a BRAC social enterprise

Tanvir Hossain Manager | Marketing & Sustainability

Handmade in Bangladesh

BRAC Enterprises: Aarong

The views expressed in this paper are the views of the authors and do not necessarily

reflect the views or policies of the Asian Development Bank (ADB), or its Board of

Governors, or the governments they represent. ADB does not guarantee the accuracy of

the data included in this paper and accepts no responsibility for any consequence of their

use. The countries listed in this paper do not imply any view on ADB's part as to

sovereignty or independent status or necessarily conform to ADB's terminology.

A holistic approach to

women’s empowerment

Development Programmes Social Enterprises

Investments

Agriculture and Food Security

Community Empowerment

Disaster, Environment & Climate

Change

Education

Gender, Justice, and Diversity

Health, Nutrition, and Population

Human Rights and Legal Aid Services

Microfinance

Migration

Ultra Poor

Water, Sanitation and Hygiene

Aarong

Dairy Artificial Insemination Poultry and Poultry Rearing Farms Feed Mills Chicken Fisheries Salt Sanitary Napkin and Delivery Kit Cold Storage Sericulture Seed Nursery Printing Pack

Financial Institutions, IT, University

Aarong

One of 16 social enterprises of BRAC

Established in 1978, Aarong

means “village fair”

Certified fair trade organisation

50% of profit for BRAC

development programmes

Retail stores, production centres

and independent producer

management

Philanthropy

Corporate

Social

Responsibility

Creating Shared

Value (CSV)

Michael Porter & Mark Kramer Havard Business Review

How CSV be used to sustainably expand opportunities for women?

Weaving Jamdani Tailoring Hand

Embroidery Nakshi Kantha Doll

Making Wood Carving Metal

Engraving Natural Dye Batik Block

and Screen Printing Jewellery

Pottery Leather Jute

Crafts Inclusive Creative Industries

Unlocking potential of women

Entrepreneurs of

MSMEs 136 women (35%)

Home based workers

& production unit workers 55,250 women (85%)

Challenges of the marginalised producer

Design Innovation In-house design and product development

Capital Instant payment, Collateral free loans

Quality Knowledge Capacity building, Quality assurance

Marketing Customer focus, Branding

Market Access Rural artisan access to urban markets

Social Compliance Fair trade, Social accountabilities

Design

Weavers Value

Addtion

Other

Craftpersons Tailors

Quality Control

Processing

store/

Warehouse

Retail outlets /

export /

aarong.com

Sample

Development

Costing/

Ordering

Institutional support

Ensuring quality inputs/ outputs

Market access

Value chain support

Maintaining Compliance

Economic & Social

Empowerment

Artisan

Group

HEALTH AWARENESS ENTITLEMENTS

HYGIENE MICROFINANCE LEGAL AID

1,800 sessions at any given month at production centres

Aarong Today

60 Million USD in sales

13 Outlets - 191,000 ft2

109 Product lines

65,000 Artisans

9 Million USD in loans and credit