Case studies and articles demonstrating the positive impact of business investment in girls
Businesses are increasingly contributing to girls’ development through Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) activities. They partner with governments, NGOs and UN agencies to address the issues that adolescent girls and young women face and thereby improve their educational attainment and their positions in the labour force and society as a whole. We have captured some of the most compelling CSR initiatives that are structural and measurable in nature.
Don’t have a CSR initiative yet? Click below to be inspired by what NGOs are doing to improve the lives of adolescent girls.
Potential partnerships-
Kellogg's – Supporting female farmers in the value chain
As part of its Global Sustainability Commitments, Kellogg is identifying women farmers and workers in the value chain and developing programs to help improve their livelihoods, families and communities. This pledge also supports Sustainable Development Goal 5 of achieving gender equality and empowering all women and girls.
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Nike Foundation – Girl Effect Initiative
The Nike Foundation supports Girl Effect, an international programme that connects adolescent girls around the world to provide them with the resources and assets they need for positive development.
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Coca Cola – ENGINE Programme
Coca Cola supports a number of initiatives that work with girls and young women, including the ENGINE (Educating Nigerian Girls in New Enterprises)project. Through ENGINE, Coca Cola is helping to set up more than 170 learning spaces where teenage girls in Nigeria can learn and train in new skills.
http://www.coca-cola.co.uk/packages/sustainability/empowering-young-women-in-nigeria
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Unilever – Sustainable Living Programme
As part of the Sustainable Living programme, Unilever is working to address sexual harassment of female workers on tea estates in Kenya and to create new opportunities for girls to engage in social activities and mentoring.
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Mars – Women's Empowerment Plan
The Women's Empowerment Plan focuses strengthens the role of female farmers in cocoa supply chains by providing training, micro grants and technical support.
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Coca-Cola – #5by20 Initiative
The Coca-Cola Company made a commitment in 2010 to help economically empower 5 million women entrepreneurs within its global value chain by the year 2020 in an effort to drive global economic and social development goals.
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Anglo American – Pro Mujer Programme
The Anglo American Foundation is supporting Pro Mujer to deliver a sustainable health programme in Peru which provides over 60,000 female entrepreneurs with access to health training and counselling services.
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Industry Partnership – Closing the gender pay gap
20 major oil and gas companies, including Engie, BP, Royal Dutch Shell and Total, have signed a commitment called "Closing the Gender Gap in Oil & Gas: A Call to Action for the Industry." As part of this call to action, the companies will implement a series of initiatives to encourage more girls and young women into STEM, and recruit a more gender-diverse workforce.
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BHP Billiton – Investing in STEM education for girls
In 2015, BHP announced a AUD22 million investment in a 5-year partnership with the Australian Mathematical Sciences Institute to encourage more girls to study maths. The program will include professional development for teachers in 120 schools, a national ‘women in maths’ awareness campaign and financial support and scholarships for women and girls studying maths.
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Standard Chartered – Goal Programme
The Goal programme aims to empower adolescent girls from low-income communities through sports and life skills training.
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TransUnion – Supporting girls’ education in India
TransUnion supports a number of education programmes for young girls in India and South Africa. In India, the company currently pays for 150 girls from the Katkari community to attend the Vidhayak Sansad-Eklavya Parivartan School.
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Visa – Financial inclusion initiatives for women
Visa supports a number of initiatives aimed at providing financial inclusion and financial literacy for women.
https://usa.visa.com/about-visa/financial-inclusion-literacy.html#2
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Morgan Stanley – Women in Banking Scholarship Program
Morgan Stanley's Women in Banking Scholarship Program provides Australian girls and young women finishing their studies in 2018 with summer internship opportunities at the company, as well as a AUD5,000 stipend.
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World Bank – Loan program for female entrepreneurs
In 2017, the World Bank launched a public-private loan programme to support women entrepreneurs in developing countries. The programme will enable more than USD1 billion to advance female entrepreneurship and help women in developing countries gain increased access to the finance, markets, and networks necessary to start and grow a business.
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Goldman Sachs – 10,000 Women Initiative
Goldman Sachs 10,000 Women is a global initiative that fosters economic growth by providing women entrepreneurs around the world with a business and management education, mentoring and networking, and access to capital.
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Amazon – Girls Who Code Programme
Amazon aims to close the gender gap in technology and engineering by hosting Girls Who Code summer immersion programmes for girls interested in coding.
