Purpose and Prosperity: How U.S. Businesses are Creating Impact in Africa

Published

February 13, 2019

The report showcases how U.S. corporate investments across Africa, create beneficial economic and social impact by delivering bottom line value for shareholders and communities in which they operate across the continent.

Foreword by Scott Eisner, President, U.S.-Africa Business Center

Dear Business Colleagues and Stakeholders,

On behalf of the U.S.-Africa Business Center, I am delighted to share with you our inaugural report on corporate social responsibility, Purpose and Prosperity: How U.S. Businesses Are Creating Impact in Africa. As the preeminent voice in the global business community advocating for increased trade and investment between the U.S. and Africa, we are pleased that our members contributed to this report.

There has been significant dialogue in recent years on sustainability, corporate citizenship, community investment, and shared value. This report provides case studies to show how multinational corporations are investing in communities on the continent covering five themes: skills transfer and workforce development, economic empowerment, education, health and wellness, and the empowerment of women and girls.

The case studies demonstrate how our members are contributing toward economic growth, job creation, and poverty reduction outcomes—and how those efforts are strengthening communities across the African continent. Working in partnership with our member companies and Harvard Kennedy School’s Corporate Responsibility Initiative, we have produced one of the largest collections of models and practices for Africa to date. More than 25 case studies provide valuable perspectives for companies seeking to deepen their impact while doing business on the African continent.

African economies offer untapped potential for companies to adapt and create new business models that are inclusive of and responsive to the tremendous opportunities and potential that exists on the continent. Africa boasts one of the world’s fastest-growing middle-class populations, an increased role in shaping global peace and security, a young and entrepreneurial population, and promising economic growth trajectories. Whether firms export to Africa, source goods and services from the continent, or invest in its burgeoning markets, multinational corporations recognize the potential and are engaging for the long haul. In addition, it is important not to forget the contributions of small businesses. U.S. small businesses support the efforts of multinational corporations as subcontractors, suppliers, and small-scale manufacturers—and in doing so, provide and support good corporate citizenship.

The U.S.-Africa Business Center is committed to supporting companies maximize shareholder value, while also managing risks and positively influencing the communities in which they operate. We look forward to your feedback and input as we embark on this endeavor.

Sincerely,
Scott Eisner
President, U.S.-Africa Business Center

Leader Perspective by Jane Nelson

LEADER PERSPECTIVE
BY JANE NELSON, DIRECTOR, CORPORATE RESPONSIBILITY INITIATIVE
HARVARD KENNEDY SCHOOL

INTRODUCTION

A number of the companies profiled in this report have been investing in Africa for more than 50 years—and in some cases, for over a century. They have made longterm commitments to deploying capital, building local jobs and skills, and transferring technology in ways that aim to drive both business success and development impact.

Many other firms are starting to look to the continent for future markets and growth opportunities. There is untapped potential for scaling up both the quantity of American business investment in Africa and the contribution that this investment can make in supporting national development priorities by working in partnership with host governments, communities, donors, and other development actors.

INVESTING FOR MUTUAL BENEFIT

The potential benefits of greater investment and partnership are clear, both to African host countries and to the United States. Foreign investment undertaken with a long-term horizon, a commitment to implementing responsible business practices, and an effort to share performance metrics can deliver a variety of development multipliers. They include:

Generating local taxes, royalties, wages, and income
Producing and delivering local products and services
Creating local jobs and investing in human capital
Establishing local business linkages and spreading international business standards
Supporting technology transfer and adaptation
Building physical and institutional infrastructure
Contributing to community capacity building and social investments1

Likewise, from the perspective of the United States, sustained and mutually accountable relationships between American companies and African governments, businesses, financial institutions, nonprofits, universities, and community organizations can benefit America’s own economic growth, job creation, and national security. Analysis by Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) and the U.S. Global Leadership Coalition, among others, has shown that foreign investment by American companies in Africa and elsewhere can serve as a crucial complement to America’s defense, diplomacy, and development strategies.2

INCREASING SCALE AND IMPACT

Now the challenge—and opportunity—is to achieve greater scale and development impact. Three key trends in corporate responsibility offer a framework for business action:

1. New business models, financing mechanisms, and technologies

Over the past two decades, corporate responsibility has started to move from the margins to the mainstream.

It has shifted from being primarily about compliance and philanthropy to addressing how companies can contribute to and manage risks in their communities through their core business strategies, risk management processes, stakeholder engagement, and research, development, and innovation activities.

PURPOSE AND PROSPERITY

Leading companies are experimenting with new business models to achieve both business results and development impact. Some are developing strategies for creating shared value, defined as generating direct economic value by addressing social needs and challenges; others are making a commitment to develop inclusive business models that explicitly aim to include low-income producers, workers, and consumers in corporate value chains. Many firms are partnering with social enterprises, development NGOs, and donors to “reach the last mile” in serving lower-income or remote communities and to improve the affordability and accessibility of essential products and services. These range from delivery models in areas such as energy, transportation, communications, water, and sanitation infrastructure to healthcare, education, and nutrition. The examples from Cargill, Black & Veatch, and John Deere illustrate these evolving business models, in which social impact is directly aligned with existing or future value chains and business opportunities, thus preparing Africa’s workforce.

There has also been substantial change in terms of financing mechanisms. Increasingly common approaches include impact investing, where investors set explicit goals to deliver both financial and social returns, and blended finance, where public, private, and philanthropic sources of finance are combined to spread risk and overcome market failures in financing social or environmental projects. Several case studies in this report illustrate such approaches.

Some of the greatest breakthroughs are coming from disruptive technologies. Digitization, biotech, nanotech, fintech, the industrial internet, artificial intelligence, robotics, big data analytics, blockchain, drones—the list continues to grow. These new technologies and technology-enabled platforms offer enormous potential for those individuals, institutions, and countries that can harness them—as well as a variety of risks and challenges that still need to be fully understood and managed. The examples from General Electric and UPS illustrate the potential of combining new technologies with other core business capabilities such as energy distribution, logistics, and supply chain management.

2. Strategically aligned social investment and philanthropy projects

In addition to developing new business models, financing mechanisms, and technologies as part of a core business model, companies are also starting to use their corporate philanthropic or community investment dollars in ways that are more strategic and more closely aligned with their capabilities, business interests, and risk management priorities. Examples in this report include:

Developing industry-relevant skills: Several companies are partnering with local and international education institutions to support the development of skills and apabilities that are needed in their industry sector, even if they are not directly hiring all of the trainees. Examples in this report include training projects for young people and entrepreneurs to gain market-relevant digital skills and to develop new businesses, apps, and products; such efforts have been supported by information and technology companies such as Microsoft, IBM, and Google. Likewise, Dow, Honeywell, Oracle, Caterpillar, Kosmos, and Anadarko are supporting science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) education programs in a variety of African countries, and Johnson & Johnson, Pfizer, Abbott, and GE are investing in the training and capacity building of essential healthcare professionals. Black & Veatch is providing technical training and capacity building to develop Africa’s energy infrastructure in specific countries.
Supporting small-scale entrepreneurs and farmers:Throughout Africa, the greatest potential for creating jobs and livelihoods is through supporting small, medium, and micro-enterprises and by enhancing the productivity and market linkages of smallholder farmers. Case studies of strategic community investment include enterprise development initiatives by Chevron and BP, as well as initiatives supported by ExxonMobil and Standard Chartered Bank to empower women in business. Some of the digital training programs already mentioned also focus on creating new enterprises and products.
Strengthening systems and infrastructure:One of the most challenging—but potentially highestimpact— areas of strategic social investment is when companies partner to strengthen the broader system or physical and institutional infrastructure in the communities in which they operate. Chevron’s Niger Delta Partnership Initiative is one example. It is taking a long-term and systemic approach to development, which combines a multifaceted and integrated focus on peace building, economic development, and policy advocacy across a specific region. The examples of Abbott, Pfizer, and The Coca-Cola Company demonstrate efforts not only to train health workers but also to strengthen local health systems more broadly through improving laboratories, research, and other health facilities, and enhancing delivery channels, information management, public awareness raising, financing mechanisms, and governance. American Tower is leveraging its communications infrastructure to improve access to the internet for remote communities.

3. Sharing responsible business practices

One of the most important contributions that any company can make to improve the countries or communities in which they operate is to share responsible business practices in areas such as respecting human rights, upholding ethics and anticorruption efforts, preventing conflict, and enhancing environmental, health, and safety performance. Almost all the companies profiled here have policies and management systems in place to identify, mitigate, and respond to the risks that their own operations ight pose to people and the environment. These firms can play a valuable role by sharing these approaches with and requiring good practices from their local business partners, suppliers, and distributors. The example from VF Corporation illustrates such an approach: the company is implementing a global program to ensure safe conditions for workers in its African factories. Another example is the Global Memorandum of Understanding model that Chevron has developed with input from the communities in which it operates.

