BRINGING SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT IN BANGLADESH

Ahmed Imtiaz Jami is the founder and president of OBHIZATRIK Foundation. His motto is to help underprivileged children, OBHIZATRIK Foundation has now blossomed into an organization with 3500 selfless volunteers across 32 districts in Bangladesh. OBHIZATRIK Foundation since its establishment in 2010, has been actively working on the following sectors: Poverty elimination, Education, Health and Nutrition, Human Rights and Environment.

MBR: What can be the area of focus for the organization which are interested to participate in CSR activities in Bangladesh?

Ahmed Imtiaz Jami: The term Corporate Social Responsibility or CSR has become one of the most important issue for all the corporation now. CSR is a mechanism that helps to operate a business in such a manner that meets the ethical, legal, commercial and public expectations that society has on a business corporation. It is a concept where companies integrate social and environmental concerns in its business operations. Rather than investing in one sector I will suggest that, they can focus on different sectors of our society including child education, child health, environment issues regarding global warming, and livelihood of poor people etc. to improve their condition and contribute to the society as a whole.

MBR: What are the CSR initiatives taken by OBHIZATRIK Foundation till now?

Ahmed Imtiaz Jami: Currently we are involved in three sustainable projects.

OBHIZATRIK schools:We established three schools which are located in Pallabi, Rayer Bazar in Dhaka and Latarchar (joint school with IDLC) in Patuakhali. Approximately 400 children get benefited with these schools. We provide necessary items like bags, stationaries, books, health care, and foods for these children along with their education.

SHOKKHOM: The project was initiated on 2016. We create business models using Zakat and CSR funds. There are 23 types of business models such as rickshaw, poultry, fisheries, grocery businesses and so on. Since 2016, OBHIZATRIK has been operating in seven district and about 300 families got benefited with these project.

Heath care: OBHIZATRIK foundation has been working on health care projects located in different places within Dhaka. We provide checkups, medicines and other services free of cost. We have served more than 2000 patients over last two years. Besides these projects, we have many volunteering programs. We have around 4000 volunteers in Dhaka and every month they are engaged in various CSR activities. Every year, during Ramadan we arrange sehri for 400-500 poor/homeless people. We also help raise fund for the people affected by natural disasters or during emergency situations.

MBR: As CSR partner of IDLC, how IDLC is impacting the society through CSR activities?

Ahmed Imtiaz Jami: We have been working with IDLC Finance limited since the beginning of 2018. It is a oneof- a-kind online Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) platform - Khushir Kheya - to bring people together and manage issues with focus areas in healthcare, education, environment and community development. Through this platform youth volunteers are engaged in all of the events to encourage the young generation to take part in improving their communities. Mr Arif Khan, CEO and MD of IDLC also invested and sponsored few children of OBHIZATRIK School in Latarchar. This project has a huge impact as it is the first school of the village. Thus IDLC plays a vital role in enhancing education in remote areas. Moreover, it also helps to raise funds for various volunteering programs. IDLC employees also contribute in these fund raising events and I think this encourage every person in the organization to engage in CSR activities. This can be a good example for other organizations. Besides, we are planning to work in other projects such as “Boat Ambulance” for the people of southern part of Bangladesh, who are very much deprived of better health care facilities. All these sustainable models of IDLC impacting our education, healthcare, environment and livelihood sector of the society in an assertive way.

MBR: What are the areas which financial institutions can further work on toward development of the society?

Ahmed Imtiaz Jami: Institutions should address major problems in various sectors and work with these for further development. Environmental issue can be a scope for CSR activities. Reduction of using plastic bags, save water, steps regarding reduction of air pollution, all of these activities play vital role in the development of our society. More or less every company focuses on education or donation based on projects but they should also start to focus on the development of livelihood sector of the country. They should utilize their CSR funds to facilitated livelihood projects where investor’s donations turn into investment. This kind of projects can stable the whole family and help to reduce country’s poverty rate. As I have mention before, you should exploit different sector not stuck with particular one. For example, all organizations are attracted to the Rohingya issue in Cox’s Bazar. But it is not the only problem of our country. There are so many including issues regarding healthcare, transportation in our southern part and farmer’s rights violation. They are not paid properly as a result this portion of our population still remain under poverty. Many remote areas do not have any schools and most importantly focus on quality education.

MBR: To ensure sustainable development of a society, what kind of infrastructural development is necessary? Do you think the current initiatives under the platform of CSR are enough to ensure sustainability? What more can be done to achieve it?

Ahmed Imtiaz Jami: To take our country ahead, companie should engage more in CSR activities and CSR fund  utilization. Instead of using CSR funds on specific sector, it should equally distributed to different segments. Thus we may able to reduce poverty and at the same time, increase literacy. Do impactful work that can help our citizens to get rid of those problems.

From my perspective, our current CSR initiatives are not enough to ensure sustainability but the scenario is better than the past. In past there was no idea of future impact along with CSR activity. They only focus on branding. But gradually, companies are changing their perspective now. They are more focus to ensure the welfare of the society. They are doing less work but impactful ones.

To achieve sustainable development we need to think about long run impact. Make more sustainable business model. Compare one company’s CSR activities to other successful ones so that we can get enough ideas to utilize your funds. Partner companies or investors should be more responsible. Their job are not only providing funds, they should engage in these activities personally. Thus we can hope to have a sustainable and better society to live.

MBR: To ensure sustainable development of a society what kind of infrastructural development is necessary? Do you think the current initiatives under the platform of CSR are enough to ensure sustainability? What more can be done to achieve it?

Ahmed Imtiaz Jami: Every year we increase their area of CSR activities. This year we have been working with 32 districts. In 2020, we want to arrange a road event with the help of 2020 volunteers to raise funds to help 2020 unstable families. And till 2025, our foundation want to open five more branches of school to accommodate 1000 more students. We have five BOD, 30 department members, 150 core member in Dhaka and total of 4000 workers all over 32 districts.