Dr. Khadija Begum is a Global Health and Nutrition Researcher with over a decade of experience working at the intersection of research, policy and programs with multiple international development organizations and academic institutions. She joined the Institute on Ethics & Policy for Innovation (IEPI) to work with colleagues at IEPI and other global institutions to navigate complex ethical challenges in global health and advance ethics consultation service, partnership and research in Bioethics.

Prior to joining IEPI, Dr. Begum worked with University of Toronto in leading evaluation of a Global Affairs Canada (GAC) funded health & nutrition project in Bangladesh, Pakistan, Kenya and Tanzania (2016-2022). In between, she also worked with HealthBridge Foundation of Canada to provide technical support in design, implementation, monitoring, and evaluation of health system strengthening projects in Nepal, Vietnam, & Tanzania including training facilitation and stakeholder engagements. Dr. Begum worked briefly with Nutrition International (NI) for data quality assurance of household surveys in Kenya, Nigeria, and Senegal. Her consultancy work with Asian Development Bank (ADB) focused on data analysis and reporting of household survey conducted for urban primary health care services delivery project (UPHCSDP-II) in Bangladesh and assessing the impact of COVID-19 pandemic on health and nutritional status of urban slum dwellers.

Previously, Dr. Begum was employed at the International Centre for Diarrheal Disease Research, Bangladesh and worked closely with government and other partners for strengthening health system, improving quality of care, promoting health service utilization, and supporting national scale-up of health projects in Bangladesh. She also led design and execution of a prospective validation study on ‘measuring correct treatment of childhood pneumonia’ in Bangladesh with technical support from Child Health Epidemiology Reference Group (CHERG) funded through U.S. fund for UNICEF from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF).

Throughout her research career, Dr. Begum collaborated with many organizations including Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, University of Edinburgh, WHO, UNICEF, BRAC, International Development Research Centre (IDRC), World Vision Canada (WVC), Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (PIMS), Aga Khan University (AKU), University of Dar-es-Salaam, Ifakara Health Institute (IHI), Egerton University (EU), and International Nepal Fellowship (INF).

Dr. Begum holds a Bachelor degree in medicine (MBBS) from the University of Chittagong, Bangladesh, a Master’s in Public Health from the University of New South Wales, Australia and a PhD in Nutritional Biology from the University of California, Davis.

Dr. Begum’s research interests evolve around maternal, newborn and child health, sexual and reproductive health, infant and young child feeding including breastfeeding, child malnutrition and infectious diseases, health system strengthening, socio-cultural and gender barriers in health service, M&E of health programs, and maximal use of research data in policy decisions. In the era of COVID-19 pandemic in an increasingly digital world, Dr. Begum is very passionate about implementation of global public health research and practice that respects ethical values and secures public trust.