Mr. Shahid Akhtar
Programme Co-ordinator, Asia-Pacific Development Information Programme (APDIP)

Mr. Shahid Akhtar is the Chief Technical Adviser and Programme Co-ordinator for UNDP’s Asia-Pacific Development Information Programme (APDIP). APDIP seeks to promote and establish information technology for sustainable human development throughout Asia-Pacific.

Prior to joining APDIP, Mr. Akhtar worked in various capacities in Information Science at the International Development Research Centre (IDRC) of Canada. This included stints in IDRC’s offices in Beirut and Singapore, and in its Head Office in Ottawa. While working for IDRC between 1971 and 1995, he initiated and managed scores of projects on new information and communication technologies, networking, database management, and systems development in over 60 developing countries in Africa, Asia, and Latin America.

Mr. Akhtar left IDRC in 1995 to join the International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD) in Kathmandu, Nepal, where he managed its information and communication programmes, as well as its electronic network covering eight Himalayan countries.

Mr. Shahid Akhtar graduated from Carleton University, Ottawa, in 1969 in Political Science and undertook postgraduate work at the London School of Economics.