Empowering Women in Bangladesh: Swisscontact's Impactful Initiatives

08.03.2023
Swisscontact Bangladesh shares inspiring success stories of women beneficiaries to celebrate International Women's Day 2023 and encourage more women to pursue their dreams and create positive change.

As we celebrate International Women's Day 2023, we are proud to share inspiring case stories of successful women who have benefitted from Swisscontact's initiatives in Bangladesh. These women have overcome significant challenges to achieve their goals, and their stories are a testament to the power of empowerment and gender equality. We hope that by sharing these stories, we can inspire even more women to pursue their dreams and create positive change in their communities and beyond.

Swisscontact is committed to promoting gender equality and social inclusion through its initiatives. Our approach focuses on providing women with equal access to resources, assets, economic opportunities, and political representation. We believe in promoting equal agencies in decision-making power, leadership, and workload distribution. Additionally, we advocate for equal rights to ownership, mobility, income, and political participation. By promoting gender equality and social inclusion, we aim to create positive impacts on gender norms, institutions, social recognition, and well-being, while reducing the risk of violence.

Bangladesh
Entrepreneurial ecosystems
Making Markets Work for the Jamuna, Padma and Teesta Chars (M4C)
To reduce vulnerability and increase wellbeing of vulnerable and marginalised char dwellers living in the northern char region of Bangladesh. Chars are riverine land, susceptible to erosion and soil deposition, which remain disconnected from mainland either seasonally or throughout the year. Due to this unique geographical positioning,...
Bangladesh
Initial vocational education and training
High-quality healthcare services in rural areas
Achieving Sustainability Towards Healthcare Access (ASTHA) aims at contributing to the development and expansion of sustainable and high-quality healthcare at the community level by training young adults (50% women) from seven rural districts as skilled health workers. The ASTHA-project will improve the health and living conditions of the local...
Bangladesh
Entrepreneurial ecosystems
Bangladesh Microinsurance Market Development Project
The Phase I of BMMDP aims at improving farmers’ well-being, specifically smallholders, through enhanced agricultural productivity and resilience to natural disasters.Smallholder farmers in Bangladesh are extremely vulnerable to weather related risks, the intensity of which increases because of climate change issues. Due to their limited savings...
Bangladesh
Continuing Vocational Education and Training, Labour market insertion
Building Skills for Unemployed and Underemployed Labour
B-SkillFUL aims to improve the well-being of poor and disadvantaged men and women by increasing their access to labour market and income, while safeguarding their fundamental rights at work.Almost 2 million workers join the labour force every year in Bangladesh settling mostly in the informal sector given their lack of relevant skills. However, the...
Bangladesh
Continuing Vocational Education and Training
Sarathi 
Bangladesh is the world’s second largest garment exporter, with the Ready-Made Garment (RMG) sector accounting for over 83% of the country’s exports and contributing approximately 16% to the GDP. The garment industry consists of more than 4,000 RMG factories and employs between four to five million workers of which almost 60% are women. Even though RMG the sector plays such a pivotal role in the economy of Bangladesh, only 34% of it was included in the formal financial system in 2016 when Swisscontact started to work towards the financial inclusion of RMG workers and their community members.
Bangladesh
Entrepreneurial ecosystems
PRABRIDDHI – Local Economic Development
PRABRIDDHI focuses on building the capacity of an urban or rural territory to create a competitive advantage for its enterprises through a broad set of activities and improve the economic well-being of its people and workers.