Nizar Zaied

Nizar Zaied is a manager for agriculture, water resources and rural development, Islamic Development Bank (IsDB) and sit on the advisory committee of the Jameel Index for Food Trade Vulnerability.

With professional experience spanning over 26 years in water and infrastructure projects, Nizar has worked across a large spectrum of countries and contexts in Africa, Asia, and the Middle East. He holds an advisory position at the Jameel Index, a research project launched by the Abdul Latif Jameel Water and Food Systems Lab (J-WAFS) at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, which is developing a comprehensive index addressing countries’ food security vulnerability, dependence on global food trade and how regional-scale threats might affect the ability to trade food goods across diverse geographic regions.

In his work for IsDB, he responsible for overall policy direction, operational innovation and quality control for the water and agriculture portfolio. Prior to his current position, he served as lead urban development specialist and led business generation, portfolio management, policy dialogue and donor coordination in the 57 member countries of IsDB.