CONCLUSION

It is important to note that all profiles in this report offer snapshots of specific projects or programs supported by the companies covered; these case studies are not intended to provide a comprehensive overview of each company’s overall business and sustainability strategies or performance in Africa. As such, the profiles reflect only a fraction of the development impact that any one company might have. A few of the companies, such as The Coca-Cola Company and Standard Chartered Bank, have commissioned evaluations to review their broader impact in specific countries. These independent assessments offer a useful framework for understanding a company’s overall impact.3

The examples in this report aim to illustrate different ways in which companies are partnering with host governments, communities, businesses, donors, NGOs, and academic institutions to help meet key development priorities in a manner that also makes good business sense. There is much that can be achieved by scaling the number and ambition of such partnerships—and doing so is likely to deliver measurable and mutually beneficial results.

Jane Nelson
Director, Corporate Responsibility
Harvard Kennedy School

Index by Section

SKILLS TRANSFER AND WORKFORCE DEVELOPMENT

ECONOMIC EMPOWERMENT

EDUCATION

HEALTH AND WELLNESS

WOMEN AND GIRLS EMPOWERMENT

Index by Organization

Black & VeatchBlack & Veatch
Project: Capacity-Building Efforts Bring Reliable Electricity and Skills to African Countries
Region: Continentwide

Africa’s transformation continues as economic and population growth, coupled with urbanization, create greater demand for electricity and connectivity. Across the continent, numerous energy infrastructure projects are in development that will improve standards of living and broaden access to reliable power. Successfully implementing these and other new infrastructure projects in Africa requires the combination of capital, local capacity and skills enhancement, and the adoption of progressive technology and global execution of best practices.

With over 100 hundred years of consulting and engineering, procurement, construction (EPC) experience worldwide, Black & Veatch has been working with various clients throughout Africa for more than five decades. This engagement includes development and implementation support of various key regional projects and programs, and enhancing local workforce skills. As one example, Black & Veatch is supporting a utility’s completion of a large-scale power project in South Africa that includes training across multiple discipline areas.

Black & Veatch also continues to work closely with governments, developers, suppliers, contractors and other organizations throughout the region to unify project plans into consistent approaches, aiding both planning, design and construction. The company’s leadership includes the following:

Directly applied its personnel resources and proven skills and knowledge transfer program
Deployed experienced coaches to work with client protégés to develop the necessary knowledge and skills to execute ongoing and future projects
Collaborated with local labor resources and local suppliers to build capacity
Completed on-the-job and classroom training for clients’ staff to improve methods being used to positively influence performance

Black & Veatch’s local workforce engages in customized training programs that offer enriched learner experiences for continued career growth, thereby expanding its professionals’ skills to help shape the region’s current and future projects. The result is a workforce with the necessary technical skills to support the development and completion of reliable power generation facilities throughout Africa.

Cargill
Project: Cocoa Promise in Action: Providing One-To-One Coaching
Country: Côte d’Ivoire

One of the best ways to improve the livelihoods of farmers and their communities is by improving farm productivity. That is why Cargill champions professional cocoa farming practices, enabling farmers to maximize profitability on their farms through improved productivity per hectare and income diversification.

Farmer training has always been a focal point of Cargill’s Cocoa Promise. To improve project effectiveness, Cargill has implemented more individual farmer coaching in addition to group and classroom training. One-to-one coaching takes place on the farm and is a dynamic process that includes a base assessment of the farm, training and guidance, action steps, and outcome monitoring.

Cargill began piloting farmer coaching in Côte d’Ivoire in 2016. In partnership with the National Agency for Rural Development Support and the World Agroforestry Centre, Cargill has trained about 1,250 farmers to become coaches. Each farmer coaches approximately 60 farmers per year. The coaches first visit the farmers and undertake a detailed farm assessment, which is then used to create a bespoke Farm Development Plan. The farmers are revisited annually to check on their progress.

Through coaching, detailed insights are obtained at the farmer, co-op, and regional levels—which helps Cargill and its partners direct specific training where it is needed most. The one-to-one coaching program in Côte d’Ivoire has so far benefited 62,000 farmers, meaning farmers are developing more productive and professional farms. As a result, cocoa farmers who adopted the actions set out in Farm Development Plans in 2016 have already achieved average yield increases of 49% in their first year. Now, Cargill has begun to implement the same farmer-coaching model in Cameroon.

HIGHLIGHTS

62,000 farmers in Côte d’Ivoire have benefited from one-to-one coaching through which they have developed farm development plans.
Cocoa farmers who adopted the year one actions set out in farm development plans in 2016 saw 49% average yield increases.
87,000 more farmers received coaching between 2017 and 2018.

Caterpillar Project: Technicians for AfricaRegion: Continentwide

Home to the world’s youngest population, the African continent holds tremendous potential. To fully harness this significant resource, there is an urgent need for increased investments in technical training. Caterpillar developed Technicians for Africa in 2015 to help create and expand economic opportunities for young Africans through skills development.

Technicians for Africa is a free, online technical training program available to Africans interested in a highly skilled service technician career. The program provides future technicians with the fundamental technical knowledge needed to pursue careers as heavy equipment technicians or jobs in related fields.

Through this program, Caterpillar is creating a pipeline of local talent that will positively contribute to Africa’s economic growth and development. The program helps close the skills gap between what is taught in schools and the relevant skills and capabilities sought by employers in today’s dynamic job market.

Available in English, French, and Portuguese, the program consists of an 18-course curriculum that leverages Caterpillar’s existing state-of-the-art e-learning platform. Candidates can access this platform on mobile phones, computers, and other devices with internet access. Completion time is approximately three to six months. After completion, successful candidates are awarded a Caterpillar certificate and then given the option to share their contact details with Caterpillar’s local dealer.

The program now has over 20,000 registered participants in 27 African countries. To drive awareness and expand the reach of the program, Caterpillar has actively engaged several technical and vocational schools across the continent, and efforts are ongoing to partner with more institutions and schools to deliver the Technicians for Africa curricula.

GOOGLE
Project: Grow with Google—Digital Skills for Africa
Countries: Kenya, Nigeria, and South Africa

The web is at the heart of economic growth across the world, and it presents opportunities for anyone to create connections and access opportunities that will positively change their lives and boost economies. In 2016, Google announced a pledge to equip 1 million African youth in one year with digital skills. Google exceeded that target with more than a month to spare in 2017 and reached 2.5 million by July 2018,4 with almost half of those trainees being female. The program has since expanded, with Google CEO Sundar Pichai announcing Google’s commitment to up-skill a total of 10 million people for jobs of the future within five years.

Through in-person or online training, the initiative is empowering a new generation of Africans to learn to build a web presence, use the Search tool to find jobs, get tips to enhance their resumes, and use social media.5 The program now focuses on reaching more youth communities outside urban areas by:

Providing offline versions of online training materials to reach individuals and businesses in low-access areas. Google’s goal is to ensure that everyone, regardless of location and online status, can access training.
Delivering offline training programs in kiSwahili, IsiZulu, and Hausa. Google understands the role of local languages in communicating with rural African communities and wants to ensure that more non-English-speaking Africans can undertake training.
Continuing offline training efforts to reach students, job seekers, and business owners through face-to-face training managed by Google’s partners. There is a deliberate focus on achieving gender balance, by ensuring that at least 40% of trainees are women.
Building digital communities across Sub-Saharan Africa with a focus on specific industries and prioritizing driving inclusive communities.
Sundar also announced the company’s commitment to provide mobile developer training to 100,000 Africans. This led to the launch in 2018 of a partnership with Andela and Udacity: the Africa Web and Android Scholarship program aims to provide 15,000 scholarships to developers in Africa. Google strongly believes that innovation in education will come from local entrepreneurs; they know their market best, move fast, and reach audiences with relevant content.

The company’s global Launchpad Accelerator program is providing more than $3 million in equity-free funding, mentorship, working space, and access to expert advisers to over 60 African startups in a period of three years. Intensive three-month programs, held twice per year, operate out of a new Google Launchpad Space in Lagos—the program’s first location outside the U.S. The company also launched a Google.org Impact Challenge in Africa in 2018 to award $6 million in grants to nonprofits in Kenya, Nigeria, and South Africa.

Google also announced in 2017 through Google.org—its philanthropic arm—grants of $2.5 million to the nonprofit arms of African startups Gidi Mobile and Siyavula to provide free access to learning for 400,000 low-income students in South Africa and Nigeria. The grantees will also develop new digital learning materials that will be free for anyone to use.

With these scale of investments in skills and entrepreneurial initiatives, Google is committed to the growth of the continent’s digital economy.

IBM
Project:Data Responsibility at IBM: Skills Development for Broad-Based Prosperity and Growth
Region: Continentwide

Today’s data economy can help drive wealth and prosperity, and data are like the new oil—an amazing source of wealth for countries. In oil-rich economies, the key to success is harnessing and using that source of wealth for the common good. The same holds true in a data economy.

IBM believes that companies and governments have an obligation to ensure that all citizens enjoy the wealth of data. To make data a force for broad-based prosperity and growth, more students and workers must be trained in the skills essential to new technologies such as artificial intelligence.

As Africa is poised to become home to the world’s largest labor force, with an estimated working-age population of 1 billion by 2040, IBM is pleased to be joining with many African governments on three key initiatives to help them equip their youth with these high-demand skills.

