Promoting ‘Anondomela’, for facilitating Women SME Entrepreneurship development
The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), with assistance from the Aspire to Innovate (a2i) project, launched Anondomela, an online business platform, in April 2020 for responding to the COVID-19 crises. During the lock down period, Anondomela provided the opportunity to many entrepreneurs to continue their business activities and survive. Though the platform includes both male and female entrepreneurs, a significant number of women entrepreneurs (around 80%) are doing their online business through this platform. Anondomela initiative focused on achieving sustainable improvements in income of women entrepreneurs and economic security at a local level with more women having wider access to local economic opportunities, private and public financial services as well as income-generating activities.
Assigned by UNDP, BCCP team of experts provided support in creating awareness and helping bring more potential customers into the online marketplace for Anondomela women entrepreneurs. As part of this, the team developed and implemented a national level campaign focusing on mass media and social media with the specific objectives to -
ü Educate the CMSME (Cottage, Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises) entrepreneurs about Anondomela initiative and make it an economic solution for the marginalized entrepreneurs who are hit hard by COVID.
ü Promote Anondomela in urban and rural settings so that the people are interested to buy SME products from Anondomela.
ü Benefit CMSME women entrepreneurs and women led CMSMEs with a fully facilitated online marketplace.
Campaign to create mass awareness:
· 
TV Campaign: BCCP conducted an integrated mass media campaign comprised of different media like TV, radio and press. BCCP developed a TVC with the objective of promoting the Anondomela marketplace to both the buyer and seller community as well as to the general people. The TVC was aired focusing on the special occasion of Pohela Boishak and Eid ul Fitre on 5 channels- Independent TV, Somoy TV, Channel 24, NTV and ATN Bangla. BCCP also posted and boosted this TVC in different social media platforms.
BCCP planned, recorded, and aired a total of 4 TV talk shows on 2 prominent satellite channels – DBC news and Somoy TV. The relevant market actors, market leaders of e-commerce industry, economists, popular and successful entrepreneurs, and UNDP professionals participated in the Talk shows as guests.
· Radio Campaign: BCCP developed and aired an RDC on FM radio channels to create mass awareness among the target audience. The campaign was conducted on 2 FM radio channels- Radio Today and Radio Foorti. A special live radio talk show was aired in the most popular FM Radio Channel – Radio Today. Mr, Kajal Chatterjee, National Project Manager, UNDP-WING Project and Ms. Mehrin, a popular singer participated in this live talk show. Along with Radio Today, the talk show was live telecast at Anondomela Facebook page and UNDP Facebook page.
· Press Media: BCCP continuously communicated and mentored the journalists of the print media to promote the UNDP marketplace by covering news, and interviews of related stakeholders. This mentoring helped publish regular news, success stories, investigative news, and interviews through effective storytelling to audiences on Anondomela. A total of 8 exclusive news/success stories and one special interview of UNDP Focal Person were published by some prominent dailies of Bangladesh. The special interview was published on the most popular and highly circulated Daily - The Prothom Alo.
Social media campaign:
BCCP conducted a social media campaign considering the rising demand and popularity of different social media. BCCP developed, posted, and boosted different social media content targeting different occasions, festivals and issues to create awareness regarding Anondomela among the target audiences. Most of the social contents were boosted in Anondomela Facebook page / group and UNDP website.
Other important initiatives:
· Development of video tutorial about the buying and selling process from website and mobile app to train Anondomela entrepreneurs on the registration process & upload their product.
· Development of one documentary video: BCCP also developed a documentary video to portray the inception, objective, and journey of Anondomela.
· Production and dissemination of different IEC and promotional materials.
Communication, campaign, and media advocacy can be strong instruments to make a difference in promoting an e-commerce platform like – Anondomela. To sustain the change, this type of intervention may be conducted under a strategic communication plan, which should be implemented as a continuous learning process to bring about the desired outcome.