobilized resources, developed partnerships and networking with the government agencies, donors and civil society organizations. Facilitating advocacy at national and global levels helped her contribute to policy and legislative changes. 

In addition to working with CARE on HIV/AIDS and Program Quality, Laila offered consultancy support to international organizations on gender and governance. She conducted research at Institute for Population and Social Research, Mahidol University (Thailand) and Africa Centre for Population and Health Studies (South Africa). 

Laila writes regularly on child rights and other development issues and has published four books. She is the founder of “Shishurai Shob”-a voluntary initiative to create a child sensitive society. 

Laila has studied at Harvard University, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, Institute of Social Studies (the Nederlands) and Dhaka University. She has also attended Oxford University as the first Rhodes Scholar from Bangladesh.