IBM’s pro bono Corporate Service Corps (CSC)sends teams of 8 to 15 company leaders to partner with government, business, and civic leaders to address their local high-priority issues, such as education and economic development. For example, CSC Ghana has helped improve access to girls’ education. Celebrating its 10th year, CSC has sent more than 1,000 IBMers from over 50 countries to complete 300 projects in nine Sub-Saharan countries.
IBM’s latest program, Digital Nation Africa, is a free, cloud-based learning and collaboration platform that provides Africa’s millennials and professionals with online courses on mobile application development, artificial intelligence, and other in-demand technology skills. Course content is created in collaboration with local and global leaders. IBM is partnering with governments to ensure appropriate localized training, student targeting, and accreditation.
IBM’s TryScience digital platform is available to teachers across Africa who require additional STEM resources. It provides free lessons, teaching strategies, and resources designed to spark students’ interests and features tools that let teachers share best practices.

IBM believes that the data-driven economy belongs to all of us, not just an elite few companies that capture and control other people’s data, and—to advance this vision—has adopted a global commitment to data responsibility. IBM also believes that partnering with government on skills development is critical. Together, IBM and its partners can drive fairness and equality in the digital economy.

John DeereProject: Mobile Training Unit for Agricultural Extension TrainingCountries: Kenya and Ghana

With large rural populations in Africa, it can be difficult to reach farmers for training, and traveling to training sessions can be costly and time consuming. The Mobile Training Unit (MTU) project is an innovative agricultural extension training approach that enables large groups of smallholder farmers to receive audiovisual training in rural areas.

John Deere has invested more than $5.5 million with its partners at TechnoServe to use video training to benefit the lives of smallholder farmers and increase food availability in Africa. In 2013, the partners launched the MTU project to help farmers in Kenya and Ghana. This program exemplifies John Deere’s long history of supporting farmers with equipment and technology solutions and also enabling their prosperity through training and skills enhancement. This initiative extends a 181-year proud history of John Deere’s link to the land and those who steward it.

The project provides training through videos and hands-on demonstrations; at the same time, it strengthens organizations and connections that enable farmers to thrive. A separate project focused on mechanization training on demonstration plots in local communities builds on the importance of training through the MTU project. Since 2013, the project has benefited 47,194 people, helping them earn an extra $29.9 million in income. This figure represents an impressive return on investment, greater than 540%.

John Deere and its partners implemented the MTU project in six counties along the Rift Valley in western Kenya, which is considered the country’s breadbasket. The project targeted two agricultural sectors: dairy and maize. Dairy enjoys strong demand, as the country’s urban population and middle class are growing, and it can be an important source of daily income for farmers who live on just a few dollars per day; maize is both the country’s most commonly grown crop and the leading dietary staple for the majority of Kenyans.

Over the past decade, Ghana has experienced political stability and strong economic growth; however, the country’s northern region has lagged in poverty reduction and food security. The MTU project was implemented in four zones of northern Ghana, targeting farmers producing crops vital to local diets and economies. Maize is Ghana’s most consumed crop, and demand for soybeans and rice is on the rise. However, low productivity on traditionally managed, small-scale farms means that demand for these crops outstrips local supply. The MTU training helped increase individual farmer production and incomes by five times in only three years.

The John Deere and TechnoServe partnership has created more prosperous farmers who desire—and can now afford—mechanization, through contracts for plowing, planting, and spraying. The next phase of the partnership will focus on the establishment of these contracting businesses and the sale of equipment so that entrepreneurs can serve farmers and thrive economically.

Johnson & Johnson
Project: Strengthening Health Systems through Nurses and Midwives in East Africa
Countries: East Africa: Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania

Nurses and midwives are the backbone of health systems in East Africa (EA) where they account for approximately 85 percent of the total healthcare force in the region. Investing in human resources and frontline health workers is critical to overcome the chronic health worker shortages in EA countries. The private sector can play a key role in collaborating with local actors to identify efficient frameworks to train competent health professionals and leaders, while ensuring that they remain in the country and contribute to strengthening the country’s health systems.

Sixteen years ago, Johnson & Johnson committed to investing in nurses in East Africa through its partners, developing multiple and integrated interventions, involving different elements of the nursing ecosystem to help transform the nursing and midwifery professions as well as contribute to building the health workforce of the future.

Since 2001, Johnson & Johnson has been partnering with Aga Khan University, to provide scholarships for nurses and midwives to improve access to quality education. Since then, it has supported the graduation of 2,388 students, of whom more than 100 hold high-impact leadership positions.

Johnson & Johnson is also looking at the empowerment and resiliency of the health workforce by developing and increasing their capacity. Together with Aga Khan Foundation, Johnson & Johnson has co-created a program to strengthen nursing and midwifery associations to build the resilience of the professions. These associations represent nurses and midwives at national and international levels, promote excellence in practice and quality of care and provide professional support to their members, contributing to keeping the workforce engaged and helping to prevent a phenomenon known as “brain drain.” There are nine associations involved in the program, with 300 members that have attended capacity building workshops.

To further develop the leadership capacity of healthcare professionals, Johnson & Johnson has jointly developed with INSEAD Business School, a course for primary care leaders to expose them to key components of leadership and innovation, allowing them to rethink health system delivery and gain core competencies to implement innovative thinking. Over 300 participants have attended the program, and have credited significant improvements in their leadership behavior, care, and experience for patients as a result of the program.

Investing in the nursing and midwifery professions remains critical because of their crucial role in reducing gaps in access to quality care and in building resilient communities and health systems.

Kosmos BP Senegal Ltd.
Project: Tortue Project Capacity-Building Investments
Countries: Mauritania and Senegal

On the maritime border between Mauritania and Senegal, at a depth of 2,850 million, BP and Kosmos are developing a gas field with a 30-year production potential. The Tortue field has an estimated 15 trillion cubic feet of gas and is forecast to be a significant source of domestic energy and revenue. BP and Kosmos are committed to helping both countries to develop their world-class resources in a sustainable way.

As part of both companies’ commitment to investing in people, BP and Kosmos Energy have supported several initiatives, including a master’s degree program at the Université des Sciences, de Technologie et de Médecine in Nouakchott, Mauritania, and the Université Gaston Berger in Saint Louis, Senegal.

Each year approximately 30 students from Mauritania, Senegal, and other African nations are trained in subjects related to managing the impact of the extractives sector. The master’s program encourages cross-border cooperation between Mauritania and Senegal and supports the development of a cadre of graduates who could work for government agencies, national oil companies, oil and gas operators, environmental or social consultancies, or NGOs.

BP and Kosmos Energy also support the Senegalese government in its commitment to create a National Institute for Petroleum and Gas, which would provide higher education and training to the future leaders, managers, and operators of Senegal’s new petroleum industry.

In addition, BP and Kosmos Energy sponsored 120 hours of professional English language training for 100 government employees and academics (50 from each country). These students are given language skills that are directly applicable to their jobs—for example, reviewing documents in English or participating effectively in meetings with international operators.

BP awarded 10 scholarships to the best-performing students in Nouakchott’s recently established École Supérieure Polytechnique, enabling them to further pursue studies in France and North Africa. These students are taking business or engineering courses that are currently in short supply in Mauritania. BP will offer these participants opportunities for work experiences and other professional development as their studies progress over the next three years.

BP and Kosmos Energy (including highly experienced staff from BP’s PetroTechnical Academy and human resources teams) also partnered with local authorities in Senegal and Mauritania to research and deliver assessments of core-skill capabilities in each country and to establish recommendations for industry and government to work together to build skills and employability for the next generation.

MicrosoftProject: Microsoft YouthSpark InitiativeCountries: South Africa, Kenya, and Nigeria

Africa can best achieve its fiscal potential through strong alignment between employer needs and a skilled workforce. Microsoft is committed to developing the skills of African youth to help close the skills gap and match job opportunities with the right talent through its YouthSpark initiative. In the past three years the company has invested $33 million in philanthropic programs and technologies—benefiting over 8 million youth, creating employment opportunities for 50,000 young people, and enabling 2,000 aspiring entrepreneurs. By 2020, our goal is to empower an additional 10 million youth and create economic opportunities for 200,000 young people.

Microsoft is collaborating with the African Development Bank Jobs for Youth initiative, a key part of which is a coding for employment program that is expected to upskill 50 million youth and create 25 million jobs by 2025. The first rollout of the coding for employment program will take place in Nigeria, Kenya, Senegal, Cote d’Ivoire, and Rwanda.

In Nigeria, Microsoft and its partner FifthGear Plus are working with the Lagos State Office of the National Youth Service Corp (NYSC) in Nigeria through the Marketplace Readiness Program. The program aims to train over 2,000 new graduates enlisted in the NYSC program in marketplace readiness. Microsoft employees provide technical training on Microsoft office tools, job interview techniques, and life skills training, and the company launched an employment portal to help graduates in their job hunt.

In Kenya, Microsoft, in collaboration with TukoWorks and the Kenyan Ministry of Information, Communications and Technology, is supporting the government of Kenya to address unemployment through an online employment portal initiative called the Ajira Project. Using an online YouthWorks portal, 8,000 youth workers are being upskilled and subsequently connected with online-driven jobs.

In South Africa, Microsoft deployed the Microsoft Students to Business S2B program, which matches students with top Microsoft partner companies through internships, thus providing relevant work experience on innovative projects and enhancing students’ value in the job market.

Through YouthSpark, Microsoft partners with nonprofit organizations, schools, governments,

and businesses to build capacity in today’s youth, helping them compete in the labor market. YouthSpark also helps young people realize their ventures by making computer education courses, training, and resources more available and accessible to everyone.

