Empowering Women, Transforming Health: A Bold Step by City Bank and UNFPA
In a groundbreaking collaboration that is a testament to the revolutionary power of cooperation, City Bank and UNFPA Bangladesh have joined forces to expand the Komlaphul Pharmacy Initiative nationwide. Signed on 16 September 2025 in formal agreement, the initiative introduces a new radical solution to one of the most vital challenges facing women and girls in Bangladesh: access to safe, quality, and respectful sexual and reproductive health (SRH) services. Women have been prevented from receiving the care they are entitled to long enough by barriers including stigma, inaccessibility of trusted counselling, and shame in discussing personal health concerns with male practitioners.
The Komlaphul pilot initiative, established with the assistance of the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, revealed an inspirational solution: female pharmacists and pharmacy assistants are inherently more credible among women, offering a comfortable and welcoming environment where they can openly discuss their health problems. Building on such success, the new City Bank-UNFPA deal paves the way for broadening this initiative to benefit many more women so that they can feel the comfort and assurance of being attended to by female providers. At its heart is a dual mission: empowering adolescent girls through decent work and bolstering community health systems in the process.
Through hiring and training women as pharmacy associates, the initiative not only offers necessary economic opportunities but also renders pharmacies safe spaces for quality counsel, trust, and access to care. It is an effect that goes beyond simply expanding SRH product availability; it is about transforming social attitudes, supporting dignity, and breaking down walls that have stifled women’s access to necessary services for centuries. The expansion will reach marginalised populations, offering key SRH services to areas where they are usually scarce or variable.
This focus on universality means no girl or woman will be left behind, regardless of where she lives. City Bank’s leadership of this initiative is a milestone in corporate social responsibility in Bangladesh, showing how banks can go beyond their traditional remits to invest directly in social transformation. As City Bank CEO Mashrur Arefin further put it, it is an investment in introducing “dignity, independence, and leadership” to women. The investment with UNFPA is evidence of the enormous potential to combine private sector innovation and development experience and to establish a model for sustained change. It is a heartening sign of what is possible when institutions come together to empower women and bring every girl and woman in Bangladesh the health, opportunity, and voice she deserves.
Source:
City Bank and UNFPA Sign Agreement to Partner on Empowering Girls and Women in Bangladesh
