BRAC Annual Report 2016

Social Enterprises

Solutions for social challenges and surplus for greater impact

The challenge

Our presence in both rural and urban economies helps us understand the challenges that continue to hinder economic growth and social empowerment. Two of the most significant of those, particularly for women in rural areas, are sustainable livelihood generation and market access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to participate in the economy.

If you offer a person a dairy product, they can eat for a day. If you teach them to rear cows, they can sustain for a lifetime. What if a person knows how to rear cows, but they do not have enough capital to buy any though? Our work started not with giving dairy products or teaching people how to rear cows, but with lending money to families in rural areas to start their own small dairy operations. Then we created a social enterprise that linked them with urban consumers who wanted dairy products. The same enterprise - Aarong Dairy - now provides market access to 50,000 dairy farmers across the country.

Social enterprise lies at the intersection of business and traditional non-profit.

Social enterprises are self-sustaining cause-driven business entities that create social impact by offering solutions to social challenges and reinvesting their surplus to sustain and generate greater impact.

The approach

Social enterprises act as a catalyst for change in identifying social, economic and environmental problems, and providing equitable and measurable solutions that address unmet needs. They ensure business viability, continuously offering competitive, marketable and relevant solutions and innovations across the value chain, while keeping their social mission at the core of their business. They sustain themselves financially and reinvest their surpluses back to the original social cause to create more social impact.

We invest in initiatives that engage individuals, micro and small enterprises as suppliers, producers and consumers. Instead of maximising profits, our 13 social enterprises focus on maximising gains in quality of life for all.

Enterprises

Aarong

Harnessing the skills of 65,000 artisans across Bangladesh through a vast network of rural production centres and independent producers. Aarong is one of the country's largest lifestyle retail chains.

BRAC Artificial Insemination

Providing insemination services to cattle farmers to boost local income and milk production, to optimise on gains made by introducing higher quality cow breeds. BRAC Artificial Insemination employs a total of 2,200 trained insemination workers across the country.

BRAC Chicken

Supplying high quality dressed chicken and value-added frozen food products to a range of clients and retailers. BRAC Chicken operates one of the largest automated poultry processing plants in the country.

BRAC Cold Storage

Storing the harvested yields of potato farmers to ensure that none of their hard work goes to waste. BRAC Cold Storage ensures freshness not only by storing produce, but also by integrating farmers with the potato processing industry.

BRAC Dairy

Ensuring fair prices for over 50,000 farmers across Bangladesh and providing a wide variety of high quality dairy products to urban consumers. BRAC Dairy is the third largest milk processor in the country, with operations spanning the entire dairy value chain.

BRAC Fisheries

Harnessing the potential of Bangladesh’s ponds for commercial fish farming. BRAC Fisheries is the market leader for all of the products it offers, as well as the leading wholesale fish food supplier in regional markets.

BRAC Nursery

Providing access to high quality seedlings and promoting tree plantation across the country. BRAC Nursery has been awarded first prize in the NGO category in the National Tree Fair for the last nine years.

BRAC Printing Pack

Producing flexible packaging material for food items, processed edibles and agricultural inputs. BRAC Printing Pack is one of the most significant competitors in the country’s packaging industry.

Recycled Handmade Paper

Pioneering recycled handmade paper products in Bangladesh, by turning a wide variety of discarded materials into items such as envelopes, gift boxes and photo frames. BRAC Recycled Handmade Paper employs 100 women.

BRAC Salt

Ensuring a steady supply of iodised salt to fight a deficiency that many people living in rural areas suffer from. BRAC Salt ensures steady incomes for a wide network of local salt farmers.

BRAC Seed and Agro

Processing, marketing and distributing high quality seeds through an extensive network of farmers, dealers and retailers across Bangladesh. BRAC Seed and Agro is the largest private sector seed producer in the country.

BRAC Sanitary Napkin and Delivery Kit

Producing safe, hygienic and handmade sanitary napkins to allow women to attend work and school regularly, as well as delivery kits and medical kits to facilitate safe births. BRAC Sanitary Napkin and Delivery Kit employs 170 women.

BRAC Sericulture

Pioneering silk production in Bangladesh, we engage women living in rural poverty in every operational stage of the silk-making process. BRAC Sericulture’s beautiful fabric is sold in Aarong and in trade fairs.

Investments

Investing for social impact

The approach

Research

What are the impacts of programme activities in poverty pockets?

Focusing on education, sanitation, food consumption, health, financial and physical assets in 129 villages (as treatment areas) from the bordering areas of Derai and Baniachang, and another 130 villages (as control areas) from 14 adjacent sub-districts of Baniachong and Derai.

Key finding: Programme activities decrease reliance on loans from local moneylenders.

How sustainable are the impacts of skills training?

Analysing the short and long-term impacts of our skills training for advancing resources (STAR) project.

Key findings: Employment rose from 27% to 81%, and impact was higher for women.

What effect does skills training have on out-of-school adolescents?

Studying the impact on employment, earnings, financial assets and confidence of adolescents.

Key findings: Training increased labour market participation and earning. Employment increased by 45% and earning by approximately USD 14 per month. Increased earnings resulted in increased household welfare i.e. better diet and durable asset holdings.

Who is using long lasting insecticidal nets?

Cross sectional research into utilisation of insecticidal nets.

Key findings: There has been a significant increase in the possession and usage of insecticidal nets in malaria endemic districts of Bangladesh. Increased use was also found among children under five in all three endemic districts.

How much does tuberculosis cost?

Investigating the cost of tuberculosis in Bangladesh to determine effective programme strategies for health system delivery, using data gathered from 900 tuberculosis patients in our intervention areas.

Key findings: Treatment costs 4% of total household income. The average total cost per TB patient is BDT 10,360.

Are people willing to pay for safe drinking water in coastal areas?

Identifying the community’s preference of drinking water source, affordability and willingness to pay for safe drinking water in the coastal sub-district of Tala.

Key findings: Unsafe arsenic levels were found in more than one third of the tested tube wells. Electrical conductivity, which shows the ionic composition of water, was found to be higher than WHO standards in 99% of tested sources. 91% of the households were willing to pay for safe drinking water. Most of the households (75%) were willing to pay BDT 20 per week to get water in 20 litre containers each day.

What effect do village WASH committees have on implementing disability-friendly latrines?

Modifying existing sanitary latrines to make them disability-friendly, with the volunteers of two disability-focused organisations - ADD International and SNKS. The study was conducted with 50 village wash committees of Rangpur and Rajshahi, and another 50 from these divisions were selected as control areas.

Key finding: There was a significant change in the modifications to existing sanitary latrine usage in the intervention areas compared to the control areas.

Effectiveness of learning in the Kumon method

Exploring the effectiveness of the Kumon method, a Japanese learning method for mathematics and reading, in developing the mathematical skills of BRAC primary school students.

Key findings: After eight months of intervention, students in the treatment group achieved both speed and mastery in mathematics compared to the control group. Students who had higher scores needed less time to solve mathematical problems.

Assessment of road safety knowledge

Analysing the impact of the road safety project on individual and group level knowledge and attitudes of drivers and community members regarding road safety.

Key findings: Drivers understand the importance of following traffic rules and signs, vehicle fitness, and carrying licenses and other essential documentation. Some roads were improved and maintained through by communities themselves.