VF CorporationProject:Worker Safety ProgramsCountries: Ethiopia, Kenya, Mauritius, and Lesotho

VF Corporation is one of the world’s largest apparel, footwear, and accessory companies, with more than 20 iconic brands such as Vans®, The North Face®, Timberland®, Smartwool® and Dickies®. VF’s strong commitment to social and environmental responsibility leads it to effect positive change in the 50 countries where it sources its products, including several African countries. In liaising with local partners, VF works to build capacity in safe factories through its Critical Life Safety, Fire Safety Evacuation, and Chemical Management Training programs.

VF’s Critical Life Safety project is a global initiative aimed at ensuring safe working conditions for apparel industry workers worldwide. Initiated in 2015, the program conducts comprehensive assessments of factories’ structural, electrical, and fire safety conditions. Through 2017, 491 factories globally have been inspected, including all African factories producing VF products. Across these African factories, 100% of electrical and fire safety concerns have been remediated, and 75% of structural safety concerns have been corrected, with the remaining 25% being remediated. This program continuously improves the structural, electrical, and fire integrity of factories, which in turn, ensures safe conditions for garment workers across VF’s supply chain.

Likewise, VF’s Fire Safety Evacuation Training is designed to educate workers and management on safe evacuation procedures in the event of a fire. It also raises awareness and supports the development of worker safety programs and fire safety culture. The VF team extended this extensive train-the-trainer model to selected factory managers and trainers in Africa, who trained their respective workers. By the end of 2017, 241 managers and 36,851 workers from 13 African factories had been trained.

Complementing these programs is VF’s innovative Chemical Management program, CHEM-IQSM, which identifies and eliminates unwanted chemicals before they enter the manufacturing process. CHEM-IQSM helps prevent worker exposure to harmful chemicals and improves suppliers’ management of chemicals. VF conducted chemical management training for all Tier-1 VF suppliers in Africa who use process chemicals. In addition, 81 delegates from 17 factories participated in an in-depth chemical safety training program to augment their knowledge and skills. Where needed, corrective action plans were developed.

VF’s Critical Life Safety, Fire Evacuation, and Chemical Management Training programs are part of VF’s Responsible Sourcing initiative, which focuses on supporting suppliers and improving working conditions across the supply chain.

BP ANGOLAProject:Unlocking Potential beyond the Oil Sector through an Agribusiness (Microcredit) InitiativeCountry:Angola

Economic growth in Angola since the end of its civil war in 2002 has been driven mainly by oil revenue, which accounts for about one-third of the country’s GDP.

One of the key challenges for improving living conditions and diversifying the economy is the revitalization of farming and livestock trading. Since 2005, BP Angola and its partner, Sonangol Sinopec International, have invested about $2.5 million in an agribusiness program implemented in Huambo and Benguela provinces by ADRA, a global agricultural capacity-building nongovernmental organization.

The program aims to provide training in business planning, management, partnerships, and other areas to help farmers become more efficient and meet banking criteria to finance expanded production). The key to achieving these goals has been the creation of cooperatives, which are registered entities. Once a cooperative is set up, members—by working together and agreeing on which goods to produce—can increase production and expand their supply to new markets. Within the cooperative, members also benefit from a microcredit scheme. It started with funds from donors but has now been self-sufficient for several years.

To date, 10 cooperatives have been established, benefiting more than 4,000 farmers and small entrepreneurs, more than half of whom are women. Each cooperative has its own governing body in charge of the day-to-day administrative tasks—namely, tax payments and bank reimbursements—as well as a microcredit management scheme to support members in developing complementary businesses.

In 2017, beneficiaries reported increases in land and home ownership as well as improved learning capabilities. Their production is now sufficient in quantity and quality to supply locally and export to other countries such as the Democratic Republic of Congo and Congo Brazzaville.

Enterprise development has been a key area of investment in BP Angola’s social investment portfolio, aligning closely with BP Angola’s value of respect, in that the company seeks to build strong relationships while respecting local norms and cultural practices. Likewise, this reflects BP Angola’s efforts in promoting sustainable relationships with local communities and BP’s “one team” value, which recognizes and acknowledges the contributions of others and lays the foundation for the future by helping people advance their capabilities.

Finally, the program feeds into the sustainable development goals of poverty eradication, gender equality,
and quality education.

Chevron Project: Making an Impact in the Niger DeltaCountry: Nigeria

Chevron has a 100-year history and long-term investments in Nigeria, making it the third-largest oil producer in the country and one of the nation’s largest investors. Chevron’s portfolio in Nigeria includes significant assets in the Niger Delta region—an area with roughly 32 million people, 70% of whom live in poverty.

In 2005, in response to clashes among communities that resulted in damage to many of Chevron’s community development projects and production facilities, the company pioneered the Global Memorandum of Understanding (GMoU) model.

As a community-led, multistakeholder partnership approach to community engagement, the GMoU uses participatory development processes that help resolve conflict and address community needs near Chevron’s operations. Through a defined agreement, committees of elected community members represent local interests and are responsible for deciding how to use funding provided by the company and implementing the projects selected.

The model has brought relative peace to Chevron’s areas of operation, though more can always be done. In 2015, the company launched GMoU+ to build on the communities’ focus on growing small businesses, increasing household income and employment, and aligning with the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals.

Complementing the GMoU model, Chevron supports the Niger Delta Partnership Initiative (NDPI) to help reduce poverty and conflict in the region. In 2010, the company established NDPI and its Nigeria-based implementing partner, Foundation for Partnership Initiatives in the Niger Delta (PIND), with a $50 million endowment to help increase income and equitable economic growth. In 2014, Chevron committed an additional $40 million through 2019.

PIND projects focus on building local capacity to mitigate conflict, participate in civil society, and promote economic development. Since 2010, NDPI and PIND have driven over $110 million of outside investments into the Niger Delta, developed a peace-building network of more than 7,000 members, and helped over 400,000 people in the region’s most promising agricultural sectors build their businesses and boost their incomes.

In February 2018, Chevron received the Best Performing Upstream International Company in Social Contribution for 2016/2017 award, an honor bestowed by the Nigerian Ministry of Petroleum Resources for the company’s commitment to social responsibility. Although socioeconomic challenges persist, Chevron believes that its programs provide optimism amid the hard realities of daily life in Africa’s largest wetlands area—and support the company’s social license to operate there.

ExxonMobilProject:Project for Women’s Empowerment and Agricultural DevelopmentCountry: Mozambique

In Mozambique, women face pervasive obstacles to achieving economic empowerment. To help overcome these barriers, in 2016 the ExxonMobil Foundation partnered with Opportunity International to launch the Project for Women’s Empowerment and Agricultural Development (PEMA) program to expand economic opportunities for women farmers in Mozambique.

The initiative includes both theoretical and practical applications of strategies to help women more effectively benefit from commercial agricultural markets in Mozambique. Since 2016, PEMA has provided support to more than 2,000 female farmers who have gained valuable insight into the delivery of agricultural inputs and services. In addition, more than 300 women accessed financial services, including agricultural microloans through savings and loan groups. As a major investor in developing countries, the ExxonMobil Foundation knows that women drive economic development, and when women control their own income, they reinvest much of it into their families and businesses. It is also known from the International Monetary Fund’s research that significant GDP losses are attributable to women not being full participants in their countries’ economies. Healthier, more prosperous communities are good for business—that is why the Foundation has helped empower women farmers in Mozambique to move from subsistence farming to raising cash crops.

Case Study

Febi Notico provides a good case study on the program’s impact. Febi is from Chimoio, Mozambique. She and her husband have five children. Before becoming connected with the PEMA project, Febi farmed her crops alone in more traditional methods, such as using buckets to water her crops. Her family did not have enough money to fix the home’s leaking roof. Through PEMA, Febi was invited to become a member of a women’s farming association, Nhachadzamai. She joined a savings group and learned how to better manage her finances, including how to use credit. Since joining the women’s association, Febi also learned about farming as a family business, how to use a motor pump to irrigate her crops, and has now started using a tractor for land preparation—all thanks to training from PEMA field technicians. Febi and her family have more money than before and were able to fix their roof.

Motorola SolutionsProject: Fostering Innovation within Local Communities through TechnologyCountry: Mali

Motorola Solutions’ mission is to foster innovation and improve public safety across the globe. The MotoSecure Hackathon Day is a partnership between Motorola Solutions and Impact Hub Bamako designed to encourage innovation, create new technology, and promote development in Mali and beyond. Mali has an urgent need for fundamental services, such as healthcare and security.

Some notable innovations include:

Amadou Yarangore’s, a Hackathon Day participant, created a project to combat rising insecurity, which creates a secure link between citizens and security agents using Motorola Solution’s application programming interface.
Safi Camara, a member of Women Tech Makers Mali, created Medic+, a project that grants doctors easier access to patients’ medical records.
Mohamed Keita, cofounder of Impact Hub Bamako, a collaborative workspace that offers training, incubation programs, and business acceleration open to social entrepreneurs, noted the need to create a unique ecosystem of resources and inspiration to build safer cities and improve the country’s security.

