For the last two years, Mr. Safiullah Baharustani has been an advisor for BearingPoint consulting firm, and an economic/statistical analyst in the Department of Monetary Policy at Da Afghanistan Bank, the Central Bank of Afghanistan. He has also been involved with USAID's Afghanistan Economic Governance Program and has played an active role in the Banking Reform Project, which restructured and enhanced the capacity of the Central Bank.

Mr. Baharustani's main responsibilities included undertaking analytical work on macroeconomics by analyzing and managing macroeconomic and financial data. Apart from that, he also participated in the publication and production of Da Afghanistan Bank's quarterly Economic and Statistical Bulletin.

Mr. Baharustani holds a M.Sc degree in Economics from the School of Economics at International Islamic University in Islamabad, Pakistan. In early 2004, he attended a two month course on Financial Programming and Policies at the IMF Institute in Washington, D.C.

During the Humphrey year, Mr. Baharustani plans to enhance and broaden his knowledge of Monetary Policy and Financial Management by learning and experiencing innovative financial techniques in the said fields.