Microsoft Bangladesh’s Sonia Bashir Kabir to get SDG Pioneer Award

Microsoft Bangladesh Managing Director Sonia Bashir Kabir will receive the SDG Pioneer Award at the United Nations Global Compact Leaders Summit 2017.

Kabir who has been recognised for her role in the digital empowerment of women in Bangladesh will receive the recognition on Sept 21 in New York, alongside nine other champions from across the globe.

“Each of the 2017 SDG pioneers is exhibiting how companies and pioneering individuals can be a force for positive change in addressing the issues we all face today,” said UN Global Compact CEO and Executive Director Lise Kingo.

“Ms Kabir has been impactful in advocating for women’s participation in the information technology workforce. She has been a pioneer in promoting women to embrace technology through digital literacy training.”

Microsoft Bangladesh invests in providing digital literacy training for women and hopes the education will lead to empowerment to entrepreneurship.

The programme has been hugely successful in inspiring women to take the first steps in embracing technology and using it to do business, Kabir said.

She believes the number of women crossing the digital divide in the next year will bloom within the next year with the help of the government.

"I am deeply humbled and honoured to be recognised as a SDG Pioneer 2017 by the UN Global Compact team,” Kabir said regarding her SDG Pioneer recognition.

“I am excited about inspiring and empowering women of my country with technology and can confidently claim that the opportunities present in Bangladesh to leverage technology to advance to a middle-income economy far outweighs those present in any other country."

In addition to her work at Microsoft, Kabir is the board director and co-founder of D Money, a financial technology sector start-up. She is also the vice president and co-founder of Bangladesh Women In Technology.

Kabir is also involved in number of education and mentorship programs. She serves on boards of the Bangladesh Association of Software and Information Services, the business and computer science schools of North South University and the business school of the Independent University Bangladesh.

In 2015, former UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon appointed Sonia to the Governing Council of the Technology Bank for the Least Developed Countries for a three-year term.

The SDG Pioneer Award recognise 10 SDG pioneers – individuals from around the world who are championing sustainability through their own companies and mobilising the broader business community to take action in pursuit of the 17 sustainable development goals, or SDGs