Dr Vaqar Ahmed is an economist and former civil servant and currently Joint Executive Director, Sustainable Development Policy Institute (SDPI). Earlier, he served UNDP, and has undertaken assignments with the Asian Development Bank, World Bank Group, and Ministries of Finance, Planning and Commerce in Pakistan. He has also served on various boards and committees including at the Fauji Foundation, Pakistan’s Planning Commission, provincial governments of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Punjab, and Pakistan Institute of Development Economics. He has served as a visiting faculty member and researcher at University of Laval in Canada, University of Le Havre in France, National University of Ireland, Pakistan’s Quaid-e-Azam University and National School of Public Policy. He was the recipient of the 2015 Young Leaders Fellowship award by the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs. His political economy analysis appears regularly in Arab News.

Maaz Javed is a researcher with the Sustainable Development Policy Institute (SDPI). His research interests lie in the area of trade and development economics. He has been involved in several research projects in areas such as regional trade integration, Afghanistan-Pakistan transit trade, foreign direct investment, and most recently on digital trade integration and South-South Cooperation. During his career he has collaborated with esteemed development organisations including Canada’s International Development Research Centre, United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific, and United Nations Office for South-South Cooperation.