SWAPNO (Strengthening Women’s Ability for Productive New Opportunities) is a CSR initiative of Marico Bangladesh that economically empowers rural women of Bangladesh.

The initiative follows a “poverty graduation” or “social transfer” model aimed at delivering social and economic empowerment to ultra-poor and vulnerable rural women through sustainable livelihoods, food security and financial inclusion

SWAPNO focuses on creating productive employment or sustainable livelihood opportunities for its beneficiaries to graduate out of poverty.

Beneficiaries are selected from ultra-poor demographical presence as identified by the Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies (BIDS). Beneficiaries must be a rural woman with household responsibility, who is widowed, divorced, separated/abandoned, or married to a husband who is not able to earn.

SWAPNO currently operates in 22 districts and 106 Upazilas, with more than 64,980 beneficiaries.

As of the end of 2020, households under the program showed: an increase in average monthly income by Tk.3,545 compared to Tk.205 in other households. Nutritional food intake increased for 97% of households under the program, 92.2% of women started monthly savings, 66.2% of beneficiaries did not suffer from the financial crisis in the pandemic and 95% of SWAPNO women did not face domestic violence in a year.

In an interview with CSR Window Christabel Randolph, Director, Legal & Corporate Affairs, Marico Bangladesh Limited says, “We need to educate the actors in this eco-system on what is CSR, how it can benefit
all stakeholders and how to incentivize it.”

With the execution of the “SWAPNO” project, Marico Bangladesh Limited focuses on delivering social and economic empowerment of ultra-poor and vulnerable rural women through sustainable livelihoods, food security and financial inclusion. For more inspiring CSR stories shared by corporates, check out our Youtube Channel.