Mir Nadia Nivin made new IDRA chairman

The government has appointed Ms. Mir Nadia Nivin as chairman of the Insurance Development and Regulatory Authority (IDRA), the country's insurance sector regulator, according to a gazette notification issued by the Financial Institutions Division of the Ministry of Finance on Tuesday.

She succeeds Mr. Aslam Alam, who resigned from the post on March 02 this year; and since then the post remained vacant.

Ms. Nivin most recently served as a member of the Election System Reform Commission formed under the interim government.

In October 2025, she was appointed an independent director of Delta Life Insurance Company Ltd.

She holds a master's degree from California State University, Sacramento, obtained in 2006. She also completed a second master's in Public Administration from Harvard University.

Ms. Nivin began her professional career in August 2007 as a programme officer with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). Around the same time, she also worked with the government's Access to Information (a2i) programme.

Since 2009, she has held a range of international assignments with the UNDP, beginning in Germany. She later joined the organisation's headquarters in New York as part of its Global Elections Team, providing policy support to country offices worldwide on election-related issues.

In 2013, she served in Afghanistan as an Election Programme Specialist, working on elections, parliamentary affairs, public financial management, local government, administrative capacity-building and gender equality initiatives.

She subsequently worked in Pakistan's Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, where she was involved in rehabilitation programmes for displaced communities.

In 2018, she was posted to Malaysia, collaborating with the Election Commission, Parliament, the Prime Minister's Office and anti-corruption institutions.

In March 2020, she joined UNDP operations in Myanmar, where she worked on digital healthcare projects, cross-border immunisation programmes and a United Nations-led artificial intelligence initiative focused on human rights.

She possesses extensive expertise in micro insurance, corporate governance, institutional reforms, financial management and risk management.

Her appointment comes at a time when expectations are rising for stronger governance, regulatory oversight and consumer protection in Bangladesh's insurance sector.

The IDRA was established in 2011, replacing the Department of Insurance, as part of efforts to strengthen supervision of the country's insurance industry. Actuary M Shefaque Ahmed served as its first chairman.

jasimharoon@yshoo.com