Biography

Iftikhar Ahmed Cheema is a Consultant for OPM based in Islamabad. He is a highly qualified economist and statistician with experience of working within high-profile programmes for the Government of Pakistan. He has held the posts of director, statistician and statistical investigator with the Government of Pakistan's Federal Bureau of Statistics over the past 25 years. During this period, he has worked on the Pakistan Integrated Household Survey (from 1995-2004), family budget survey, agricultural data collection, education and health-sector performance reports, and poverty reports. From 2004 to 2006, he worked as a senior poverty specialist for the UNDP at the Centre for Research on Poverty Reduction and Income Distribution, measuring poverty, undertaking analyses and providing policy inputs regarding poverty-reduction strategies. Iftikhar has extensive and applied experience with the full cycle of survey design and implementation of social-sector surveys, as well as the analysis (including performance modelling) and presentation of results. He has carried out data analysis and written reports for various different surveys, including the Federally Administered Tribal Areas Perception Survey (phases I and II), Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Multiple Indicator Cluster Study 2008, Lady Health Worker survey 2008 and PRIDE survey 2010.