The coronavirus pandemic is having a particularly serious impact on girls and young women and threatens to turn into a backlash for equal rights and female empowerment.
As part of Beiersdorf's global EUR50 million aid program 'Care Beyond Skin', which was launched in March 2020, vulnerable girls and young women will receive additional funding. Ten projects in nine countries across Africa and Latin America will now obtain extensive support via two long-term partnerships with the non-governmental organizations (NGOs) Plan International and CARE. The cooperation with the two NGOs began in 2020 and is now being expanded to reach and improve the lives of more than 250,000 people by 2023, contributing to the Sustainable Development Goals of the UN (SDGs) No. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 81.
'Through our global partnerships with Plan International and CARE, we are stepping up our social engagement and setting a long-term focus on girls' empowerment. Adolescent girls are particularly at risk of being affected by the secondary impacts of the COVID-19 outbreak. We want to create a positive impact for girls and young women in Latin America and Africa and I am confident we will achieve this with these two strong partners at our side. Deriving from our global 'Care Beyond Skin' aid program, we now 'Care Beyond Skin by Empowering Girls',' states Stefan De Loecker, Chief Executive Officer of Beiersdorf AG.
'Empowering Girls' is the mission
Beiersdorf's mission to empower girls contributes to the company's 'Care Beyond Skin' sustainability agenda, which is being anchored in the 'For an Inclusive Society' focus field. This commitment and ambition match perfectly with what both NGOs are striving to achieve. Together, the partners will address the socio-economic consequences of the crisis and aim to bring about lasting systemic change. The pandemic is about to create a major backlash to the empowerment of girls and threatens to reverse the progress that has been made in the past few decades. Therefore COVID-19 could become a catalyst for inequality. Girls and young women are particularly affected by school closures, a lack of hygiene standards and limited access to health services. Staying at home can therefore mean more violence, more unpaid (care) work and less access to education. By empowering girls, Beiersdorf is investing in a future of gender equality and human rights.
Beiersdorf and Plan International to promote education and protection
Beiersdorf's partnership with Plan International was established in 2020. Since last October projects are being supported in Colombia, Ecuador and Brazil. These aim to reach 19,371 people directly and 40,048 indirectly. From February 2021 onwards, the cooperation will be extended to Kenya, Ghana, and Nigeria, and these aims to reach 33,470 people directly and 42,400 indirectly by 2023. Plan International and Beiersdorf will foster inclusive quality education and promote protective environments for girls and young women during the pandemic and beyond. The COVID-19 pandemic is currently preventing millions of girls from attending school, not only depriving them from exercising their right to education, but also exposing them to a higher risk of intra-family violence and sexual abuse.
Maike Rottger, CEO of Plan International: 'For the female population, the COVID-19 crisis risks destroying the tangible opportunity to lead a self-determined life. Measures to contain the pandemic must focus on their needs, health, security and well-being. Together with Beiersdorf, we have a chance to give many young women and their families a future and make a real difference.'
Beiersdorf and CARE to support health services and economic resilience
At the start of 2021, Beiersdorf is launching its partnership with CARE. The projects to be supported will focus on improving the access to equitable and qualitative health services for girls, women, and their communities. Additionally, the projects will strengthen their economic resilience against the social-economic impacts of COVID-19. By supporting health care facilities and training health care workers, CARE will improve the health and well-being of these vulnerable groups. The projects will operate in Kenya, Ethiopia, Somalia, and Sudan and aim to reach 33,000 directly and approximately 97,000 indirectly by 2022.
Karl-Otto Zentel, CEO of CARE: 'Past epidemics have shown that health facilities tend to deprioritise maternal health services and women don't always have a voice to make their needs heard. A shutdown of services can therefore cause more deaths than the epidemic itself. We are very grateful to be working with Beiersdorf to protect women and their children in these times of crisis, to ensure adequate health care and to offer woman opportunities to earn money and feed their families.'
About CARE
Founded in 1945, CARE is a leading humanitarian organization fighting global poverty and providing lifesaving assistance in emergencies. CARE places special focus on working alongside poor girls and women because, equipped with the proper resources, they have the power to help lift whole families and entire communities out of poverty. Last year, CARE worked in over 100 countries around the world to assist more than 92 million people improve basic health and education, fight hunger, increase access to clean water and sanitation, expand economic opportunity, confront climate change, and recover from disasters.
About Plan International
Plan International is an independent organization for development cooperation and humanitarian aid. We believe that girls and boys worldwide must have equal rights and opportunities and be able to actively shape their future. In order to achieve this, we carry out sustainable community development projects efficiently and transparently in our partner countries and react rapidly to emergencies and disasters that threaten the lives of children. We work together with children, youths, supporters and partners of all genders to achieve our global aim in more than 75 countries: to transform the lives of 100 million girls so that they are able to learn, lead, decide and thrive. The sustainable development goals of the United Nations reinforce our commitment.
1 SDG 1'No Poverty', SDG 2 'Zero Hunger', SDG 3 'Good Health & Well-Being', SDG 4 'Quality Education', SDG 5 'Gender Equality', SDG 8 'Decent Work and Economic Growth'. More information about the Sustainable Development Goals can be found at https://sdgs.un.org/goals.
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