Faculty Profile

Mr. Muhammad Mustofa Kamal

Assistant Professor

Contact Information

  • Office Address: Department of Public Administration, Shahjalal University of Science and Technology, Sylhet-3114, Bangladesh
  • Phone: +8801911089896
  • Email: mustofa-pad@sust.edu, mustafapadsust@gmail.com

Biography

Muhammad Mustofa Kamal is an Assistant Professor of Public Administration and is interested in public policy and decision making. His work focuses on local government, role of elected representatives in decision making process, voice raising of marginalized people in decision making process of local development, governance, the political representation of the underprivileged group of society including women, public health issues of Bangladesh as well as around the world.
Kamal obtained his BSS and MSS (with thesis) in Public Administration from Shahjalal University of Science and Technology, Sylhet, Bangladesh in 2009 and June, 2011 respectively and joined as a Lecturer in the Department of Public Administration – his alma mater - on May, 2017. His maiden research article - a part of his Master’s thesis - was published in the Commonwealth Journal of Local Governance – a Web of Science’ indexed journal.
Kamal was Principal Investigator on a one year SUST Research Center funded research project titled “Public Participation in Decision Making Process of Local Development and the Role of Elected Representatives: A Comparative Study on Urban and Rural Local Government” for the fiscal year 2019-20 and currently working as Co-Investigator on another research project titled “Effectiveness of Participatory Budgeting System at Union Parishad in Bangladesh: A Study on Sylhet district” funded by the SUST Research Center for the year 2020-21. This researches will build new knowledge about participation of marginalized people in decision making process of local development in Bangladesh.
Recently, he has completed another research project as Co-Investigator with Professor Dr. Shafiqul Islam, head of the department of Public administration, titled “Accessibility and affordability to public health services for urban poor people, Sylhet” which was also funded by SUST Research Center, where they tried to analyze the factors influencing in getting access of poor people to public health care centers in Bangladesh. In addition, the study also found that there exist a number of administrative and organizational factors which create discrimination between urban poor marginalized people and urban elite people in getting equal treatment in urban public health care centers.
He also worked on a research project collaborating with one of his another colleagues funded by the SUST Research Center for the year 2017-18 namely "Ensuring Effective Health Service Delivery through Improving Health Information System at Rural-Local Areas of Bangladesh". In this study they identified the effectiveness of digital health information management system in rural government hospitals at upazila level. His work on this topic has recently appeared in the book - Knowledge Management, Governance and Sustainable Development: Lessons and Insights from Developing Countries (edited by Fakrul Alam, Aslam Alam and Dilara Begum) – published by Taylor & Francis groups – an internationally renowned publishers.
His works on these topics are under processing for publication in the international journals. He has presented several papers in international conferences and also has publications in the indexed journals. He also works as reviewer in some international journals. He supervises seminar and research monograph of undergraduate and graduate students. Moreover, he is currently working as student advisor to the department of Public Administration.

Education

  • Master of Social Science in Public Administration, Shahjalal University of Science and Technology, Sylhet
  • Bachelor of Social Science (Honors) in Public Administration, Shahjalal University of Science and Technology, Sylhet

Research Interests

  • Decision Making, Public Participation, Local Government, Governance, Public Policy, Environmental Management, Public Health

Active Research Project

  • 1. Impact of e-mutation services on ensuring public trust in government in Bangladesh: A study on upazila land offices Funded by SUST Research Center for the year: 2022–23

Previous Research Project

  • 1. Ensuring Effective Health Service Delivery through Improving Health Information System at Rural-Local Areas of Bangladesh" funded by Shahjalal University of Science and Technology (SUST) Research Center for the year 2017-18 as co-investigator.
  • 2. Effectiveness of legal aid services in Bangladesh: A study on Sylhet Division (2021-22) funded by Shahjalal University of Science and Technology (SUST) Research Center
  • 3. Effectiveness of Participatory Budgeting System at Union Parishad in Bangladesh: A Study on Sylhet district (2020-21) as Co-Investigator funded by Shahjalal University of Science and Technology (SUST) Research Center
  • 4. Public Participation in Decision Making Process of Local Development and the Role of Elected Representatives: A Comparative Study on Urban and Rural Local Government funded by SUST Research Center for the year 2019-20 as principal investigator.
  • 5. Accessibility and affordability to public health services for urban poor people, Sylhet funded by SUST Research Center for 2 years tenure (2018-20) as co-investigator.

