Courtesy visit to Dr Ryal Wun, Deputy Executive & Legal Director of UN Global Compact Singapore

Courtesy visit to Mr. Philip Ling, Head of Sustainability, digi, Telenor Group and President of BCSD Malaysia

Courtesy Visit to Mr. Kelvin Chan, President, Institute of Management Consultants in Singapore

Courtesy visit to Mr. Saiful Abid Bin Abdul Munaff, Head of Group – Smart Sustainable Cities, Green Tech Malaysia and Ms. Komathi Mariyappan, Senior Lead Analyst – Sustainable Energy & Green Advisory, Green Tech Malaysia

Courtesy visit to Professor Dr. Sulochana Nair, Vice Chancellor, Binary University Malaysia

The objective of the project is to strengthen the capacity in Bangladesh and Ghana to control the transboundary movements of plastic waste, to ensure the environmentally sound management of plastic waste, and prevent and minimize the generation of plastic waste. The project is funded by Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation (Norad) and implemented by Basel Convention Regional Centre in South East Asia (BCRC-SEA), Basel Convention Coordinating Centre in Africa (BCCC-Nigeria), Stockholm Convention Regional Centre in Spain (SCRC-Spain), Social Responsibility Asia (SR Asia) Bangladesh, Öko-Institute and Resource Futures

The project consists of the following components:

• Component 1: Controlling the TBM of plastic waste

• Component 2: Ensuring the environmentally sound management (ESM) of plastic waste

• Component 3: Tackling source

Stakeholder Engagement Meeting with the leaders of Bangladesh Plastic Goods Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BPGMEA) under Social Responsibility Asia (SR Asia) Bangladesh project on Developing Marine Litter Plastic Waste Management legal framework. Discussion included SDGs, Circular Economy, Green Growth, Trans-Boundary Movement (TBM)- Environmentally Sound Management (EBM) of Waste and Youth development, Extended Producers Responsibility (EPR). 2nd November 2019

To raise awareness about the benefits of fortified rice among the RMG workers and owners and increase the demand, WFP in partnership with Social Responsibility Asia (SR Asia) Bangladesh, developed a training module and awareness messaging content on 12 November 2019.

Corporate Responsibility Network - CRN is a platform founded by Social Responsibility Asia - SR Asia Bangladesh , Epyllion Group, Nestle Bangladesh, Marico Bangladesh, Olympic Industries Ltd and British American Tobacco.

CRN created a platform to bridge the corporate and sustainable idea generators for a great cause and it showcased some great ideas at the event "Showcasing Sustainable & Innovative Project Ideas", 05 December 2019

SR Asia participated in a consultant hub workshop, GRI standards organized by GRI on 18-19 December 2019 in Dhaka Bangladesh. The workshop was envisaged to organize a pool of consultants on GRI Standards to support organizations in drafting sustainability report for mitigating the business risk and fulfill the stakeholders' interest through transparency. Topic

Social Responsibility Asia (SR Asia) Bangladesh inked agreement with practical action to "Develop guideline for designing and allocating budget for social scheme" under Dignifying lives project Purpose of this project is to develop a guideline for municipalities and multi-stakeholder forum in developing and allocating budget for innovative schemes to support education, health and decent livelihood support for waste and sanitation workers and their family members as well as gender inclusion

Social Responsibility Asia (SR Asia) has launched its unique service – Global REsponsibility and Accountability Tool “GReAT” on 12 February 2020 in Delhi India at SR Asia’s 8th Foundation Day. We already completed two projects using this tool. GREAT is a platform for Certified Assurers to asses sustainability reports or integrated reposts. SR Asia GReAT also provides certification mechanism for sustainability report or integrated report writers and assurers. With SR Asia GREAT, the assurers are able to analyse data and validate reporting indicators firmly, and come up with more detail recommendations. It utilizes information technology and is intended to respond nowadays demand for professionals and highly qualified writers and assurers for sustainability reporting. For more detail, please visit   srasia-great

Also unveiled ISO 9001:2015 certification to SR Asia during this occasion by the Honorable Guest Shri Madhukar Gupta IAS, Additional Secretary DPE, Govt of India, Shri Dr. Bhaskar Chatterjee, IICA Along with SR Asia Founders Shri K D Bhardwaj, Mr. Birendra Raturi, International Director of SR Asia, Ms Sumaya Rashid, Country Director of SR Asia Bangladesh, Ms VIDHYA KANDEBAN, Country Director of SR Asia Sri Lanka and Dr. Semerdanta Pusaka, SR Asia Country Director of Indonesia

Ms. Sumaya Rashid, Country Director of SR Asia Bangladesh visited Gazipur City Corporation, Faridpur Municipality, Bagerthut Municipality and Barguna City Corporation and the waste workers cooperative societies During January-February 2020. The visits are under the SR Asia Bangladesh project on Developing Guideline for City corporation and Municipalities on social Scheme for Waste Workers. The project is funded by Practical Action Bangladesh

The aim of this project is to conduct a study to develop a report highlighting impact of Ready-Made Garment (RMG) sector factories on Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The report is to be used for tailored advocacy with relevant stakeholders. Trade partners, buyers, as well as financial institutions and the Government of Bangladesh made international and national commitments to SDGs and some of these commitments are driving commercial relations, design and access to financial products, government policies and incentives. Individual suppliers started sustainability reporting, but there is no data on the impact of the sector as a whole. Yet, trade partners, buyers, financial institutions and governments before interacting with individual companies make commercial and political decisions based on country and sector data. With this in mind, the report will fill the data gap on SDG impact of RMG in Bangladesh.

