Tom Wipperman is a volunteer with VSO, an international development charity, working as a policy and research advisor to Neeti Gobeshona Kendro, a research and advocacy organisation based in Dhaka, Bangladesh. He studied geography at Oxford University, specialising in urban economic and environmental development and holds an MSc in Development and Planning from University College London. Before moving to Bangladesh, he worked as a researcher for the chief urban policy advisor to the Mayor of London, the UK Government, and leader of the OECD urban policy forum.

Articles by Thomas Wipperman:

Pulling Rickshaws Out of Poverty: A Proposal (with Timothy Sowula)
9 August 2007

"The best way to pull the two million rickshaw-pullers out of poverty is by bringing them into the formal economy. Nationalising and rationalising public transport has worked well in cities ranging from London to Curitiba. In Bangladesh, let rickshaw-pullers earn weekly wages as public employees, and passengers pay for a public service that represents 6 percent of the country's income and reaches nearly 15 percent of the its population."

The Real Heroes of Bangladesh
7 August 2007

"Traffic planners want to get rid of them, and human rights groups think their work is exploitative. These attitudes neglect the real value of rickshaws as an economic and cultural institution, and misunderstand the concepts of exploitation and abuse. The effort needs to be on devising ways to reward the work of rickshaw-pullers justly, recognising their labour and their crucial role in the fabric of Bangladesh's economy."