Parveen Sultana Huda
Parveen is one of the widely recognized professional of Bangladesh with 23+ years of experience in the Human Resources and Project Management fields with leading organizations both as a professional and consultant. She is currently working for BRAC University's Centre for Entrepreneurship Development as a Project Manager to manage a 4 year project titled Digital RMG Factory Mapping - Bangladesh. This project is being funded by A Foundation and administered by BRAC USA. Parveen started her own consulting firm – Renaissance Consultants Ltd. – in 2006 and has so far provided HR Development; Management, Organizational Development, Project Management and Business Development support to various local and international clients. She has worked for some reputed foreign organizations including the Asia Indigenous People’s Pact Foundation (Thailand), British Council, RTI International (USA), PwC (PricewaterhouseCoopers LLC, UK), Agro-Inputs Project (AIP funded by USAID’s Feed the Future program), ILO, GIZ (previously GTZ), ITC (International Trade Centre – Geneva), ActionAid Vietnam, ActionAid Pakistan, etc.
In Bangladesh, BIF has worked with Agora, one of the large Retail Chain stores owned and managed by Rahimafrooz Group, a large renowned conglomerate. Details of that project can be seen in the link but briefly our intervention was targeted towards the capacity building of their SME suppliers to deliver better quality and more quantity of fresh produce to match the expansion plans of Agora. We are yet to see the impact that this project will have on the farmers and producers linked to these value chains.
In the mean time, I came across this interesting blog - posted in The Gaurdian site, bringing in an interesting dimension.
Co-operatives not multinational supermarkets best for farmers in India
As rumors of more foreign retailers eyeing the growing Bangladeshi middle class as potential business opportunity - we have to observe what happens in India to take our own steps forward.