Engaging private organisations for sustainable development

The Ashshash Project – supported by the Embassy of Switzerland in Bangladesh and implemented by Winrock International, recently organised a knowledge-sharing session on engaging private sector organisations to ensure sustainable development. 

The session aimed to identify areas of collaboration amongst stakeholders to create enduring partnership for development and better serve disadvantaged groups through engaging the private sector, said a press release.

The session was inaugurated by Dipta Rakshit, team leader of Ashshash Project. 

Ashraful Islam, private sector engagement manager at Ashshash Project, shared interventions of private organisations in the project's activities and programming. 

Representatives from "Nobojatra" Project of Winrock International, World Vision Bangladesh, SOYEE Programme of Plan International Bangladesh, and WorldFish shared their experiences on engaging private organisations.

Ensuring sustainable employment and reintegration for returnee migrant workers was also earmarked as a significant priority, whilst Switzerland's participation in multilateral initiatives to ensure increased engagement with private organisations in Bangladesh were hailed by all in attendance. 

Conversely, representatives from Prime Bank Ltd, Green Delta Insurance Ltd, Pran-RFL Group, and Unilever Bangladesh Ltd shared good practices by private organisations on engaging developmental partners.

The chief guests in attendance were Mujibul Hasan Cezanne, country director of Swisscontact, Bangladesh; Hasina Rahman, deputy country director of CARE Bangladesh; Mohammad Nadim Rahman, national programme officer at Embassy of Switzerland in Bangladesh; Asif Uddin Ahmed, assistant professor and director of MBA programme at University of Liberal Arts Bangladesh; and Md Quamrul Hassan, business director at ACI Ltd. 

The session was moderated by Asif Munier, migration, displacement and anti-human trafficking expert.