External Affiliations

  • He works as reviewer in international journals like Commonwealth Journal of Local Governance, University Technology Sydney (UTS) and International Journal of Public Administration and Policy Research. In addition, he is currently (Year: 2019-2020 and 2020-2021) serving as Student Advisor in Department of Public Administration, Shahjalal University of Science and Technology, Sylhet 3114, Bangladesh. Assistant Proctor of SUST (m

Journal Publications

  • 1. Do Socio-demographic Factors Influence Water-fetching Practices? Evidence from the Southwestern Coastal Region of Bangladesh
  • 2. Public Participation in local level decision making in Bangladesh: A study of the role of ward-sabha
  • 3. Achieving sustainable development goals at local levels: A study on participatory budget making at local government bodies in Sylhet district of Bangladesh
  • 4. Role of civil society organisations in governmental decision making: An assessment on South Asian countries, Jahangirnagar Journal of Administrative Studies, No 14, June 2021, ISSN: 2311-3812, pp. 31-45, Jahangirnagar University, Bangladesh
  • 5. Yasmin, S., Begum, R. and Kamal, M.M. (2020) Governance in Land Acquisition Process: A Study on Shreehatta Economic Zone, Moulovibazar, Journal of Public Administration and Governance, Vol.10, No. 2, ISSN 2161-7104, DOI: https://doi.org/10.5296/jpag.v10i2.17015
  • 6. Kamal, M.M. and Promi, T.A.B. (2020) Socio-Economic Impact of Industrialization on its Locality: An Empirical Study on Habiganj Industrial Area, Jahangirnagar Journal of Administrative Studies (JJAS), 13, ISSN 12311-3812, Jahangirnagar University, Savar, Dhaka-1342
  • 7. Kamal M.M. and Yasmin, S. (2020) ‘Effectiveness of digital health information management system in Bangladesh: A study on upazila health complexes’ in Alam, F.A., Alam, A. and Begum, D. (eds.). Knowledge Management, Governance and Sustainable Development: Lessons and Insights from Developing Countries, ISBN 978036754628, pp. 315-328, New York: Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group.
  • 8. Yasmin, S and Kamal, MM (2019) Women Empowerment through Reserve Seats at Urban-Local Government: A Critical Study on Sylhet City Corporation, Jahangirnagar Journal of Administrative Studies (JJAS), 12, 65-77, ISSN 12311-3812, Jahangirnagar University, Savar, Dhaka-1342
  • 9. Al-Hossienie, C.H., Kamal, M.M. and Yasmin, S. (2019) Problems of Bangladesh police: Quest for reform agenda, Journal of Politics and Administration, Vol.4, no.1, pp. 189-207, ISSN 2307-1036, Department of Political Studies, Shahjalal University of Science and Technology, Sylhet 3114, Bangladesh
  • 10. Access to Information and Effective Public Participation in Local Government of Bangladesh: A Study on Two Union Parishads, Journal of Politics and Administration, Vol. 6, No. 1 & 2, Department of Public Administration, Islamic University, Kustia-7003, Bangladesh (Published in June, 2022)
  • 11. Kamal, M.M., Begum, A. and Al-Hossienie, C. (2018) Role of Ward Councillors in Decision-making processes of Urban Local Government: A Study on Sylhet City Corporation, Journal of Governance and Innovation, Vol. IV, No. 2, ISSN- 2312-5551
  • 12. Kamal, MM, Begum, A and Al-Hossienie, C (2017) Decision-making processes in Sylhet City Corporation: who plays the dominant role? Commonwealth Journal of Local Governance, 20, 146-157. Doi: https://doi.org/10.5130/cjlg.v0i20.6468

Conference

  • 1. 1. Akter, S, Kamal, MM and Hossain, I (2023) Role of Slum Dwellers for Sustainable Urban Development: A study on Sylhet City Corporation - A paper presented in 2nd International Conference on Social Work and Sustainable Social development, 2023 – held at Shahjalal University of Science and Technology, Sylhet-3114, Bangladesh, Bangladesh from 5 to 7 January, 2023
  • 2. Kamal, M.M., Yasmin, S. and Sultana, N. (2019) Existing Accountability and transparency in Local Level Finance: A Study on Kandigaon Union Parishad and Khadimnagar Union Parishad Under Sylhet sadar Upazila of Sylhet District - A paper presented in 1st International Conference on Social Sciences and Law, 2019 – held at University of Barishal, Bangladesh from 15 to 16 March 2019. The abstract of the paper has been published in proceedings of the conference.
  • 3. Kamal, MM and Yasmin, S. (2019) Effectiveness of digital health information management system in Bangladesh: A study on upazila health complexes – a paper presented in 1st International Conference on Information and Knowledge Management (IIKM) – 2019 – held at Bangladesh Public Administration Training Center from 25 April to 27 April, 2019
  • 4. Kamal, M.M., Begum, A. and Al-Hossienie, C. (2018) Role of Ward Councillors in Decision-making processes of Urban Local Government: A Study on Sylhet City Corporation – A paper presented in 5th International Integrative Research Conference on Governance and Modernization in Changing Environment – held at Bangladesh Academy for Rural Development (BARD), Cumilla, Bangladesh from 18 to 19 December 2018. The abstract of the paper has been published in proceedings of the conference.

Teaching

  • He teaches courses on Public Policy, Administrative Law, Governance, Rural development, Environmental Management, Research Epistemology, and Local Government Studies.