Poverty Footprint Study on how the Coca Cola - Oxfam America

Engage with NGOs and financial groups to discuss
providing microfinance to SMEs in the Coca-Cola/
SABMiller value chain, perhaps with a particular
focus on women.
Engage with Zambia Sugar, El Angel and Central
Izalco to explore providing technical assistance,
training and financing to sugar growers.
Women’s economic empowerment
The research demonstrated that women continue to
be excluded from many economic opportunities and
tend to dominate the large informal retail sectors in
both Zambia and El Salvador, where they run small
shops adjacent to or in their homes. As discussed
in the report, many women reported that they find
it difficult to grow their businesses due to a lack of
access to credit, particularly in Zambia.
In September 2010, The Coca-Cola Company
announced 5 by 20, an initiative to empower 5 million
women entrepreneurs in the Coca-Cola/SABMiller
value chain by 2020. The Company recognizes how
valuable women are to the Coca-Cola business
and has committed to finding ways to help them
grow their businesses. The Company will provide
opportunities for economic empowerment in an effort
to help women generate more income and begin to
move their families out of poverty. In addition, 5 by 20
will provide training and capacity building activities
and financing schemes so as to equip women for
the workplace and allow them to grow and sustain
their businesses. In light of this report, The Coca-
Cola Company will make a special effort to direct 5
by 20 efforts to empower women in Zambia and El
Salvador.
Our research showed that governments have a
crucial role to play in developing national goals
and strategies to assist women to become more
economically empowered, but the private sector can
play an important role in catalyzing these changes.
In light of this, the Company aims to build on the
business training it currently offers and leverage
initiatives to support more women in the value chain.
It is also recommended that both companies:
Make an increased effort to recruit women for
nontraditional and senior management jobs.
Consider ways to increase women’s access
to credit, taking into account the unique
circumstances women face in running businesses
in these communities.
Community access to water
Water has become a priority issue for many
development practitioners who recognize the
potentially devastating impact of water stress on
poor communities. Companies that depend on
water for their operations–such as The Coca-Cola
Company and SABMiller–also recognize that the
responsible use of water is a key business issue.
Both SABMiller and The Coca-Cola Company have
made international commitments to use and replace
water responsibly. Building on these commitments,
we recommend that both companies:
Publish independent analyses indicating the
safety of water discharged from the bottling plants
on a regular basis.
Encourage water-intensive suppliers to implement
best practice policies and practices on water.
Carry out a comprehensive analysis of water
impacts along the value chain in both countries.
Conduct analysis to ensure that water use does
not negatively impact local water availability, and
evaluate whether improved pricing for water may
address demand issues.
Advise other companies, the government and
the local community to collectively tackle water
pollution by reducing dumping and improving
clean-up of the San Antonio River in Nejapa.
What we have learned
The overall process leading to this report has been a
source of learning for all our organizations. We have
no doubt that civil society, government and business
can form strategic partnerships that leverage the
unique skills, resources and influence of each sector
and that these partnerships are vital to address
today’s development challenges effectively.
We found that in order to realize the potential of
our partnership, it was important to invest time and
energy in building trust among our organizations and
specifically across the project team which worked
directly on the initiative. We also required strong
leadership and a clear organizational mandate to
support our involvement in the collaboration and to
overcome the differences in our institutional cultures.
NGOs, such as Oxfam, are well positioned to provide
a “development perspective” on value chain impacts
and to draw attention to important social issues such
as poverty. The Oxfam poverty footprint methodology
provides an initial investigative step toward the
ultimate goal of increasing social benefits throughout
value chains. However, the poverty footprint analysis
alone cannot point to specific solutions to address
these multidimensional issues. To achieve systemic
change, the necessary strategic, operational and
policy changes must be devised by the private sector,
civil society and government working together.
The project confirmed our collective view that the
private sector can play a large role in contributing
to poverty alleviation. Companies, and particularly
multinational corporations, are uniquely positioned
to share business expertise, capacity and resources
to benefit communities in developing countries.
Furthermore, NGOs can use poverty footprinting to
better understand market impacts and opportunities
for people throughout different value chains, create
new platforms for stakeholder-driven change,
and improve transparency around private sector
community impacts.
Exploring the links between international business and poverty reduction 79