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Cisco – Girls in ICT Day
Cisco’s contribution to Girls in ICT Day provides young women all over the world with exposure to the latest technology and engagement with industry-leading professionals.
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Vodafone – Science scholarships for teenage girls in Ghana
Vodafone has partnered with the British Council in Ghana to launch a scholarship scheme which provides full high school and third level tuition for girls aged 15-16 interested in pursuing careers in science, maths and engineering.
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Industry Partnership – Mentoring Women in Business Program
The Mentoring Women in Business Program, implemented in collaboration with Qualcomm Wireless Reach, the Cherie Blair Foundation for Women, Maxis and the Foundation for Women’s Education and Vocational Training, utilizes 3G technology to connect business professionals around the world with female entrepreneurs in Malaysia. The program was developed to enhance women’s skills and knowledge in the areas of business and technology in order to help them grow and maintain their own successful businesses.
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Intel – She Will Connect Initiative
The She Will Connect initiative focuses on connecting more women to the internet and to basic technology skills so they can access information and new economic and social opportunities, as well as working to intervene in schools when girls decide whether to pursue technology careers.
According to UN secretary general, Ban Ki Moon, investing in girls not only leads to economic growth, but also to increased prosperity for communities and societies. For each year a girl stays in primary education, eventual wages are boosted by 10% to 20%. Women also tend to invest 90% of what they earn into their families, translating to an average GDP growth of 0.3 percentage points for each per cent increase in female education.
Educating girls and investing in decent work for adolescent girls and young women promotes meaningful participation in politics and public life. Economically empowered girls create more productive societies. Here is a collection of articles that demonstrate this at both a regional and national level:
Potential partnerships-
Child marriage banned
Guatemala: Legal development to protect girls from child marriage requires societal change to fully implement
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Women held back by discriminatory property rights
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Women’s long term benefit from garment industry
Bangladesh: Female employees in the garment industry experience long term benefits despite precarious working conditions
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Women’s roles in trade unions
India: Women fight for inclusion of women’s issues in trade unions’ negotiations.
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Sanitation and hygiene promotion
Nepal: Ending an outlawed practice in a country with deep-rooted cultural beliefs
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The Femicide Census
United Kingdom: The Femicide Census is a database currently containing information on almost one thousand women killed by men in England and Wales since 2009. It is a ground-breaking project which aims to provide a clearer picture of men's fatal violence against women by allowing for detailed tracking and analysis.
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Investment in women's health yields returns
Egypt: The development of women's health programmes has enabled significant returns on investment for Egyptian factories.
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Women's empowerment in Ethiopian Airlines
Ethiopia: Demonstrating women’s empowerment through all female crew flight.
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Challenging traditional sexual slavery
Kenya: Local NGO challenges sexual slavery of girls from within her community with legal action and advocacy.
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Contraception and family planning
Uganda: Slow change in leaders’ perception on contraception contributes to more informed family planning.
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Economic empowerment for African women
Women’s success in business depends on the convergence of many factors, including a market opportunity, adequate financing, entrepreneurial and technical skills, and networking. These matter for men’s businesses too, but evidence shows that women often face greater obstacles in accessing them.
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Integrating women’s health into workplace assessments
Programmes for women’s health in the workplace can deliver up to a 4:1 return on investment (ROI) by reducing absenteeism and turnover and increasing productivity.
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Budgeting with women in mind
Need for gender initiatives to become well integrated within the more general budget processes and to demonstrate their utility. The initiatives also need to gain broad political support to avoid falling victim to a change of government
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Female entrepreneurs face a $320bn credit gap
Improving the lives of women and girls, while at the same time generating financial returns, is gaining traction in emerging economies as well as the developed world.
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Unpaid care work
Tax policies play a crucial role in determining inequalities. Therefore, progressive national tax reforms and improvements in global governance accountability are vital to effect positive change and achieve the new Sustainable Development Goals, including the target on unpaid care work.
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Women's participation in political leadership
Greater equality between the sexes in human capital investments and economic opportunities, female underrepresentation persists in political leadership positions and in the highest-paying jobs.
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Global Gender Gap Report
The Global Gender Gap report quantifies the magnitude of gender disparities and tracks their progress over time, with a specific focus on the relative gaps between women and men across four key areas: health, education, economy and politics.
