Mahmuda gets USAID’s Laura W Bush Award

Mahmuda Rahman Khan has been chosen as the recipient of USAID’s Laura W Bush Award for Excellence in the Advancement of Global Women’s Equality, reports news agency UNB.

USAID Bangladesh made the announcement on Tuesday.

Mahmuda is USAID’s longest-serving gender advisor in Asia -- and likely in the rest of the world.

She has 17 years of dedicated, exemplary service.

Mahmuda’s many achievements include fostering collaboration with the government of Bangladesh (GOB) and other stakeholders to advance women’s empowerment, helping the GOB develop its National Action Plan on Violence Against Women, integrating gender in its various Five Year Plans, initiating the Embassy’s first-ever celebration of International Women’s Day in 2006 -- and every year since.

Mahmuda has worked tirelessly working to build the capacity of USAID and embassy staff, as well as USAID partners, to integrate gender into their work.

“Congratulations, Mahmuda! We are so proud of you and grateful for your contributions to USAID and Embassy Dhaka -- and to gender equality in Bangladesh,” USAID Bangladesh said in a Facebook post.