People in Central and West Africa are benefiting from career and financial independence through Nestlé’s ‘My Own Business’ (MYOWBU) and pushcart schemes.
The initiatives, led by the company’s out-of-home business Nestlé Professional, are helping to provide thousands of Africans with an opportunity to head their own street-vending business, and employ and manage street vendors.
Nestlé’s efforts to implement employment schemes across the region highlight the importance of the United Nation’s International Day for the Eradication of Poverty. This year’s theme focuses on how important it is to recognise and address the humiliation and exclusion endured by many people living in poverty.
According to the United Nations, most of the world’s poorest people live in Sub-Saharan Africa and Southern Asia. The UN Sustainable Development Goal 1 aims to “end poverty in all its forms everywhere.”
Nestlé aims to address this goal as part of its 39 pledges highlighted in the Nestlé CWAR – Nestlé in Society Report 2015 (English PDF) that covers nutrition, water, rural development, environmental sustainability and compliance, which it aims to fulfil by 2020 or earlier.