Inditex, the Spanish fashion retail group that owns Zara, said on Thursday it will allocate €13 million ($13.9 million) between 2026 and 2028 to improve living conditions for close to 1.2 million Rohingya refugees in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh, as part of a renewed strategic partnership with the United Nations refugee agency, UNHCR.
The agreement, signed by UN High Commissioner for Refugees Barham Salih and Inditex Chief Executive Óscar García Maceiras, extends a collaboration between the two organizations that began in 2020 and consolidates what both sides describe as a long-term partnership. The new deal runs from June 2026 through 2028.
Cox’s Bazar is the world’s largest refugee settlement and one of the areas most exposed to climate risks globally. Refugee communities there face recurring threats from landslides, flooding, heatwaves and lightning storms, hazards that are intensified by the high population density of the camps. The funding is intended to address those vulnerabilities and support longer-term, more resilient infrastructure.
The project will be carried out using what the two organizations describe as an integrated settlement planning approach. That includes relocating families from high-risk areas to safer ground, upgrading essential infrastructure so it can withstand increasingly frequent extreme weather events, and strengthening overall community safety within the settlement.
Salih said the partnership underscored the role private companies can play in supporting displaced populations. He said the funding would help reinforce safety and climate resilience for Rohingya refugees in Cox’s Bazar while helping families address immediate needs and build toward a more stable future.
Also Read: Zara Supply Chain: Fast Fashion, Real-Time Success
García Maceiras linked the commitment to Inditex’s broader community investment strategy, saying the company has spent more than two decades working with humanitarian organizations on international cooperation projects benefiting refugees and forcibly displaced people across Africa, Asia, Latin America and Europe. He described the continued support as a source of motivation across the company.
Beyond the Bangladesh initiative, the renewed agreement broadens the companies’ collaboration to include distribution of basic relief items in other humanitarian settings. Inditex will donate 7.5 million items of clothing and footwear over the next three years for distribution to refugees in countries including Uganda and Chad. The company will separately allocate €2 million to cover logistics costs tied to those distributions.
The renewed pledge builds on a five-year track record between the two organizations. Since 2020, Inditex and UNHCR have jointly delivered close to 9 million items of clothing, footwear and home goods to roughly 2.7 million refugees worldwide, according to figures released alongside the announcement.
The partnership extends beyond direct funding and in-kind donations. Inditex and UNHCR said they also work together on initiatives to improve safety and living conditions inside refugee settlements, advance climate adaptation measures, and create job-inclusion opportunities for refugees. The collaboration additionally draws on private-sector expertise through pro-bono initiatives aimed at improving the efficiency, sustainability and design of humanitarian responses.
Cox’s Bazar has hosted large numbers of Rohingya refugees who fled Myanmar’s Rakhine State, with the settlement’s population swelling significantly since 2017. Humanitarian organizations operating in the camps have repeatedly flagged funding shortfalls and the compounding threat posed by monsoon seasons, which regularly trigger landslides and flooding across the densely packed settlement.
Corporate partnerships of this kind have become an increasingly prominent funding channel for UNHCR as traditional government donor budgets face pressure in several major markets. Fashion and apparel companies in particular have leaned on in-kind clothing donations as a way to support humanitarian responses while drawing on existing supply chains.
Inditex, which also owns brands including Pull&Bear, Massimo Dutti, Bershka and Stradivarius, has positioned humanitarian giving as part of its wider sustainability and community investment agenda in recent years, alongside separate initiatives targeting textile recycling, supply chain labor standards and climate adaptation within its own operations.