Social partners
Our partners help us to understand external perspectives on a variety of community topics and address specific priorities, such as supporting human rights, boosting local employment and improving access to energy.
We work with local and global non-governmental and humanitarian organisations, including BSR (Business for Social Responsibility) and Mercy Corps. These groups help us address the needs of the communities where we operate, often in times of emergency response.
In 2020, we donated $3 million to Mercy Corps’ COVID-19 Resilience Fund which aims to help communities protect themselves against the virus and ensure they have access to their basic needs, including clean water, food and personal protective equipment.
We have also renewed our long-standing commitment to the Clean Cooking Alliance, an organisation promoting cleaner cooking solutions globally, to support building an industry that makes clean cooking accessible to the 3 billion people who live each day without it.
Improving access to jobs and economic opportunities
In Eastern Africa, we supported the Employment and Skills for Eastern Africa (or E4D/SOGA) programme in partnership with the German, British and Norwegian governments, the European Union and several companies. The programme aims to improve access to jobs and economic opportunities for local people in natural-resource-based industries and related sectors.
In 2020, through the partnership, 15,643 additional people received training and 11,229 additional people secured employment as a result of E4D/SOGA activities across the four partner countries Kenya, Mozambique, Tanzania and Uganda.
Since 2015 when the programme started, 70,649 people have received training and 26,851 people have secured employment. More than 59,689 people increased their income by at least 10%. Overall, 33,321 local enterprises were supported. Of those who secured sustainable employment, 30.7% were women.
