Bangladesh names Fatima Yasmin as its first female finance secretary

Bangladesh government has appointed a female official to the Finance Division as its secretary for the first time.

Fatima Yasmin, who also happened to be the first female secretary to the Economic Relations Division, was promoted to senior secretary to the Finance division, the public administration ministry said in a notice on Thursday.

Another woman, Sharifa Khan, has succeeded Fatima as the secretary to the Economic Relations Division. Sharifa is a member of the Planning Commission. The decisions will be effective from Jul 11.

Fatima, a career civil servant, joined the ERD as secretary on Feb 23, 2020.

She entered the Bangladesh Civil Service in 1991 and served in ministries such as agriculture, women and children affairs, and defence.

Fatima worked with the World Bank, European Union, United Nations, Asian Development Bank, Islamic Development Bank, and International Jute Organization, according to her bio available on the ERD website.

She did her MBA from Dhaka University and a master’s in development economics from Australian National University. The civil servant was a Hubert H Humphrey Public Policy Fellow of the State Department at Rutgers University, US.

Fatima has completed the Executive Program on Leading Successful Programs from the John F Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University.

Sharifa, the new economic relations secretary, is a 9th batch officer of the administration cadre, and joined the Bangladesh Civil Service in January 1991. An economics graduate from Dhaka University, she also has a master's in development economics from Australian National University.

The public servant worked at the agriculture ministry, BPATC, Dhaka deputy commissioner's office, and the World Trade Organisation Cell at the commerce ministry.

She also served as a commercial counsellor at the Bangladesh High Commission in the United Kingdom from 2011 to 2017.

She was appointed a member of the Planning Commission in February 2021.