Day: December 5, 2022

HA NOI, VIET NAM — The Asian Development Bank (ADB) signed a €20 million (around $ 21 million) loan with Hayat Kimya Vietnam Company Limited (Hayat Kimya) to support the ongoing construction of a manufacturing facility for baby diapers, wet wipes, and women’s hygiene pads in Viet Nam.

 

The project aims to expand consumer choices and improve the affordability of these products, which will also be exported to Malaysia and Thailand. An additional loan of €15 million was issued by Deutsche Investitions- und Entwicklungsgesellschaft mbH.

 

“Proper menstrual health management and childcare sanitation is crucial for women, and yet they not only lack access to hygiene products but also face stigma often linked to menstruation,” said ADB Director General for Private Sector Operations Department Suzanne Gaboury. “Our support will help Hayat Kimya to continue empowering women and improving their health and education, leaving them in a better position to share in the country’s rising prosperity.”

 

In Viet Nam, it is estimated that only 43% of women have access to sanitary pads while only 52% of mothers use diapers for their infants. At the same time, Viet Nam has one of the highest female labor force participation rates in the world. Even so, most working women still have primary responsibility for house, child, and elderly care duties.

 

ADB will also help Hayat Kimya to develop a gender-inclusive action plan which includes promoting gender equality in their branding and marketing, implementation of an awareness campaign about the benefits of hygiene products, and development of a gender-inclusive corporate framework including anti-sexual harassment policies and career development programs for female professionals. The company also aims to open an internship program for female graduates of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics.

 

This project has qualified for a 2x gender financing rating, a challenge launched at the G7 summit in 2018 to encourage gender lens investing among development finance institutions.

 

“We believe that everyone has the right to access quality sanitation products and we work for this vision. Especially in a region like Southeast Asia and particularly in Viet Nam, where women are extremely active in both home and business life. It inspires us to know that we add comfort to their lives,” said Hayat Vice-President of Finance Hüseyin Okur.

 

Hayat Kimya is a wholly owned subsidiary of Hayat Kimya Sanayi, the world’s fourth-largest branded baby diaper manufacturer, and was established over 50 years ago in Türkiye. The company owns 16 brands across multiple consumer product categories. It operates 21 manufacturing facilities, has 9,000 employees globally, and is among Türkiye’s top 50 industrial entities.

 

ADB is committed to achieving a prosperous, inclusive, resilient, and sustainable Asia and the Pacific, while sustaining its efforts to eradicate extreme poverty. Established in 1966, it is owned by 68 members—49 from the region.

 

 

 

 

Source: Asian Development Bank

MANILA, PHILIPPINES — The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has approved a $7.51 million grant to Maldives to support ADB’s first ever holistic gender equality project in Maldives.

 

Maldives experiences persistent gender equality gaps, where women continue to shoulder most of the unpaid care work and gender-based violence remains prevalent, but services are limited. Labor force participation of women is 41.6%, while for men it is 84.2%, with 13% of women unemployed due to caregiver and domestic work responsibilities compared to 1% of men. The 2016–2017 Maldives Demographic and Health Survey found that 17% of women aged 15–49 years had experienced physical violence since age 15, and 11% had experienced sexual violence at some point in their lives.

 

“The ADB grant will support the Government of Maldives in transformative gender equality initiatives that will minimize gender-based violence and remove barriers that prevent equal rights, participation, and benefits for women,” said ADB Urban Development Specialist for South Asia Charlene Liau. “This is consistent with ADB’s country partnership strategy for Maldives, which commits to reducing gender disparities by sharpening its approach to gender equality.”

 

The grant will support innovative gender approaches, which have a catalytic role in changing social norms and discriminatory practices. It will support, among others, the Maldives Bureau of Statistics in addressing critical gender equality and social inclusion data gaps in the national statistical data system, and the Ministry of Finance in integrating gender-responsive budgeting into the national budget system. It will help build climate-resilient shelters for domestic violence and gender-based violence survivors in Addu, Hulhumalé, and Raa-Ungoofaaru.

 

The grant comes from the Asian Development Fund, which provides grants to ADB’s poorest and most vulnerable developing member countries.

 

A technical assistance will also be provided to strengthen the social service system for aged care, early childcare, and domestic violence and gender-based violence services (DV/GBV). It will also establish partnerships between civil society organizations and government to prevent DV/GBV and improve access to DV/GBV services and aged care. The technical assistance is estimated to cost $2.5 million, of which $500,000 will be financed on a grant basis by ADB’s Technical Assistance Special Fund, and $2.0 million will be financed on a grant basis by the Japan Special Fund.

 

ADB is committed to achieving a prosperous, inclusive, resilient, and sustainable Asia and the Pacific, while sustaining its efforts to eradicate extreme poverty. Established in 1966, it is owned by 68 members—49 from the region.

 

 

Source: Asian Development Bank