SR Asia Bangladesh organized an online discussion among 15 RMG representatives to identify the Socio-Economic Impact on Employees and Workers due to COVID - 19. objective is to perform a study of what Socio-Economical Impacts will look like amidst the COVID-19 Pandemic. Through this study. SR Asia plans to identify what the large impact will not only look like but would like to hear from employees about how they are affected by this pandemic

SR Asia recognizes the increasing demand for professional writers and assurors with adequate knowledge and skills in sustainability or integrated report writing and assessment. SR Asia offers opportunities for executives and professionals to fill in the gaps by joining the SR Asia Global Certification Program, consisting of the Level 1-Certified Writer and the Level 2-Certified Assuror. In the Certification Program, SR Asia shares its experience and expertise; and provides course subjects following certain standards, and regulations relevant to the companies' need in sustainability or integrated reporting

While some aggregated data on funding flows to local actors exists at the global level, there is limited knowledge of how much funding – and through what channels – goes to local actors at the country level, particularly funding that reaches local actors indirectly. Deeper analysis at the country level can provide useful information for humanitarian actors to make practical changes in humanitarian financing systems, and better meet commitments made through the Grand Bargain and other international agreements. The humanitarian sector has faced challenges for decades with how best to support and fund local responders. Implementing this ‘localization’ agenda has proved an uphill battle. Despite, the Grand Bargain commitments of international non-governmental organizations, UN agencies, and donors signed in 2016, the sector today is still primarily led by these actors. Local responders are often relegated to subordinate implementers.

SR Asia Bangladesh inked agreement with OXFAM in Bangladesh to conduct the “International Analysis on Funding Flow Research Learnings” in November 2020

Owing to rapid migration and unplanned urbanization, underprivileged people are living in unhygienic conditions in disadvantaged locations and slum areas with limited access to health care. The urban poor hold jobs that are labor demanding which directly affects their health conditions. Most of them cannot afford healthcare and all of them pay out-of-pocket. This creates a financial barrier to access, resulting in unmet need, or lead to financial hardship for people using health services. Eventually, they are trapped in the vicious cycle of poor health conditions as well as catastrophic illnesses leading to poverty.

SR Asia Bangladesh is developing a guideline for 32 healthcare institutions on corporate social responsibility (CSR), supported by Christian Aid

SR Asia Bangladesh is working on assessing the impact of 560 SMEs from diverse sectors under The Women’s Economic Empowerment through Strengthening Market Systems (WEESMS) programme which is a five-year (2016-2021) initiative funded by the Embassy of Sweden, designed to increase women’s participation in the labour market in rural and peri-urban Bangladesh, with a significant focus on reducing gender inequality in the country’s entrepreneurship ecosystem. The programme is being implemented through a partnership of iDE Bangladesh and The Asia Foundation across nine districts under the Khulna and Rangpur divisions of Bangladesh. During its inception phase, the programme conducted thorough market research to narrow down its focus from over hundreds of industries to specifically the sub-sectors of home textiles and jute diversified products, and processed and packaged foods. The three outcomes of the WEESMS programme are:

Outcome 1. Improvement in enabling environment leading to increased economic participation of rural women

Outcome 2. Strengthened resilience of women-led/owned & women-oriented SMEs to overcome economic shocks

Outcome 3. Increased growth of women-led/owned & women-oriented SMEs

Social Responsibility Asia (SR Asia) Bangladesh and Association for Community Empowerment-ACE have signed off an agreement for implementing the Integrated Management of Plastic Assortment and Contribution Towards Green Economy (IMPACT-GE) project in the afternoon of 16 February 2022 at the ACE office, Lalmatia, Dhaka.

Sumaya Rashid, Country Director of SR Asia and Md. Shamsuzzaman, Executive Director of ACE signed the agreement on behalf of their respective organizations. Parveen S. Huda, President and Tanver Hossain, Vice President of ACE attended the signing ceremony along with officials of SR Asia and ACE.

https://www.tbsnews.net/economy/corporates/ashshash-project-social-responsibility-sr-asia-pledges-solidarity-survivors-human

https://www.thedailystar.net/news/bangladesh/news/winrock-project-sr-asia-sign-mou-2966636?amp

Every day, tons of plastic waste are generated in Cox's Bazar Municipality and the Rohingya camps; mismanagement of this plastic waste means that a large proportion of it ends up in open dumps and landfills and leaks into the environment, threatening ocean health, the health of marine species, food safety and human health. To combat this escalating plastic waste crisis, a locally led waste management solution that involves multi-stakeholder engagement and empowerment of the local waste management actors in Cox's Bazar is imperative to create a systematic waste management ecosystem. Against this backdrop, the BRAC Urban Development Programme has started implementing a 17-month project titled 'Towards a comprehensive and human-centred plastic waste management approach in the Cox's Bazar and Affected Regions by Myanmar Refugee Influx'. As evident in the project name, it is aimed to contribute to the reduction of plastic waste pollution in Cox's Bazar through the development of a comprehensive and human-centric waste management system that involves all relevant stakeholders in the waste management value chain. The project proposes three outcomes aimed at creating an effective collaboration platform and increasing the capacity and connection of the waste management value chain actors that will contribute to achieving the overall objective of initiating system change for plastic waste management.

To implement this project, SR Asia Foundation supports BRAC Urban Development Programme under following capacity:

- Support the Municipality by developing a business plan to activate the existing recycling plant in Cox's Bazar through technical and operational support

- Formation and Activation of Waste Workers' Group:

- Voluntary Waste Collection Drives in four (4) wards

- Capacity Building for Municipal and Informal Waste Collectors and fishermen

- Training for Informal Waste Collectors in Camps

- Training for Local Plastic Recyclers