April 02, 2017, Dhaka, Bangladesh – Coca-Cola Bangladesh today announced the extension of its ‘Women Business Center Project’ to the Third Phase in two more Upazillas of Jamalpur District. In the third phase of the program, it aims reach 20,000 additional women within 2018, taking the total count of women beneficiaries to 40,000.
The announcement was made at a dialogue, jointly held today with Business Initiative Leading Development (BUILD) to share good practices and critical challenges of rural women entrepreneurship development. The dialogue engaged stakeholders from public, private and civil societies, media professionals and other relevant bodies to highlight cases of women entrepreneurship development, using Coca-Cola’s Women Business Center project, implemented by United Purpose, as a case study.
The dialogue featured a panel discussion on Economic Upliftment of Rural Women Entrepreneurs featuring Ms. Mafruha Sultana, Vice Chairman & CEO, Export Promotion Bureau (Women Development Policy Strategy), Ms. Qantara K Khan, Director, CWCCI, Ms. Monowara Hakim Ali, Director, FBCCI & President, CWCCI (Partnership for Progress), Ms. Shubha Sekhar, Director Sustainability of Coca-Cola India & South West Asia (Role of corporate along with government and civil society) and Ms. Doulot Akter Mala, Special Correspondent The Financial Express.
Chief Guest of the program Md. Mosharraf Hossain Bhuiyan, Senior Secretary, Ministry of Industries, GOB Commented – “I remember in the 60s, in my village, how our mothers used to milk cows, and send us boys to the market to sell it. They used to grow modest amounts of tomatoes and cauliflowers, or raise goats and poultry – they were always trying to find a way to earn a little something of their own. This desire for economic independence is not new, it has always been there, and today we are lucky that a project such as this, by Coca-Cola, is making this process easier for rural women. We all love to say that we are progressing, and learning about a project like this makes me believe that the people of Bangladesh truly are progressing.”
Special Guest of the program Asif Ibrahim, Advisor to BUILD commented, “There are different initiatives that we can take for the empowerment of rural women where we need long-term and feasible policies. We need projects like the one we are discussing today to economically empower and advance the rural women of our country. I express my appreciation that a corporate house such as Coca-Cola has come forward to shoulder such a responsibility.”

Announcing the extension of the program, Shadab Khan, Managing Director, Coca-Cola Bangladesh commented, “The WBC project in Bangladesh is adapted from Coca-Cola’s global 5by20 vision, started with the aim to pull five million marginalized women up through economic empowerment by 2020. Looking at women’s workforce participation in Bangladesh, we can proudly say that women here are already doing better than most South Asian countries. However, women workers continue to face harder obstacles, often arising from a lack of training and confidence. At Coca-Cola we have tried to bank on the potential of women first and success will follow.”
“The WBC project in Bangladesh is adapted from Coca-Cola’s global 5by20 vision, started with the aim to pull five million marginalized women up through economic empowerment by 2020 – looking at women’s workforce participation in Bangladesh, we can proudly say that women here are already doing better than most South Asian countries. However, women workers continue to face harder obstacles, often arising from a lack of training and confidence. At Coca-Cola we have tried to bank on the potential of women and the success of the first”
”Working with and investing in women is one of the most powerful ways to spur sustainable economic growth and development, said Shubha Sekhar, Director Sustainability Coca-Cola India & South West Asia”.
”Bangladesh is currently at a crossroads to becoming a middle income country, and the path towards that, is by utilizing the full extent of its workforce, which can only happen through a more active participation of its women. I’m excited by the progress we’re making toward contributing to our global vision of empowering 5mn women and in playing a role positively impacting the lives of the people in the communities we operate in. She further added.
Ferdaus Ara Begum, CEO, BUILD commented, “3rd generation Women Entrepreneurs has exposed their potentials, capable to contribute more what they are doing now, these untapped source of economic growth needs adequate policy support and access to technology. Women constitutes 30% of total labor force, 77% of whom lives in the rural areas, integrating rural women with the mainstream development would exploit the full potentials of women entrepreneurs”.
The main aim of the WBC project is to contribute to the wellbeing and resilience of 40,000 women through economic empowerment. The project aims to address common barriers women face in the marketplace by providing access to business skills training, market information, agriculture training and inputs, and mobile banking, nutrition, healthcare and counseling for women and mentoring and networking opportunities. The project has been active in Jamalpur District of Dhaka Division, and Khulna and Bagerhat of Khulna Division, covering a total of 8 Upazillas.