The 4th Social Business Design Lab took place at Yunus Centre on 4 May 3013. At the beginning, Prof. Yunus called for one minute silence for the victims of Savar tragedy. The participants from different organizations presented four social business plans. They are- DABI Powerloom Project: Creating Productivity and Generating Greater Income Through Making ‘Shawl’ presented by Mr. A F M Rezaul Karim, Reclamation of Charlands for Sustainable Agricultural Farming presented by Professor Md. Obaidul Islam, Grameen Kalyan Nobin Udyogta Project presented by Mr. Saiduzzaman and Empowering Trans-Gender People through Social Business presented by Roushan Zhumu. The Grameen Kalyan Nobin Udyogta Project is a social business initiative involving the emerging educated young generation of Grameen Bank borrower families. These youth from grameen borrower families are encouraged to become entrepreneurs (job-givers) rather than become job seekers. Four such entrepreneurs participated in the design lab program. After the presentations, there was a question and answer session. Four business plans were intensively discussed in four groups announced. Each group came up with necessary recommendations. Each project gave its time-line for implementation. Finally the participants selected one Project Bondhu (Project Friend) for each project to act as a mentor in finalizing the plan. After the social business design lab a separate session was held on Savar Tragedy and discussed the details of the rehabilitation program.

Finally Prof. Muhammad Yunus thanked the participants for coming up with innovative social business plans and encouraged the designers to implement the projects. The participants showed strong determination to translate the social business plans into reality as soon as possible. Investors already committed funds for investing in these projects.

Design Lab 4