Dr. Iqbal Kabir is a nutrition specialist with nearly 40 years of experience in policy formation, advocacy, managing staff, and program design, implementation and monitoring. He has worked extensively with government departments, United Nations’ agencies, international non-governmental organizations, civil society and the private sector, always bringing a community perspective to examine how nutrition interventions can deliver the most impact.
Working as a team leader with Nutrition International’s Nutrition Technical Assistance Mechanism’s Technical Assistance for Nutrition project, he supported the Bangladesh National Nutrition Council to operationalize its National Plan of Action for Nutrition. With 17 years of experience in Bangladesh, he previously served as the task team leader for two large World Bank-supported nutrition projects.
He has also worked with UNICEF in Yemen, Ethiopia, Tanzania and Afghanistan, serving in various roles including chief of nutrition and food security, chief of field operations, and senior nutrition specialist. Since 2016, he has been active as an international consultant, reviewing multisectoral nutrition programs and leading multisectoral teams.
Dr. Kabir is a member of numerous Scaling Up Nutrition (SUN) technical working groups. He made significant contributions to establishing and coordinating Bangladesh’s participation in the SUN movement and worked closely with SUN’s Global Secretariat in countries where he has previously worked, including providing technical leadership for establishing the SUN Secretariat under the Ministry of Planning and International Cooperation in Yemen. He was the task team leader for the multi-donor Nutrition Technical Working Group established under the World Bank’s Health, Nutrition and Population group, leading the implementation of Ethiopia’s national nutrition program.
His published credits include Bangladesh: Breaking the Malnutrition Barrier Key to Development, part of the World Bank’s Bangladesh Development Series.