9 Bangladeshi changemakers have been invited to join ‘UNLEASH Innovation Lab 2019’ set to take place in Shenzhen, China on Tuesday.
It is a global innovation lab that brings together 1000 young changemakers from 150 countries of the world to put their minds together and develop solutions that will help their countries achieve UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
The ‘Global SDG Talents’, as UNLEASH terms them, have been chosen from over 8000 applications and several institutional nominations.
The Bangladesh delegation leaves for China on Monday.
Details of the participants from Bangladesh are noted below:
- Tanjila Mazumder Drishti
Senior Manager, BRAC Bangladesh
SDG 11: Sustainable Cities and Communities
Quote: Bangladesh is facing rapid urbanisation, rural to urban migration is on the rise and a significant number of people live uncertain lives in the slums; while we strive to develop our cities it is essential that the development does not come at the cost of leaving the urban poor deprived of their basic rights. I want to ensure that our city development plans take a pro-poor approach.
- Jawwad Shadman Siddique
Co-founder, Waste-Bin
SDG 12: Responsible Consumption and Production
Quote: I want to eradicate society’s sacrificial notion that promotes the psychology of sacrificing the economy in order to preserve our environment. In a developing country like Bangladesh, I want to establish the incentivization of national economy through environmental sustainability. In that way, the mass people would be encouraged and willing to work towards a sustainable future.
- MM Zimran Khan
Associate Project Analyst, ADB
SDG 9: Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure
Quote: 99% of Bangladeshi formal business enterprises are SMEs. Financial inclusion is a key enabler critical to Bangladesh’s sustainable development and SMEs lie at the heart of it. Financial inclusion is, after all, not a goal in itself but the means to many ends and a concentrated effort on combining finance, technology, and innovation is needed to accelerate the growth of our SMEs. I want to help accelerate that growth faster for Bangladesh.
- Fariha Hossain
Program Officer, RHSTEP
SDG 3: Good Health and Well-being
Quote: It will be difficult for Bangladesh to achieve the set goals without reducing MMR, child marriage rate, child mortality rate and others communicable and non-communicable diseases; we really can’t achieve our life’s goal and ambitions without being healthy. I am committed to advocating and working towards ending child marriage from Bangladesh.
- Farhana Shahnaz
Fundraising Officer, Practical Action
SDG 4: Quality Education
Quote: I believe in order to catapult our community to a status of greater development, harmony and inclusivity, we need to leverage the untapped potential of people across all walks of life, which is why I'm working on ensuring quality education to enable the youth, particularly those from the disadvantaged refugee communities, to be tomorrow's drivers of change.
- Riffat Ashrafee
Project Manager, Simprints Technology Ltd.
SDG 4: Quality Education
Quote: Youth form a significant demographic dividend for Bangladesh but lack of access to quality education is causing this potential to go to waste. Hence, my goal is to create opportunities that will help to prepare youth by investing in futuristic skill development through tapping into the potential of every youth and bridge the gap between education and the future of work.
- Rinita Rezwana
Former Communication and Gender Officer, Integrated Farm Management Component, DAE-Danida
SDG 12: Responsible Consumption and Production
Quote: One of the biggest challenges for the residents of Dhaka is to have access to safe food and thus, I want to promote organic farming by promoting climate adaptive agricultural technologies and to provide access to safe food and quality life to our future generations.
- Wahid Hossain
CEO & Founder, TigerBow
SDG 12: Responsible Consumption and Production
Quote: Bangladeshi cultural fabric & women artisans are facing extinction threat due to multibillion dollar global fashion companies' influence. I am working with the Bangladeshi underprivileged women artisans & cultural fabric to ensure fairtrade & sustainability. I want to ensure that the flood of globalization does not mean extinction of domestic products and domestic market.
- Galiba Rabbani
Coordinator Fundraising, BRAC International
SDG 3: Good Health and Well-being
Quote: Bangladesh is already a mystery in global health by outperforming it's South Asian neighboring countries. I want to take that journey forward and work with various actors so that no women or children die in this country from preventable causes of death.