Thomson Reuters AfricaProject: Partnering for ImpactCountries: Sub-Saharan Africa

At Thomson Reuters Africa, we believe that doing business in ways that respect, protect, and benefit our customers, employees, communities, suppliers, and the environment is our responsibility. It informs everything we do to support our people, the markets we serve, and the world at large. Being responsible and ethical is part of our heritage, and it is fundamental to our business. It is reflected globally—across every part of our operations—and is core to our purpose and values.

Thomson Reuters invests in global communities through our Community Investment Programs, which include paid volunteer time, matching gifts, volunteer grants, and payroll giving. Our employees make a significant impact through these programs by working with charities and providing their time, money, and expertise. Each program allows employees to easily get involved with the organizations they are passionate about.

Employees’ year-round service to our strategic-giving programs helps align volunteerism, in-kind donations, and grants around initiatives for maximum impact. At the same time, we encourage employees to volunteer for any charity they choose—local, national, or international—and their ongoing service supports more than 13,000 nonprofits around the world.

As a signatory of the U.N. Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), we are keen to ensure that everything that we do in our core business also has a positive social impact. Our Africa business mission is “Empowering Africa’s Success,” and the following are examples of how our core business helps to contribute to some of the SDGs:

Bankable Farmer
Driven by Thomson Reuters Cape Town Innovation Lab, the Bankable Farmer initiative is helping to bridge the gap between banks and smallholder farmers. Our role as trusted providers of financial information to banks - coupled with our expertise in global land administration - creates a unique opportunity to provide the collateral inputs needed for the risk profile to become a viable tool in providing financial services to smallholder farmers.
World Food Day 2017
Thomson Reuters’ employees ran a #ZeroHunger Challenge, which included a share-the-meal app, Meals-on-Wheels donation drive, and a cookathon.
Thomson Reuters Diversity & Inclusion (D&I) Index
We empower investors in Africa and around the world with Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) data hosted on Eikon. We rank over 5,000 global companies on characteristics that define inclusive workplaces using 24 metrics across four key pillars of diversity, inclusivity, people development, and news. The 100 companies with the highest combined score comprise our Index. We’ve also found that the top D&I performers tend to financially outperform their peers. Notably, a number of African companies are represented in the top 100 and are working with more companies to encourage them to self-report so that we can showcase the great work they are doing on this continent.
Thomson Reuters Aumentum – Digitizing Land Rights and Records
We collaborate with governments in Nigeria and South Africa and across the world to increase efficiency and transparency on land rights security. Access and ownership to land is a huge barrier in sustainable development. Our solution helps to digitize land records, allows governments to develop a property tax revenue source, and provides banks with a source of information to help develop mortgage markets.
Habitat for Humanity
Fifty-seven staff members volunteered from the Johannesburg, South Africa office.

We also actively partner with leading organizations that are driving change in Africa, including the 30% Club Southern Africa, One Young World, and the South African LGBT and Management Forum. Together, we can empower Africa’s success.

Some of the results of our social impact work are highlighted below, in numbers:

As of 1 October 2018, the Thomson Reuters Financial & Risk business became known as Refinitiv following close of the strategic partnership transaction between Thomson Reuters and private equity funds managed by Blackstone. For more information on Refinitiv, visit: https://www.refinitiv.com

American TowerProject:Bringing Internet Connectivity to Underserved PopulationsCountry: Nigeria

Access to the internet is fast becoming a human right in the eyes of millions of people around the world. The internet has evolved to a point where people see web access as vital to exercising and enjoying their fundamental rights to freedom of expression and education. Internet penetration also correlates positively with a country’s economic prosperity.

For all the internet’s benefits, its reach in Africa remains limited: cost, scalability, power outages, and education barriers are some of the many challenges facing internet rollout on the continent.

Nigeria is ranked as African’s highest internet-using country. However, almost half the country remains without internet access, and the demographic distribution of internet users is unequal across different regions and communities.

To help alleviate this problem, American Tower is leveraging its communications infrastructure in an innovative way by creating Digital Villages near its tower sites in Nigeria. Digital Villages are retrofitted steel shipping containers equipped with work stations to accommodate twelve computers and such equipment as scanners, photocopiers, and projectors. Digital Villages use the uninterrupted power supply and broadband link from tower sites to provide host communities with education and training in ICT. They also enable communities to access government e-services, thereby helping improve the efficiency of vital government programs.

To date, American Tower has deployed Digital Villages in communities with reasonable population density. The company set up its first Digital Village in Makoko, Lagos, in November 2017 and, as of November 2018, has a total of 22 Digital Villages spanning Lagos, Federal Capital Territory, Osun, Edo, Kaduna, Ondo, Akwa Ibom and Katsina. Construction of additional Digital Villages is underway in Delta, Anambra, Oyo, Borno and Enugu.

American Tower has partnered with reputable local content development and education providers to create and deliver training modules for its Digital Villages and to ensure quality facilitation of classes and lectures. A minimum of 36 students are trained every month at each Digital Village to develop their knowledge and skills. As of November 2018, 612 students have graduated from Digital Villages with an accredited qualification.

American Tower created Digital Villages to encourage computer literacy among the members of communities where it provides services. Digital Villages also support the ongoing efforts of the federal and various state governments in Nigeria to provide youth development and empowerment schemes for indigent youth and young graduates in Nigeria. American Tower’s goal is for Digital Villages to upskill and provide better employment opportunities for young people in these host communities. To truly reach the less fortunate and expose them to ICT, the company is looking to set up additional Digital Villages in its other African markets and in rural villages that do not yet benefit from cell coverage.

Anadarko Petroleum CorporationProject:UEM Master’s of Science in Petroleum Engineering: Building Capabilities, Changing LivesCountry:Mozambique

In 2011, Mozambican government leaders and Anadarko discussed ways in which Anadarko and its partners could help build technical skills and sustainable petroleum capabilities for the people of Mozambique. An agreement was reached to develop and implement a Petroleum Engineering (PE) Master’s program at the University of Eduardo Mondlane (UEM) in Maputo.

In Mozambique, UEM’s Master’s of Science in Petroleum Engineering (MSPE) program is the first of its kind in the country. UEM engineering and geology faculty, Anadarko subject matter experts, and U.S. professors from leading PE programs collaboratively developed the MSPE program, sponsored by Anadarko and its partners. The program represents a unique approach to the development of sustainable petroleum education for Mozambique, as it enables petroleum capability building in the country.

The core program was launched in 2013 while the postgraduate program launched officially in 2014 at the UEM faculty of engineering. The inaugural group of 22 MSPE students represented several Mozambican provinces including Maputo, Cabo Delgado, and Nampula. By 2016, the end of the initial three-year program, Anadarko had established the largest graduate program at UEM and delivered a reusable PE curriculum through collaboration with Anadarko experts, U.S. PE professors, UEM professors, and instructional designers.

By the end of 2016, three cohorts graduated from the Core PE program, one cohort completed all master’s coursework, and 11 students successfully defended their research dissertations and graduated with the MSPE degree. These 11 graduates are part of an elite group of individuals—the first graduates with the MSPE degree in the history of Mozambique. The MSPE program at UEM is one of only two master’s in PE in Africa.

The PE program developed a “fit for purpose” curriculum utilizing proven U.S. petroleum MSPE content as the foundation for developing appropriate curriculum for UEM. It includes a core program of master’s prerequisites, plus two years of master’s-level coursework and a culminating research dissertation. Courses in safety, ethics, English, communication, and business skills are provided throughout the three years of coursework.

In addition to the capacity-building element of the MSPE program, the program also added physical and virtual learning capabilities. Now, there are fully functioning classrooms as well as a fully equipped office for the professors, which can continually be utilized for virtual research and working sessions with other African and global petroleum experts.

The influence of the MSPE program and its unique focus on sustainable capacity building is being felt as other UEM technical degree programs contemplate similar engagements with industry partners. Anadarko and its partners are not only supporting the delivery of a world-class petroleum education for students, but they are positively influencing the development of related degree programs at the University of Eduardo Mondlane.

DowProject:Supporting the Young African Leadership InitiativeCountry:South Africa

President Barack Obama launched the Young African Leadership Initiative (YALI) in 2010 to support an emerging generation of African leaders. Four Regional Leadership Centers (RLCs)—one each in Ghana, Kenya, Senegal, and South Africa. These centers were created to improve the availability and quality of leadership training programs and professional development opportunities for young African leaders through the United States Agency for International Development.

YALI RLCs select young African leaders who are already making positive changes in their communities or countries through their involvement in entrepreneurship, business, public administration, civil society, or other socioeconomic development initiatives.

Significant synergies exist between the objectives of YALI’s and Dow’s commitment to global citizenship. Dow’s regional 2025 sustainability goal is to make a positive impact in the lives of millions of Africans through the upskilling of communities and individuals.

Collaboration with YALI will develop young African leaders who will shape the business ecosystems of the future.

Dow’s partnership with YALI RLCs includes a financial investment and in-kind offerings over a five-year period. The in-kind contributions are designed to engage Dow employees and leaders through skills-based and traditional volunteerism and include access to Dow’s internal leadership development resources for YALI participants.

Dow sees value from the partnership: it gains access to a talented network of leaders from across the continent by developing and strengthening networks with business, government, and civil society. Overall, Dow has committed significant support including 1M in-cash for 5 years and $3M in-kind to establish these regional centers and engage the YALI fellows. Additionally, Dow has had multiple engagements between Dow senior leaders, including with Dow CEO Andrew Liveris, and YALI participants.

