ABOUT THE MILLENNIUM FELLOWSHIP - CLASS OF 2025
United Nations Academic Impact and MCN are proud to partner on the Millennium Fellowship. This year, 60,000+ young leaders applied to join the Class of 2025 on 7,000+ campuses across 170 nations. 290+ campuses worldwide (less than 5%) were selected to host the 4,500+ Millennium Fellows.
UNITED NATIONS ACADEMIC IMPACT AND MCN PROUDLY PRESENT ASMA ZAMAN IFA, A MILLENNIUM FELLOW FOR THE CLASS OF 2025.
Bangladesh Maritime University | Dhaka, Bangladesh | Advancing SDG 1, SDG 8, SDG 5, SDG 11 & UNAI 9
" " Empathy and purpose guide my work, inspiring me to create solutions that empower communities and protect our planet. The Millennium Scholarship offers an incredible platform to refine my leadership skills and collaborate with like-minded change makers. Through this journey, I am to transform ideas into impactful actions that advance the Sustainable Development Goals and inspire latest change." "
Millennium Fellowship Project: Expanding Mobile Banking for Underprivileged Women
Mobile banking is one of the most user-friendly financial technologies of our time. However, in Bangladesh ,especially in the urban slums of central Dhaka, most underprivileged women lack adequate knowledge and skills to use it. As a result, they often rely on others for financial transactions, which increases their dependency and limits their financial independence. This project seeks to understand how many percentages women in Dhaka’s urban slums use mobile banking, identifying both the purposes of usage and the barriers faced by those Who do not use Mobile banking. As we want to take initiate to teach non-users based on the survey findings, the initiative aims to promote financial inclusion and empower women by encouraging their active use of mobile banking services. Through awareness workshops and hands-on training, women will learn to use Mobile
banking for safe transactions, savings and small business activities. In addition,
selected women will be trained and supported to become local mobile banking agents.
This will allow female users to access cash-out and other financial services directly
from women within their own community, reducing dependency on male agents.
By building women’s confidence in digital finance, creating pathways for women-led
entrepreneurship and generating income opportunities, this project will strengthen
community-based financial services and contribute to greater economic empowerment in slum areas.
About the Millennium Fellow
Asma Zaman Ifa is a bright and ambitious student at the Bangladesh Maritime University (majoring in Oceanography). She was born in Dhaka, Bangladesh. She completed school and college from Banani Bidyaniketan School & College and South Point School and College respectively. Ifa has been always conscious about social justice especially when it came to women and children. Ifa has become even more aware about the environment protection ever since she started studying Oceanography. She wants to do good for the environment and society. Ifa aspires to be a activist in a professional field where she can promote her ideologies further to people and teach them about the values of the earth and contribute in the development of the United Nations' sustainable goals.
