BRAC Institute of Governance and Development (BIGD)

BRAC (Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee) Institute of Governance and Development (BIGD) is a research and academic institute at Brac University in Dhaka, Bangladesh. By influencing policy and practice through rigorous research and quality academic programs, BIGD aims to promote innovation in governance and development processes towards a just and prosperous society. Partnering with academics around the world, BIGD conducts multi-method research, using the dual lens of governance and development, in close collaboration with several crucial departments of the Government of Bangladesh, large non-profits, and other international organisations. BIGD also provides continuous research and evaluation support to the socio-economic empowerment programs of BRAC. BIGD oversees BRAC International’s Independent Research and Evaluation Cell (IERC), which works in ten countries across Asia and Africa.

BIGD seeks to generate evidence from a range of research techniques mainly through mixed method approaches including impact evaluations using experimental methods, randomized control trials (RCTs), qualitative research methods as well as exploratory quantitative research to identify further research areas, or to complement existing qualitative research work.