Dow is committed to growing, developing, and investing in Africa’s future leaders.

Honeywell Africa Project:Harnessing a Passion for Science, Technology, Engineering, and MathematicsCountry: South Africa

Honeywell is committed to inspiring the next generation of scientists and engineers in classrooms around the world by helping students approach science, technology, engineering, and mathematics subjects in new and exciting ways. Through Honeywell Hometown Solutions, the company’s corporate responsibility arm, Honeywell has identified touchpoints aimed at developing young minds and equipping educators with innovative ways to bring STEM to life in the classroom.

Honeywell invents and manufactures connected industrial technologies that address some of the world’s most critical challenges around energy, safety, security, productivity, and global urbanization. More than half of Honeywell’s 23,000 engineers concentrate on software, and 100% of the company’s global software divisions are compatible with the highest industry standards, to ensure continuous improvement and emphasis on innovation that is intuitive and reliable—and that meets customers’ needs.

Leadership Challenge Academy
Each year over 320 children of Honeywell’s employees around the world are invited to participate in a weeklong, sponsored trip to the U.S. Space and Rocket Center in Huntsville, Alabama. This unique scholarship program boasts interactive technology and science-oriented workshops, coding challenges, and team exercises to teach the students leadership skills in science, math, and technology. Twenty-one South African children between the ages of 16 and 18 have participated so far in this award-winning STEM program. In 2018, Honeywell is boosting its support to include more South African students in the program.

Educators at Space Academy
Alongside Honeywell’s work in promoting STEM subjects at the grassroots level, Honeywell Hometown Solutions similarly supports and advances STEM in the classroom. The Honeywell Educators at the Space Academy initiative provides middle school teachers of math and science with their own weeklong adventure at the U.S. Space and Rocket Center. There, educators participate in a variety of activities such as 45 hours of classroom, laboratory, and field-based training that includes astronaut training exercises, high-performance jet simulations, scenario-based space missions, and flight dynamics programs.

Educators engage with over 200 of their peers from around the globe and identify new approaches and best practices for teaching STEM subjects with the resources they have available. In June 2018, five educators from across Africa joined participants from other countries at the U.S. Space and Rocket Center.

Oracle Project:Advancing Education and Skills Development in AfricaCountries: South Africa, Kenya, and Nigeria

Oracle has been committed to advancing education globally for more than two decades. Through a variety of initiatives—including Oracle Giving and Oracle Volunteering—the company is helping to improve educational access and outcomes in the areas of computer science, science, technology, engineering, art, and math.

One example of Oracle’s efforts is the Ponelopele Oracle Secondary School. Established in March 2006 under a public-private partnership between Oracle Corporation South Africa and the Gauteng Department of Education, Ponelopele Secondary is a no-fee school attended by more than 1,200 students in grades 8–12 annually. Supported by more than 60 staff members, the school continues to deliver exceptional matric results, consistently outperforming the national average score.

Besides offering financial assistance for building the school facility, Oracle continues to be involved with various programs in the school, from hosting career days and teacher development sessions to teaching robotics with Lego technology.

Further, Oracle supports educational nonprofit organizations through a combination of funding and employee volunteerism. One such organization is Akili Dada, which invests in high-achieving young African women from underserved backgrounds in Kenya. Oracle has funded the organization’s Young Changemakers Program since 2014, providing women ages 13–20 with scholarships, mentoring, and leadership training. Oracle also supports the Women’s Technology Empowerment Centre (W.TEC) in Nigeria, working to educate and empower women and girls through technology training, mentoring, and career counseling.

Oracle is also helping to advance economic prosperity in the region by funding skills-building programs. Over the past five years, its support of the Co-Creation Hub has enabled the organization to provide after-school computing workshops to hundreds of secondary school students in Lagos, Nigeria.

AbbottProject:Strengthening Health Care Systems in TanzaniaCountry: Tanzania

Tanzania faces multiple challenges in improving health care as it strives to meet the UN Sustainable Development Goals.

For nearly 20 years, Abbott and its foundation, the Abbott Fund, have worked to strengthen Tanzania’s Healthcare system. They equipped Muhimbili National Hospital with a new outpatient treatment center, a state-of-the-art laboratory building, and a hospital wide information technology system. They also established emergency medicine as a medical specialty in Tanzania by creating the country’s first emergency department and emergency medicine residency and nurse training programs. In addition, they modernized 23 of the nation’s regional hospital laboratories to improve diagnostic and monitoring capabilities.

Since the program began, more than 826,000 patients have registered with Tanzania’s first nationwide laboratory network, the latest result of the $125 million investment that Abbott and the Abbott Fund have made in the country’s healthcare infrastructure. Linking all 23 of the country’s regional healthcare laboratories, the new internet network makes possible the immediate sharing of test results, disease surveillance reports, and healthcare management practices across the country. The network helps Tanzanian healthcare practitioners battle many chronic diseases—including HIV/AIDS, the leading cause of death in the country—and helps ensure that the treatment people receive reflects the latest medical advances. In total, Abbott employees and its partners have contributed more than 130,000 hours of training in patient testing, emergency medicine, laboratory equipment operation, hospital management, and information technology.

HIGHLIGHTS:

66,000 emergency room visits in 2017
Over 1,000 people cared for daily
23 modernized hospital labs serving patients nationwide since 2012
130,000 hours of support since 2001

Boston ScientificProject:Increasing Health Care Workers to Reduce Noncommunicable Diseases in South Africa|Country:South Africa

One of Boston Scientific’s community priorities is to decrease health disparities for the underserved by ensuring access to quality care and by supporting prevention and awareness programs that help people reduce their risk for chronic disease. Guided by U.N. Sustainable Development Goal 3—Ensure healthy lives and promote wellbeing for all at all ages—and Goal 3A—Substantially increase the health workforce in developing countries—as well as the World Health Organization focus on noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) as one of the leading causes of preventable morbidity and related disability, Boston Scientific identified Project HOPE as a like-minded organization with a team currently working in South Africa to address these goals.

Beginning in 2016 through 2018, Boston Scientific collaborated with Project HOPE, a U.S.-based global health and humanitarian relief organization, to implement new screenings protocols in South Africa, a priority set by South Africa’s Ministry of Health. The project focused on creating standards for screening and care and on increasing the skills of local community health workers in order to host community-based screening events.

To date, the following results have been achieved:

The NCD Training Manual developed by Project HOPE, with a specific focus on diabetes and hypertension, is the first such training manual to be developed and adopted by local health officials in South Africa. Prior screening protocols were based on models for AIDS and Malaria, which did not adequately equip health care workers with the skills and tools needed to identify NCDs.
Project HOPE teams completed training of 363 Community Health Workers on these new Standard Operating Procedures for effective health screening of Diabetes and Hypertension in the two districts selected by the South Africa National Department of Health. In addition, 46 Nurses in West Rand District were trained in the summer of 2018. These newly trained nurses are now able to effectively support Community Health Workers in the execution of their duties.

Those trained by Project HOPE are now working with the Regional Training Center to determine how best to implement and roll out the training locally. These individuals will then train nurses and community health workers. Eventually, Project HOPE expects to reach 60,000 people who will receive screening and health services from newly trained community health workers in South Africa—a direct result of Boston Scientific’s funding.

Boston Scientific employees in South Africa worked closely with Project HOPE during the planning of events and stayed aligned with local community leaders and health officials. Project HOPE completed the training of trainers in the Gert Sibande and Dr. Kenneth Kaunda Districts. The National Department of Health has been present at Community Health Worker trainings and has recognized the new screening protocols developed by Project HOPE, which differ from the way HIV and malaria screenings have been managed, given the impact of NCDs across South Africa.

Coca-ColaProject:Project Last MileRegion:Southern Africa (South Africa, Lesotho, Mozambique, Malawi), East Africa (Tanzania), West and Central Africa (Nigeria, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Ghana)

If you can find a Coca-Cola product almost anywhere in Africa, why not life-saving medicines?

This is the challenge Coca-Cola’s Project Last Mile seeks to address.

Project Last Mile is a pioneering cross-sector partnership between The Global Fund, USAID, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and The Coca-Cola Company and its Foundation, which strengthens health systems and their supply chains across Africa.

Project Last Mile transfers Coca-Cola’s supply chain and marketing expertise to government Ministries of Health across Africa—building their capacity in these areas and improving the availability of life-saving medicines for the hardest to reach communities.

Project Last Mile operates under a progressive model for public-private partnerships. Rather than focusing solely on using private sector financial resources, as is traditional, it leverages the wealth of local understanding, experience, and expertise that the Coca-Cola network possesses.

In Mozambique, Project Last Mile is collaborating with the local government to deploy Coca-Cola’s route-to-market and delivery mapping experience in the challenging local terrain and has designed an improved distribution approach. This will enable the Ministry of Health to improve the efficiency of its medical warehouse and delivery fleet.

In Nigeria, Project Last Mile will use Coca-Cola’s cold-chain expertise to improve the uptime and sustainable management of the government’s vaccine coolers, enabling an improvement in immunization rates.

