Creating opportunities for women entrepreneurs and communities
Our programmes aims to empower women to play a greater role in the economy and to have the skills and resources to build a better future for themselves.
We recognise that creating long-term value for the communities we work with is essential.
One of the key ways in which we do this is through our investment in long-term, actively managed programmes that empower people and increase their access to opportunity: and we want to make sure that we are making a contribution in the areas that matter.
We've listened to our stakeholders and analysed our impacts. As a result we've identified three development areas where we can have a positive impact.
We have a long-standing commitment to giving people opportunities through skills, education and enterprise. Our approach has evolved over the years, looking increasingly at our entire value chain – from providing vocational skills in the hospitality industry in Latin America, Asia, and Europe, to working with smallholder farmers in Africa to increase their yields.
Our Learning for Life programme offers training and skills in key areas related to our industry and value chain, such as hospitality, retail, entrepreneurship and bartending, offering disadvantaged people a genuine opportunity to gain employment and become active, respected contributors to their communities.
Our farmer empowerment programmes build on existing partnerships with suppliers and farmers by providing farmers with access to training, knowledge and technology to improve the productivity and sustainability of their farms.
One of the most effective ways to increase opportunities for individuals and whole communities is by improving people's health and wellbeing. Improving water infrastructure and sanitation is a key element of this and is a focus of our Water Blueprint, which defines our commitment to an integrated strategy for managing our impact on water.
Our Water of Life programme has reached more than 10 million people in 21 countries through more than 220 projects, including boreholes, wells, rainwater harvesting and domestic filtration devices.
And because collaboration is essential to the success of water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) programmes, we continue to work with others on the global water and sanitation crisis, investing principally in countries where we operate or source agricultural raw materials. We also ensure that all employees in operations that are directly under our control have access to adequate WASH facilities, and we were the first alcohol beverage company to join the World Business Council for Sustainable Development WASH@Work Place Pledge.
When women have access to education and learning, their empowerment creates a powerful ripple effect that positively impacts the community around them. Our focus on women’s empowerment reflects the importance women play in economic development and our goals on diversity, equality and inclusive societies.
We have set a goal to empower women through opportunities to learn and develop skills to help them influence society, the economy and our business. We are committed to workplace diversity for our own business, as well as growing the talents, skills and capability of the women who work in our wider value chain.
Our female empowerment programme focus on four key areas:
We are proud to be the first alcohol beverage company to sign the UN Women’s Empowerment Principles.
Our impact has been enhanced by our strategic partnership with CARE International UK, which works to address the root causes of gender inequality in our value chain through research, programming and advocacy.
We measure our progress in these three development areas against the following positive impacts:
Our sustainability and responsibility targets for 2020 reflect our commitment and ambition to build thriving communities. Our Annual Report and Sustainability and Responsibility Performance Addendum provide more information on how we're doing against our targets.
Our programmes aims to empower women to play a greater role in the economy and to have the skills and resources to build a better future for themselves.
We know that the challenges faced by our communities will vary, given our global footprint. So we’ve developed a strategy that allows our businesses to work with their local communities and partners on elements of any or all of our three development areas, according to which are considered most material locally.
We also contribute to local charitable causes and disaster relief, particularly in regions where employees and operations are directly affected.
Employees from across the business give their own time and money to such causes, which may also receive contributions from Diageo. Moreover, many of our brands run programmes to raise funds for worthwhile causes, whether in response to natural disasters or to support wider charitable campaigns.
In June 2020, we launched a new global programme, ‘Raising the Bar’, to help pubs and bars recover from the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic. We are providing $100 million to support the recovery of major hospitality centres. The money will pay for the equipment neighbourhood pubs and bars need to enable them to re-open safely. Of this fund, $20 million will go to Black communities in the United States particularly affected by the pandemic.
Formal permission for plans to create a global flagship visitor experience for Johnnie Walker have been granted by The City of Edinburgh Council Planning Committee.
Ahead of the highly-anticipated return of Game of Thrones this April, we can raise a glass to the Game of Thrones Single Malt Scotch Whisky Collection as it officially hits stores across certain European countries.