Two open social business projects were presented at the 375th Social Business Design Lab yesterday.
Yunus Centre organised the event at the Grameen Bank auditorium in Dhaka with nearly 160 participants from national and international organisations.
Nobel Laureate Professor Muhammad Yunus chaired the Design Lab, Yunus Centre said in a statement. Ashraful Hasan, managing director of Grameen Fashion and Fabrics, presented a project on sanitary napkin.
The project aims to address the menstrual hygiene issue in the country especially among the low-income group with cost competitive sanitary napkin products.
The company intends to scale up from its current manual production to an automatic production line, which will produce 600,000 pieces per day compared to the current 3,000 pieces per day. The company would be able produce 150 million pieces per month that would meet 15 percent of total market demand in the country.
The second open project was presented by Biplob Chakma of Ashika Manabik Unnyan Kendra.
The project—Shuvolong (Supply of Safe Drinking Water)—is a joint venture between Ashika Manabik Unnyan Kendra and Grameen Telecom Trust (GTT).
The project aims to address drinking water crisis in the hilly district of Rangamati.
This is the second social business joint venture between Ashika and GTT. The first one facilitates mushroom production involving indigenous women in the same region of the country. There was also a guest project on social business—Vila Brasil—presented by Marina Lourenço of Brazil.
Her project aims to educate local communities about social business and its impact through workshops. The project came through Yunus Centre at AIT Thailand where Lourenço has been working as a researcher.
Four new Nobin Udyokta business plans were also presented by the children of Grameen Bank borrowers' families, at yesterday's event.
The plans included Mayer Dua Peyara Khamar by Mim Sardar. The next plan was presented by Kohinur Begum for her Surma Cloth and Tailors.
Md Khalid Hasan presented Trust Poultry Farm project. The last one was presented by Md Hashim for his Hashim Handicrafts.
The projects were approved for funding by their groups. The projects are joint ventures with Grameen social business fund.
Managing Director and Chief of Administration of Grameen Credit Agricole—Eric Campos and Pascal Webanck—attended the Design Lab as special guests.
Grameen Credit Agricole is a joint venture microcredit institution between Grameen and French Banking Giant Credit Agricole and it is currently active in around 30 countries.
Since the beginning of the Design Lab in January 2013, over 8,865 projects have been presented in the last 375 Lab programmes, of which 8,859 projects have been approved for equity funding investments ranging from Tk one lakh to five lakh for Nobin Udyokta projects.
Yunus thanked the participants for the innovative social businesses and invited them to join the next Design Lab which will take place on November 22 this year.
