Bangladesh: Empowering women through micro-enterprises

Improving incomes

Feroza faced ruin after a flood washed away her and her husband's poultry farm. "I lost the will to live, the inspiration to carry on. There was no food, no shelter, and my daughter could not go to school".

She became a Joyeeta entrepreneur after the project visited her village in northwest Bangladesh. With a small loan from a local NGO she was able to buy her first batch of Unilever products to sell to her neighbours. "I started a new life," she says. "My daughter goes to school and the loan was paid off last year."

Piloted in 2003, Project Joyeeta has inspired several spin-off projects. A joint venture with aid agency CARE Bangladesh, called Aparajita, aims to increase the number of entrepreneurs and sales by offering a wider range of goods including shoes, spices and clothes as well as Unilever products. In 2009, 3 000 women sold Unilever products to 1.8 million households through sales hubs set up by CARE. In 2010, we aim to increase this to 10 000 women covering a total of six million households.

Dual benefits

In Bangladesh, poor infrastructure means it is often difficult to distribute and sell products in rural areas. Project Joyeeta helps Unilever overcome these difficulties, giving access to the huge number of rural consumers throughout the country. Joyeeta is derived from the Bengali word for win.

Not only does Project Joyeeta mean that Unilever can increase sales in rural Bangladesh, but the lives of local women and their families have been changed significantly. By running their own businesses, women are empowered, and they provide inspiration to others.

"It is not only my own prosperity that means so much to me. People get inspiration from me. They say, 'If Feroza can do it, why not me?' I'm more than a representative of Unilever, I'm an ambassador of life, hope and dreams."

Strong foundations

The scheme is part of a series of micro-enterprise initiatives around South Asia that encourage women to add to their household incomes by selling Unilever products to members of their communities. Local NGOs provide loans to help women buy the goods while Unilever helps with training in commercial skills.