Hartwig Schafer, vice president for South Asia region of the World Bank, today visited the footwear microenterprises cluster at Bhairab in Kishoreganj under the sustainable enterprise project (SEP), co-financed by the global lender and implemented by the Palli Karma-Sahayak Foundation (PKSF).

During the visit, he was accompanied by Nomita Halder, managing director of PKSF; Md Fazlul Kader, additional managing director, and Mercy Miyang Tembon, country director of the World Bank, along with other representatives from the government, the WB and PKSF.

Under the SEP, the PKSF is supporting the footwear-producing microenterprise cluster in Bhairab where around 200,000 pairs of footwear are manufactured a day.

Bhairab is home to more than 10,000 footwear microenterprises, employing over 120,000 people.

Guised as an honorary micro-entrepreneur, Schafer and the other member delegates visited SEP supported footwear common service centre to support the footwear-producing microenterprises.

They talked to the service providers and have had been explained the services there. Later, they also talked to some of the SEP-supported micro-entrepreneurs.

In her welcome remarks, the PKSF managing director said: "In addition to inclusive financing, capacity building, technology transfer, value chain development and other technical services are being provided to help the low-income people to get out from the vicious cycle of low productivity."

"Additionally, in all its project area, PKSF ensures safe environment for the female workers like what is done in the SEP."

"We made it flexible for the microentrepreneurs who suffered during the Covid-19 pandemic. Because we want to eradicate poverty not only by lending money but also by creating employment opportunity. It is also very inspiring to see how a common service facility can be helpful to a business community which does not have much access to necessary modern technical support. Promoting decent workplace, we want to ensure good business but also sustainable business. Money alone cannot solve problems. It requires commitment and partnership like we have between The World Bank and PKSF."

Appreciating the effort and enthusiasm of the female micro-entrepreneurs, Tembon said: "I am very happy to meet the women who are not only working for themselves but also employing other women. That is why SEP is very important. PKSF is doing a wonderful job as they are doing it all over the country."

Expressing satisfaction at the SEP's role in sustainable expansion of the footwear-manufacturing microenterprises, Schafer said: 'It is great to see what can be done when you empower communities and when you start small."

Kader highlighted the SEP's interventions with particular focus on the footwear-producing cluster.

To assist the microenterprises of Bangladesh in enhancing their marketing and brand development capacity and adopting environmentally sustainable practices, PKSF is implementing the SEP, jointly financed by PKSF and The World Bank with support from the government of Bangladesh.

The total budget of this five-year project is $130 million, of which the World Bank and PKSF will finance $110 million and $20 million respectively.

To implement the project, the lead business clusters, based in the lead sub-sectors of the agribusiness and manufacturing sectors, are provided financial and technical support.

A total of 64 sub-projects have been undertaken from 30 different sub-sectors under the project.

People's Oriented Program Implementation (POPI), a partner organization of PKSF, is implementing one of the sub-projects, titled 'Establishing Environmental Practices in Hazardous Footwear Microenterprises in Bhairab, Bangladesh' sub-project in Kishoreganj to support 1,100 microenterprises adopt environmentally sustainable practices at their businesses.

Additionally, SEP also extends services like software-based footwear designs under footwear-making common service, cluster-based waste management, cluster-based WASH facilities, hand-made brand promotion, e-commerce branding.

Other members of the visiting delegation included: Zahir Uddin Ahmed, project coordinator of the SEP and deputy general manager of PKSF; Murshed Alam Sarker, executive director of POPI; Eun Joo Allison Yi, senior environmental specialist of SSAEN and TTL, SEP; Christian Berger, Senior Agriculture Economist, SSAA1, TTL MFSFP, and Jacob Finnemann Viuff, security specialist at GCSGO.