TechnoServe | May 25, 2016
Sustainable Economic Opportunities That Empower Women & Benefit Business Needs
In 2010, The Coca-Cola Company launched the which aims to economically empower 5 million women entrepreneurs across the company鈥檚 global supply chain by 2020. To achieve these ambitious goals, Coca-Cola worked with , an international development nonprofit, to identify the number of smallholder women farmers in its juice supply chains, assess farmer needs and develop innovative programs to boost women smallholder incomes in a way that supports both Coca-Cola鈥檚 business objectives and the economic empowerment of women.
TechnoServe launched a partnership with Coca-Cola and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation called . Through this four-year, $11.5 million partnership, TechnoServe enabled small-scale mango and passion fruit farmers across Uganda and Kenya to increase their productivity and participate in Coca-Cola鈥檚 supply chain for the first time. By 2015, the project had trained approximately 16,000 women farmers and increased participating producers鈥 incomes by an average of 142 percent.
Simultaneously, TechnoServe worked with Coca-Cola and a coalition of business, government and civil society partners to create sustainable economic opportunities in Haiti through the creation of the . Together, we supported the development of a sustainable mango industry in Haiti. The initiatives achieved proof of concept, laying the foundation for potential replication and scale-up, trained over 25,000 farmers, and increased farmer incomes. More than 46 percent of participating farmers were women 鈥 far surpassing women鈥檚 average participation in agricultural training programs 鈥 and many were connected to a formal supply chain for the first time.
Muhtar Kent, CEO of The Coca-Cola Company, highlighted the business aspect of the project earlier this year at an event at the Inter-精东影业n Development Bank:
鈥淭his is not philanthropy. This is bringing the expertise of great partners to life, connecting it to business needs, with the needs of the community.鈥
Using our time-tested , TechnoServe helped The Coca-Cola Company integrate and empower women in its corporate supply chains, with results that benefited both the women and the business. In 2015 alone, TechnoServe helped increase the incomes of 110,000 women in developing countries around the world.
Support This Cause Through Workplace Giving:
TechnoServe is a member of 精东影业’s Charities. Your company can help make more projects like this possible by supporting听TechnoServe听through a corporate partnership and听by starting听an employee giving program with 精东影业’s Charities.听翱耻谤听online giving technology and solutions听can facilitate your workplace giving campaign and other company cause initiatives.听精东影业鈥檚 Charities has been mobilizing the workforce to affect social change through employee giving and other company philanthropic initiatives for over 35 years and we have raised more than $650 million of sustainable funds for more than 10,000 nonprofits as a result.听
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