Mohammed Eshan Zia is the former Minister of Rural Rehabilitation and Development of

Afghanistan Afghanistan, officially the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central Asia and South Asia. It is bordered by Pakistan to the Durand Line, east and south, Iran to the Afghanistan–Iran borde ...

. He is currently President and CEO of Tadbeer Consulting Inc.

Background

Zia was born in

Kabul Kabul is the capital and largest city of Afghanistan. Located in the eastern half of the country, it is also a municipality, forming part of the Kabul Province. The city is divided for administration into #Districts, 22 municipal districts. A ...

, Afghanistan. He received a

Bachelor's Degree A bachelor's degree (from Medieval Latin ''baccalaureus'') or baccalaureate (from Modern Latin ''baccalaureatus'') is an undergraduate degree awarded by colleges and universities upon completion of a course of study lasting three to six years ...

in Social Development from the

University of Birmingham The University of Birmingham (informally Birmingham University) is a Public university, public research university in Birmingham, England. It received its royal charter in 1900 as a successor to Queen's College, Birmingham (founded in 1825 as ...

in the UK in 1991, and holds a master's degree in Post-War Recovery Studies from the

University of York The University of York (abbreviated as or ''York'' for Post-nominal letters, post-nominals) is a public Collegiate university, collegiate research university in York, England. Established in 1963, the university has expanded to more than thir ...

. During the 1990s he worked with Aid Agencies and NGO's involved in humanitarian and post conflict programs in Afghanistan.

Minister of Rural Rehabilitation and Development

During the First Karzai cabinet, he joined the

Ministry of Rural Rehabilitation and Development The Ministry of Rural Rehabilitation and Development (, ) (MRRD) is a ministry of the Afghan government. Its main headquarters is located in Kabul, Afghanistan, but has offices and employees in all the 34 provinces of the country. MRRD's mission ...

as policy advisor in 2002 and subsequently was appointed Deputy Minister for Programs in January 2004, becoming responsible for a developmentbudget of over 300 mln dollar. He became Rural Development Minister in 2006, but was replaced in 2010 when the Second Karzai cabinet was installed. Mr. Zia was described by ''The Globe and Mail'' as one of the most active and dynamic of the Afghan cabinet, known for getting out of Kabul and pushing hard to drive reconstruction money out to the communities where projects are picked by locally chosen councils. According to the website of de ministry of rural rehabilitation and development, the soft-spoken Mr. Zia was the most-traveled minister of the Karzai cabinet, and possibly also the most popular. Cornerstone of the Ministry of Rural Development was the National Solidarity Program, a project that gives money to local communities who have elected their own leaders and created their own development efforts. After his tenure as minister, Zia became CEO of Tadbeer, an Afghan consulting firm in the governance, development and security field.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Zia, Mohammed Ehsan Year of birth missing (living people) Living people Government ministers of Afghanistan Alumni of the University of Birmingham People from Kabul Alumni of the University of York