In Liberia, Project Last Mile is helping to strengthen the medical supply chain following the devastating impacts of the Ebola epidemic by leveraging and adapting Coca-Cola best practices in distribution and organizational development.

In South Africa, Project Last Mile is supporting the National Department of Health to revolutionize the distribution and collection of chronic medicines, particularly antiretrovirals treating HIV, for over 2 million people.

By transferring to African governments, health systems, communities, and citizens the same institutional strengths that have made Coca-Cola one of America’s most recognizable companies and one of the world’s most wide-reaching and enduring businesses of all time—Project Last Mile is providing the foundation needed for sustainable development to occur across the continent.

As of 2018, work has been completed in eight countries. Project Last Mile is currently active in Liberia, Mozambique, South Africa, and Swaziland, with pilot and scoping activities taking place in Nigeria, Sierra Leone, and Tanzania.

By 2020, Project Last Mile will have activated in 10 countries across Africa.

In December 2018, The Coca-Cola Company, through its partnership with (RED), will celebrate the 25th anniversary of the movie Philadelphia with a mini documentary highlighting progress made in the fight against HIV/AIDS since the film’s 1993 release.

The 25-minute featurette titled The Last Mile features interviews with Philadelphia cast members Tom Hanks, Denzel Washington and Mary Steenburgen, and screenwriter Ron Nyswaner, who reflect on the making of the film and how it helped shift cultural perceptions about HIV/AIDS from fear to compassion.

The final frame of the featurette, which was directed by Kim Snyder, will include a link to a donation page
at red.org/cocacola. Coca-Cola will match all contributions, up to $2 million.

To learn more about Project Last Mile, please visit www.projectlastmile.com

General Electric Project:Managed Equipment Services ProjectRegion:Continentwide

One hundred years ago, GE brought the first X-ray machine to Africa. Since then, Africa has continued to be an important region for GE in terms of opportunities and investment. GE’s footprint in Sub-Saharan Africa now consists of over 1,800 employees and revenues of over $2.4 billion dollars. GE is committed to supporting the continued and sustainable development of the African region with advanced infrastructure technologies, services, and solutions. Africa has broad needs that are critical for growth, such as an improved infrastructure and access to world-class technological solutions in key sectors.

In 2011, GE decided to renew its focus to meet Africa’s needs and established its regional headquarters in Nairobi, a testament to GE’s commitment to grow its presence in the region and beyond. The Nairobi office is now home to over 200 employees and provides GE with easy access to East Africa and the rest of the continent.

In May 2012, GE signed a landmark memorandum of understanding with the Kenya government to develop projects in key sectors such as power, rail, healthcare, aviation, training, and capacity building to deliver on the country’s Vision 2030 plan.

With its dedicated focus on creating solutions that drive sustainable health outcomes, GE Healthcare has directly partnered with several local and international organizations to bring better healthcare to all Africans.

Examples include:

Boosting primary care at 278 facilities across Kaduna State, Nigeria
Serving as an incubation hub for Africa with the state of the art GE Innovation Centre located in South Africa
Bringing innovative financing to healthcare via private equity funds
Nurturing a healthcare entrepreneur ecosystem with Standard Bank in South Africa

Managed Equipment Services Project

In 2013, the government of the Republic of Kenya committed itself to the rapid transfer of devolved functions to the counties. The senate approved a resolution to improve county capacity in the delivery of specialized healthcare services, to ensure equality of services across all counties. The Ministry of Health of the Republic of Kenya was mandated to build capacity to enable availability of critical specialized healthcare services in hospitals in each county.

Increasing Scale and Access, and Building Capacity

Under the Managed Equipment Services Program (MES), the Kenyan government selected GE Healthcare as one of its main partners in a seven-year initiative to provide Kenya’s population of 46 million with access to state-of-the-art radiology services across 98 Ministry of Health hospitals in Kenya’s 47 counties. GE Healthcare is responsible for the supply, installation, and maintenance of over 580 digital diagnostic imaging equipment across the country. Importantly, GE Healthcare launched the GE Training Institute in Nairobi; there, healthcare workers from across the country are trained and regularly retrained. By 2017, over 700 radiographers, radiologists, and biomedical engineers from across Kenya attended the institute.

New Business Models and Financing Mechanisms

The MES model allows the Kenyan government to budget healthcare expenditures over several years by deferring upfront capital outlay. This means that the Ministry of Health can assign critical funds to address the country’s most pressing healthcare challenges while also addressing the bigger picture and improving the wider healthcare system. The project represents one of the government’s flagship programs to deliver tangible benefit to people locally by decentralizing specialized healthcare services from national referral hospitals to a county level. The aim of this partnership is to increase access to affordable healthcare for all and to allow earlier diagnosis and treatment of various diseases.

Outcomes and Impact

In its second year, the MES program is already delivering tangible benefits, including improved access to specialist radiology training for medical staff, enhanced skill sets of healthcare workers, and better workflow efficiency. Local availability of previously nonexistent specialized diagnostic devices has led to higher efficiency in the patient continuum and a significant reduction in average scan time from analog to digital.

Increased equipment reliability and sustainability is another strength of this MES program. This is particularly important in Africa, where most healthcare systems have been negatively affected by so-called equipment dumping, whereby manufacturers push equipment sales without a sufficient mechanism for training, service, or preventive maintenance.

In addition, there are considerably larger numbers of patients visiting hospitals and a rise in the use of different types of radiology services (X-rays, ultrasound, and mammograms). For example, the installation of the latest digital mammography has enabled more than 30% of level-5 hospitals (regional centers providing specialized care including intensive care, life support, and specialist consultations) to offer in-house mammography exams for the first time, increasing capacity for screening for breast cancer, a leading killer in Kenya.

Moreover, patient referrals have fallen due to improved access to radiology services locally, with a 50% improvement in access to radiology services recorded across three pilot hospitals in the first five months after the installation of the new equipment. Costs of scans have also dropped, which has made specialized healthcare services more affordable and the health system stronger.

These early positive project outcomes have already triggered engagement and regional integration with other government ministries in East Africa (Tanzania and Uganda) and other African countries (Namibia, Côte D’Ivoire, Nigeria, Mozambique) for best practices on large-scale healthcare infrastructure development programs.

Clearly, our mission to transform Kenya’s healthcare system is still in its infancy within the wider context of the Kenyan government’s transformation plans, but already what has been achieved serves as a powerful illustration of how an established risk-sharing procurement model such as a private-public partnership can be adapted to create a new type of partnership—one that successfully addresses the healthcare challenges faced by governments and ministries of health.

Pfizer Foundation Project:AMPATH Oncology Breast Cancer Care ProgramCountry: Kenya

It has been estimated that in the next two decades, nearly three-quarters of newly diagnosed cancer will occur in low-income countries (LICs). Cancer is now the leading cause of premature death in Sub-Saharan Africa.

The Pfizer Foundation has launched a program portfolio aimed specifically at improving equitable access to oncology care and services globally. The program addresses capacity building and innovative health care models, with a specific focus on women’s cancers. Strategies to improve oncology care for women include strengthening the healthcare infrastructure through healthcare worker training and technical assistance and improving access to information, diagnostics, and care through community outreach and mobilization.

While building greater cancer care capabilities, these activities also demonstrate Pfizer’s commitment to the U.N. Sustainable Development Goals, specifically Goal 3 (Ensure healthy lives and promote wellbeing for all at all ages) and Goal 5 (Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls). Pfizer Foundation grants support a comprehensive and holistic approach to the prevention and treatment of breast cancer, helping Pfizer advance closer toward the United Nations target to reduce by one-third premature mortality due to noncommunicable diseases by the year 2030. It also aims to improve access to quality healthcare for women, recognizing that empowering women is vital to optimal health decision making in families and communities.

The leading cancers for women in Nairobi, Kenya, are breast cancer, at 51.7 diagnoses per 100,000 women, and cervical cancer, at 46.1 diagnoses per 100,000 women. The Pfizer Foundation supports a two-year program of the Academic Model Providing Access to Healthcare (AMPATH)’s Oncology Institute to improve services through the continuum of breast cancer care: cancer prevention, screening, early diagnostics, optimal treatment, palliative care, and survivorship care.

The program also aims to build capacity through a variety of approaches, including creating telemedicine and telepathology centers, developing a certificate training curriculum for healthcare providers in oncology and multidisciplinary training, and expanding a mobile screening unit to include breast screening. Moreover, AMPATH plans to train community health workers in clinical breast exam techniques and referral protocols and improve data collecting and sharing by establishing a cancer registry.

STANDARD CHARTER BANKProject:Seeing Is BelievingCountry: Kenya

In line with the company’s Here for Good brand promise, Standard Chartered Bank seeks to ensure that the financing it provides supports sustainable economic and social development in its communities. Standard Chartered has integrated sustainability into its business model, guiding the company’s activities from client services to community support.

Standard Chartered’s approach focuses on three areas:

Contributing to sustainable economic growth—supporting clients through Standard Chartered’s core business banking model
Being a responsible company—managing business and company operations to deliver long-term value for shareholders and society at large
Investing in communities—working with local communities to promote social and economic development

The Standard Chartered Group launched its Seeing Is Believing initiative in 2003 to help mitigate the devastating effects of avoidable blindness. This resulted from the realization that blindness was drastically affecting the economic well-being of individuals, families, and communities. This global initiative is a collaboration between Standard Chartered Bank and the International Association for Preventable Blindness. In Kenya, Seeing Is Believing is made possible by proceeds from Standard Chartered Nairobi Marathon registration, staff donations, and funding from the Standard Chartered Group. The initiative works with more than five community partners, company employees, clients, and supplier networks to combat avoidable blindness.

