Fazley Elahi Mahmud has over 30 years of experience in the development sector, including 18 years of specialised work on social protection including social protection for migrant workers. In 2025, he conducted a comprehensive qualitative review of Bangladeshi migrant workers’ access to contributory and non-contributory social protection schemes, commissioned by the Reintegration for Migrant Workers Project of ILO Bangladesh.
Fazley has undertaken extensive analytical work on social protection, including policy research, programme reviews, and evaluations. He has provided consultancy services to UNDP, the Asian Development Bank (ADB), the International Labour Organization (ILO), the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT), the European Union, and other leading development organisations.
He led an ASEAN–ADB initiative on adaptive social protection across five Southeast Asian countries—Cambodia, Indonesia, Lao PDR, Viet Nam, and the Philippines. Fazley also headed the Jakarta-based Social Protection Hub of DFAT for over eight years, providing leadership in evidence generation and policy advocacy to support evidence-based policymaking in DFAT partner countries across the Asia-Pacific region.
He made a significant contribution to the development of Bangladesh’s National Social Protection Strategy (NSSS). He has published widely on social protection policy issues through blogs and opinion pieces.