The demand for geriatric care services has been on the rise both at the home of the customers and the care centers and it has already been stated that the supply of caregivers falls short of large demand. There is no educational and training institute in Bangladesh to develop such skills to fill up the wide gap between the supply and demand of the caregivers. The demand for the services is not limited within the country rather abroad. Since there is no educational and training center of the Subarta Social Enterprise (SSE) project locations, the women are deprived of developing the skill for income improvement. This situation is largely responsible for women's subjugation in society. It is expected that gainful employment to be achieved through the training center will elevate their status in the family, in the society and contribute to poverty reduction.

With these aspects, Subarta Social Enterprise has taken an initiative to construct a permanent training institute to support the economic empowerment of rural women through the development of geriatric caregivers. United Nations Capital Development Fund (UNCDF) has funded Subarta in a blended finance model (loan 44%, CSR 29%, UNCDF grant 15% and equity 12%) to construct the institute for geriatric caregivers in Manikganj.

On 16 March 2021, a formal inaugural ceremony was held to make the geriatric training institute operational. Momtaz Begum, the honorable Member of National Parliament for Manikganj-2, graced the ceremony as the chief guest. Upazila Nirbahi Officer, Chairman of Singair Upazilla, UNCDF Country Focal Point, Subarta high officials, other Local Government Institute (LGI) representatives also joinedthe programme.

With this initiative, the intervention has been intended to create a decent job for the rural women who are mostly widows, deserted, divorced, school dropouts, and never been married. These women don’t possess the required occupational skill to enter the job market. On the other hand, there is limited scope for receiving skills having demand in the market. The project is largely drawn upon the experience of SSE in this sector where a total of 200 Care Givers have been developed and almost all of them have been provided with the gainful and regular job either at families or hospitals in cities or at the geriatric care center being managed by SSE. There is a dearth of such skill in the country as gerontology has not been evolved as an academic discipline. SSEL plans to train 9,000 caregivers during the first 5 years of its operations.

UNCDF’s grant of USD 65,000 has been used to finance 30% of the total costs of the construction of the training facility.

A blended financing model (owner’s equity + loan + CSR funding + private sector financing + public sector financing) for women economic empowerment is a sustainable tool of project finance where multi- stakeholder engagement was ensured. While large infrastructures act as growth enabler, SMEs and social enterprises act as growth propeller. Through this investment, UNCDF has engaged with NGO-led social enterprises as a vehicle of gender responsive local economic development and unlocking domestic resources.

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