Through the initiative, Standard Chartered has heightened awareness of maintaining eye health in children. The company has also set up referral networks to identify and correctly diagnose children, ensured that the clinical infrastructure and human resources were in place to treat children with blindness and visual impairments, and provided support and educational opportunities to children who cannot be medically or surgically treated. Standard Chartered Group works with seven hospitals in Kenya to treat visual impairment and blindness.

Between 2013 and 2017, the initiative has:

Reached more than 6 million people
Performed 166,000 surgical interventions
Screened 175,000 people

Standard Chartered Bank is committed to supporting the fight against avoidable blindness and to raising $100 million globally by 2020 to further this goal.

UPSProject: Bringing Lifesaving Supplies to the Most Vulnerable, Using Drone TechnologyCountries: Rwanda and Tanzania

The UPS Foundation is committed to building stronger, more resilient communities around the world. UPS’s global reach and optimized network in more than 220 countries and territories gives the company the ability to provide aid when and where it is needed most.

One of the greatest challenges in the developing world is that of geography. The majority of people in some of the least developed countries live in rural areas that are difficult to access due to underdeveloped infrastructure and insufficient transportation. Too often, lifesaving medicine and emergency

supplies cannot be delivered to rural areas because of inadequate transportation, communication, and supply chain infrastructure—also known as the “last-mile” problem.

In Rwanda, 70% of the population lives in rural areas, and the leading cause of death for pregnant Rwandan women is postpartum hemorrhaging. Because blood needs to be stored and transported at specific temperatures, many transfusion clinics in the country are often short on supply when an emergency strikes. Given the terrain, roads are not always the answer.

In May 2016, UPS announced a partnership with Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, and Zipline, a California-based robotics company, to explore using drones to transform the way lifesaving medicines like blood and vaccines are delivered across the world.

In collaboration with the Rwandan government, the partnering organizations launched a project that uses drones for emergency and on-demand deliveries. Leveraging UPS’s unique logistics and supply chain expertise, the medical drone delivery network enables blood transfusion facilities in the western part of Rwanda to text emergency blood orders to the Zipline distribution center. Upon receipt, the Zipline center can deploy a “Zip” up to 150 kilometers roundtrip carrying 1.5 kilograms of blood—enough to save a person’s life. The fleet of Zips makes between 50 and 150 emergency flights a day to 12 facilities in western Rwanda, and orders are fulfilled in roughly 30 minutes or less.

Although this national drone network currently focuses on delivering blood, the plan is to expand the initiative to include emergency vaccines and other essential and lifesaving medicines. Rwanda’s drone delivery operation is expected to save thousands of lives over the next three years. Currently, UPS and its partners are working on expanding the delivery service to cover all of Rwanda and are in conversations with another government to bring the program to a second country in 2019.

PROCTOR & GAMBLEProjects: The P&G-Always UNESCO Program, Always Keeping Girls in School ProgramCountries: Nigeria, South Africa, Sub-Saharan Africa

Every day at P&G, we work to be a force for good and a force for growth.

Our aspiration is to make a positive impact on all our stakeholders, in each area of our citizenship work: Ethics & Corporate Responsibility, Community Impact, Diversity & Inclusion, Gender Equality, and Environmental Sustainability.

P&G has been in operation for over 180 years, and in the past 25 years, P&G brands have touched and improved consumers’ lives across Sub-Saharan Africa.

P&G has been a model investor, improving lives in Africa. We aspire to build a better world for all of us—inside and outside of P&G—free from gender bias and with equal voice and equal representation for women and men.

The P&G-Always UNESCO Program currently running in Nigeria is empowering 110,000 Nigerian girls and women with basic literacy and skills development through the use of information technology

Statistics from the Federal Ministry of Education, Nigeria, indicate that only 500,000 out of the 40 million adult illiterates are enrolled in adult learning classes; this leaves over 39 million who lack the opportunity to benefit from adult learning. In addition, there are 3.5 million school-aged children from nomadic ethnic backgrounds, and only 450,000 of them access any form of schooling. Among children 6–14 years old—who are supposed to access basic education—about 3.6 million of them are not attending school.

The P&G-Always UNESCO Program was developed to reinforce past efforts made by the Nigerian government. Since 2016, the program has trained 60,000 illiterate women and girls in low-performing junior secondary schools (in FCT and River States), imparting life skills through the use of ICTs.

In 2016, P&G expanded its supplier diversity efforts to include women-owned businesses in Nigeria and South Africa. It partnered with WEConnect International to launch the Women Entrepreneur Development Program. The goal was to create a transformational impact in P&G’s business community. We believe that to enhance the capability and confidence of women entrepreneurs, we must work with reputable women-focused NGOs like WEConnect. The program unites local women entrepreneurs and P&G leaders, who impart business strategies and skills and tailor the program to meet the needs of both countries. Through this initiative, we supported more than 100 women entrepreneurs, who will make a lasting impact on their communities.

UNESCO launched the second phase of the project in 2017, funded by P&G in Bauchi State, to empower an additional 50,000 illiterate women and girls in low-performing junior secondary schools, bringing the total number of graduates of the program to 110,000. The objective of the second phase is to make learning more accessible through the use of technology.

Since the launch of the Always Keeping Girls in School Program in 2006, more than 9 million feminine products have been distributed to more than 120,000 girls in Kenya alone, and 78% of schools have documented an improvement in girls’ attendance. In some parts of the world, 1 in 10 girls stays out of school three to five days every month when getting her period, and many girls drop out of school completely. Our Always brand has several other long-standing programs that support educating girls, especially as they enter puberty, across Sub-Saharan Africa.

The Always School program also provides girls in Nigeria with puberty education and free sanitary pads. The program has helped girls, teachers, and parents for more than 15 years by providing free educational resources and samples that help girls understand the changes they will go through during puberty—and how to cope with them. The program reaches more than 1 million girls and young women in Nigeria annually. The curriculum is also adapted for different contexts in light of varying cultural sensitivities around menstruation.

STANDARD CHARTER BANK
Project: Women in Technology Incubator Program
Countries: Kenya

In keeping with the company’s purpose of driving commerce and prosperity through unique diversity, Standard Chartered Bank Kenya has partnered with @iBizAfrica and Strathmore Business School to help women-led small-scale businesses through its Women in Technology Incubator initiative.

The key objective of the initiative is to help women entrepreneurs and business owners in Kenya use technology to grow their businesses, by creating Africa’s leading female tech-support program and connecting these women to technology. Another objective is to drive up the bank’s employee engagement by offering participants hands-on experience from staff members who give personal and business finance mentorship through the company’s employee volunteering program. Volunteers also offer expertise on idea formation, strategy formulation, and marketing, which are essential in moving businesses from incubation to sustainable ventures.

Standard Chartered’s Women in Technology Incubator program provides participants with training, mentorship, and seed funding. The program received more than 175 applications, and a panel of judges narrowed them down to 11 finalist teams. These teams will go through a 12-week incubation period, after which 5 final winners will be awarded $10,000 seed funding to invest in their businesses.

The launch in Kenya followed the success of a similar, New York–based program, which was sponsored by Standard Chartered and the Zahn Innovation Center, a hub of technology on the City College of New York campus that develops startups under the Women+Tech4NYC competition. This competition challenges students to use technology to create a startup that addresses a New York City problem. The franchise has established competitions built specifically to recruit women-led teams. The program also leverages staff skills for mentorship through the bank’s employee volunteering program. In Kenya, the bank has set aside 20 million Kenyan shillings (approximately $195,000) for capacity building for woman-owned small enterprises. This investment will be directed toward connecting women in business to technology.

Following in the footsteps of the New York City initiative, the Women in Technology Incubator program addresses the call for more diversity in technology and more opportunities for women to develop entrepreneurial and leadership expertise. The program helps drive the company’s global diversity and inclusion agenda. It is also instrumental in strengthening engagements with the Kenyan government and its Vision 2030 agenda while reinforcing Standard Chartered’s Here for Good commitment in Kenya.

Nelson, Jane. (2003).Economic Multipliers: Revisiting the core responsibility and contribution of business to development.The International Business Leaders Forum.
The U.S. Global Leadership Coalition. (2017). America’s Global Economic Leadership: A Strategic Return on U.S. Investments. Center for Strategic & International Studies. (2013). Our Shared Opportunity: A Vision for Global Prosperity. A report of the CSIS Executive Council on Development.
Three different frameworks for assessing a company’s broader development impact are those developed by Steward Redqueen; the Initiative for Global Development; and Oxfam’s Poverty Footprint model, which has been further developed with the UN Global Compact.
More than 90% of the participants are trained in person in over 900 towns and cities in 29 countries across Africa; over 700 trainers from 15 training partner organizations conduct the training.
Thirteen percent of small and medium businesses trained reported hiring at least two people each because of the program, 10% of job seekers reported getting a job within three months of training because of having attended the program, and 16% of job seekers reported starting their own businesses because of the training.

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