Community

In Bangladesh, as part of our philanthropy, we support climate adaptation and mitigation; provide future skills - employability and financial literacy; and health and disaster support for the community. Below are some of the highlights of our sustainability efforts from recent times.

Wellness Wells - Doorstep Drinking Water Initiative (DWI)

HSBC Bangladesh, in collaboration with Sustainable Agriculture Foundation (SAF) has been supporting the Climate Resilient Advancement in Agriculture (CRAAB) in the Barind Tract to enhance water efficiency, promote nature and climate-smart technologies for the farmers. In response to farmers suffering from a drinking water crisis, the project aims to enhance villagers’ well-being by ensuring access to drinking water at their doorsteps. The project aims to directly benefit individuals living in the area including ethnic communities and underprivileged households.

Humanitarian Assistance for Cyclone Remal affected population

HSBC Bangladesh, in partnership with the NGO, BRAC, supported rehabilitation for Cyclone Remal affected communities. As part of the support, the bank provided reconstruction facility of the damaged households for vulnerable people. In addition, reconstruction of damaged latrines and distribution of hygiene kit packages were given to ensure safe sanitation and hygiene.

Emergency Response and Rehabilitation Support to Flood Affected Families

In 2024, catastrophic floods significantly impacted Chattogram and Sylhet divisions of Bangladesh which resulted in flooding of homes and agricultural fields, directly affecting households across eleven eastern districts. HSBC Bangladesh, in partnership with BRAC, distributed food packages and rehabilitation support with reconstruction of damaged latrines and provided agricultural inputs to local households.

Addressing Climate Mitigation through Mangrove Plantation

HSBC Bangladesh in partnership with BRAC are supporting a “Mangrove Plantation Programme” in Mirsarai, Chittagong, aiming to sequester emissions of CO2 equivalents, improve biodiversity and support livelihood. The project provides increased resilience to climate change, reduce natural adverse impacts from natural disasters, reduce biodiversity loss, enhance food and water security in the area, prevent environment degradation, and contribute to local economic and social development.

HSBC has been awarded “A Better Tomorrow CSR Awards 2022” for this mangrove plantation initiative.

Empowering Farmers

As part of HSBC’s philanthropic support, the bank has multi-year projects in partnership with leading NGOs for agricultural projects around the most climate vulnerable areas in Bangladesh. Projects support farmers for agricultural production growth, machineries, processing and research. The locations include Haor region of Sylhet, Rajshahi, Noakhali, Satkhira, Dewanganj, along with others.

Climate Smart Agriculture Projects

The key impact for climate change in the Agricultural sector are: constant increase of temperature, decrease of rainfall, increase of salinity etc. Such change in weather patterns hinders crop production. HSBC has been supporting projects in major climate hotspots for Bangladesh with its climate adaptation models.

7 projects have been incorporated under climate smart agriculture:

1. Climate-Smart Agriculture through Adaptation Clinic in Jamalpur: This one-stop service center is providing climate-smart agri-advisory information following the horizontal and vertical expansion approach to minimise the gap in agricultural production in both Jamalpur district through partnership with BRAC.
2. Climate-Smart Agriculture through Adaptation Clinic in Noarai: This one-stop service center is designed to support farmers to adopt to the challenging flash floods and increase agricultural production. The goal is to enhance productivity and resilience to climate changes by introducing species and crops that can thrive in varying environmental conditions.
3. Soybean Farming: In partnership with Solidaridad, the sustainable Soybean farming program in Noakhali is increasing the adoption of ‘smart cropping system’ which has been scaled in the coastal areas of Bangladesh to create more opportunity for more sustainable oil market.
4. Mangrove Based Aquaculture: Through this project, a landscape model has been developed for expansion of mangrove based extensive shrimp farming in the Khulna and Shathkhira districts in partnership with Solidaridad.
5. Climate resilient advancement agriculture in Barind: This water efficient rice and mango technology transfer initiative to the drought prone communities of Barind region, Rajshahi has been undertaken in partnership with Sustainable Agriculture Foundation.
6. Sunflower value chain development in the coastal Bangladesh: This project is developing a sunflower value chain for sustainable farm household income at the Southwest coastal region of Bangladesh in partnership with Care Bangladesh.
7. Climate smart rice value chain in Haor region: This project is increasing the adoption of climate resilient rice varieties in the Haor region and improving the value chain for creating youth entrepreneurship in partnership with International Rice Research Institute (IRRI).

Future Skills - Delivering 21st Century Skills

HSBC-AUW School of Apparel

HSBC, in collaboration with Asian University for Women (AUW), has launched the HSBC-AUW School of Apparel (HASA), a one-year Master of Science in Apparel and Fashion Business Management programme. The programme has recently formed a partnership with Hong Kong Polytechnique University and the second cohort is currently ongoing.

Business Case Competition

The Business Case competition is a part of HSBC’s flagship future skills development activity in Asia-Pacific. It aims to enhance university students’ business skills and broaden their global perspectives by taking their education out of the classroom and into a live case competition format. HSBC Bangladesh, in partnership with BRAC University organised the competition and crowned the Champion in April 2025.

English and Digital for Girls’ Education (EDGE)

In partnership with the British Council, HSBC has established community-based peer-led clubs to empower marginalised adolescent girls for English and Digital Learning. The EDGE programme takes place across four districts of Bangladesh- Dhaka, Chattogram, Manikganj and Lalmonirhat. Each of the implementation partners operates in 50 EDGE clubs, with a total of 100 clubs in the project. A total of 2,400 girls (1,200 girls are covered in year one) are participating in the project; amongst them there are 200 peer group leaders who undertake the functional aspect of these clubs. The beneficiaries of this club belong to the demographic group of socio-economically marginalised girls aged 13 to 19 years old. These young girls have received their graduation from this programme after the completion of all required training sessions.

Health support

Safe motherhood with SAJIDA Foundation

The initiative is designed to provide easily accessible, evidence-based information and support tailored to the specific needs of new mothers and their babies in Bangladesh. The first phase took place in Manikganj district. Through the project interventions, 3,200 households have access to normal delivery centres and pregnant women have access to dedicated transport facilities for movement within the char area and outside of the char area to reach medical support.

The second phase of the project has been initiated to provide comprehensive digital support to one million mothers through the “Shohay Baby“ app, covering postpartum care, breastfeeding, infant development, and overall well-being.