Bio: Effat Jahan Efa is a visionary youth leader, development researcher, humanitarian and climate advocate dedicated to advancing liberty, inclusive governance, resilience and sustainable development across South Asia. Currently serving as the Regional Coordinator of Students For Liberty Bangladesh and Chapter Lead of Ladies of Liberty Alliance (LOLA) Chittagong, Effat has led over 50 high-impact initiatives spanning civic education, women’s empowerment, policy literacy, environmental resilience and youth leadership. Her work reflects a strong commitment to empowering communities particularly marginalized youth and women through participatory learning, social innovation and principled liberty.
Effat was selected as one of only 20 Bangladeshis for the prestigious Climate Resilience Fellowship, implemented by the Humanitarian OpenStreetMap Team (HOT) and funded by NetHope in partnership with World Vision Bangladesh. Now serving as a Climate Resilience Fellow, she focuses on urban slums, co-creating climate-smart solutions through open mapping, WASH education, waste management and grassroots engagement.
Her contributions span major national and international development initiatives, including with USAID, DFAT, ILO, and UNICEF Bangladesh. She has worked in various capacities as a researcher, interpreter, and field expert, often operating in complex, post-crisis and gender-sensitive contexts for institutions such as Johns Hopkins Center for Communication Programs, IFES, Refugee and Migratory Movements Research Unit (RMMRU), JAAGO Foundation and the University of Chittagong.
With a deep interest in sociopolitical research and humanitarian contexts, Effat brings the analytical rigor of a trained sociologist to real-world challenges. She envisions a future where liberty is not only a philosophy but a lived, equitable experience across all layers of society.
Favourite figures in liberty: John Locke, Frédéric Bastiat, Ayn Rand, Elinor Ostrom and Henry Hazlitt
On Students For Liberty: “Students For Liberty gave me the courage to challenge norms, the tools to build powerful movements and the global family I didn’t know I needed.”
