Sustainable Economic Opportunities That Empower Women & Benefit Business Needs

In 2010, The Coca-Cola Company launched the 5by20 initiative which aims to economically empower 5 million women entrepreneurs across the company’s global supply chain by 2020. To achieve these ambitious goals, Coca-Cola worked with TechnoServe, 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’s business objectives and the economic empowerment of women.

TechnoServe launched a partnership with Coca-Cola and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation called Project Nurture. 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’s supply chain for the first time. By 2015, the project had trained approximately 16,000 women farmers and increased participating producers’ 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 Haiti Hope Project. 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 — far surpassing women’s average participation in agricultural training programs — 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-American Development Bank:

“This is not philanthropy. This is bringing the expertise of great partners to life, connecting it to business needs, with the needs of the community.”

Using our time-tested “MOVER” approach, 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 America’s Charities. Your company can help make more projects like this possible by supporting TechnoServe through a corporate partnership and by starting an employee giving program with America’s Charities. Our online giving technology and solutions can facilitate your workplace giving campaign and other company cause initiatives. America’s 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.