The YWCA’s Economic Justice program works to create equitable economic opportunities for women. We empower women to overcome poverty through access to financial resources, skills development, and entrepreneurship. By promoting fair wages, safe working conditions, and access to credit and markets, the program enables women to increase household income, achieve economic independence, and participate fully in economic life.

YWCA promotes justice around important issues like gender-based violence, sexual and reproductive health and rights, and economic security. Economic justice is a component of social justice and sustainable livelihood. The concept of economic justice says that the economy will be more successful if it is fairer. The goal of the economic justice program is to create opportunities for all to succeed in leading a dignified and productive life regardless of gender, race, age, disability, geographical location, marital and financial status, religion, etc. The main principles of economic justice include universal basic income, income equality by gender and race, and equal opportunity for employment and credit, etc.

Women from marginal communities are more vulnerable due to their poor income ability and living with little economical security. Their families are often unable to access the most basic of services, including food, clothing, housing, education, and health services. In addition to the material effects of poverty, there are other less tangible consequences in their lives and livelihoods. The Economic justice program of YWCA Bangladesh ensures equitable economic opportunities for the poor, especially women to fight against poverty and promotes accessibility to financial resources and technologies, self-employment, entrepreneurship, fair and equal wage, fair price, healthy working environment, fair policies, and protection from external shocks. In the last two SPs, the economic justice program component contributed to promoting access to credit with soft terms for poor women, increasing household income, and enhancing access to markets for women.

Objectives

• Develop women, men, and youth as small entrepreneurs and ensure sustainable employment generation through creating self-capital and micro-credit support.
• Promote environmentally friendly IGA among the participants.

Outcomes

• The members of micro-finance groups are involved in IGAs and ensuring sustainable livelihoods.
• The members benefit by obtaining input like capital, business management skills, and so on.
• The community is sensitized to the importance of environment friendly IGAs and taking measures for minimum pollution from their enterprises.

Actions

• Provide improved technical support to strengthen organizational capacity to design innovative IGAs and better management and monitoring of IGA activities.
• Conduct needs assessment of potential members and deliver entrepreneurship and vocational training including technology usage in business for the right people.
• Improve the market chain and expand micro-finance support for sustainable livelihood.
• Inform and be aware of the targeted population of environmentally friendly income-generating activities.
• Provide skills and necessary inputs to initiate and retain green business.

Achievements

Since its inception in 1985, the Bangladesh YWCA savings and loan program has served as a cornerstone for women’s socio-economic empowerment. Currently implemented through 13 branches in 12 districts, the program engages 17781 members across 356 villages, providing them with opportunities to save, access loans, and invest in income-generating activities.

As of June 2025, member savings stand at 238 million BDT, while loan disbursements total 437 million BDT, benefiting nearly 11678 women. Loan recovery remains strong at 426 million BDT, though challenges such as rising non-performing loans (51 million BDT) persist. The program continues to demonstrate financial growth, with annual income reaching 82.8  million BDT against expenditures of 73.9 million BDT.

Beyond financial indicators, the program’s true impact lies in empowering women to improve household income, achieve economic independence, and foster entrepreneurship. By stimulating local markets and promoting women-led businesses, the initiative contributes to poverty reduction, job creation, and sustainable economic growth, reinforcing the YWCA’s mission of advancing gender equality and social inclusion in Bangladesh.