CARE International UK Private Sector Partnerships Report

UK Businesses Respond: CARE Partnerships During COVID-19

UK Businesses Respond: CARE Partnerships During COVID-19 1 UK Businesses Respond: CARE Partnerships During COVID-19

11 MARCH 2021 CARE was created in 1945 following the global catastrophe of World War II that had torn While we invite our partners to join CARE in this critical emergency response, we also want the world apart and required an almost complete reimagining of how individual citizens, to pause to reflect and share our appreciation for those who have helped us respond government and business could work together for a common good. With the delivery already. With this report, we celebrate and honour the contributions of UK companies to of the first CARE Packages in 1946, CARE’s legacy of solidarity, support and service was CARE’s COVID-19 emergency response. We have seen the power of collaboration time and created. Some of the products that were included in the original CARE Packages are again over the past 75 years, most recently in this past year. We remain deeply grateful for from legacy UK brands such as Cadbury’s, Bovril and Tetley , which are now owned the support – and for the trust – that our partners have provided to CARE over the years by companies that continue to support CARE to this day. Our history has never felt more and we appreciate the opportunity to continue our collaboration. relevant than in 2021, as CARE celebrates the 75th anniversary of the delivery of the first Laurie Lee CARE Package, while also working closely with our partners to address an unprecedented Chief Executive new international crisis. CARE International UK As the COVID-19 pandemic started to circle the globe, CARE responded immediately. Since then, CARE International UK has worked as part of the entire CARE to respond to the COVID-19 crisis in 69 of the 100 countries in which we work. CARE has directly helped 27 million people and our COVID-19 prevention messages have reached more than 200 million. We have provided immediate relief in the form of food, water and hygiene solutions, and more in some of the most hard-to-reach communities around the world. The arrival of COVID-19 in places like Yemen and Syria, where people were already experiencing protracted conflicts, and in regions where is impacting water, food, and other basic needs, the pandemic further amplified existing problems. One year on, the world has entered a new phase of this emergency. With the arrival of effective vaccines, CARE is again mobilising expertise, partners and resources to respond. CARE has launched a two-year FAST + FAIR vaccine initiative which will draw on more than 20 years of leadership in vaccine programming – dating back to polio eradication efforts CARE has directly helped 27 million people and our COVID-19 prevention – to ensure vaccine delivery for at least 100 million people. This will include direct impact “ messages have reached more than 200 million. for 60 million (mostly women), vaccine access for 275,000 frontline health workers who Laurie Lee might otherwise be excluded, and 40 million people reached through advocacy efforts. ” The FAST + FAIR programme will work in at least 12 countries to provide vaccine delivery, training, and more.

UK Businesses Respond: CARE Partnerships During COVID-19 2 Since 11 March 2020, when the World Health Organization declared COVID-19 a pandemic, and soon after when the UK entered its first lockdown, CARE International UK began its response to this global pandemic. First, CARE conducted both global and country-specific rapid gender analyses which immediately showed the devasting impact and setbacks facing women and girls. CARE’s Private Sector team knew that our corporate partners would want to continue their existing programmes but also to address some of the less visible problems raised by the crisis including the “shadow pandemic” of gender-based- violence that has emerged in the wake of the virus. In response to these vexing challenges, CARE heard again from our corporate partners that they were eager to help. Whether supporting CARE’s COVID-19 Emergency Response Fund to provide wherever it was most needed or directing funds to specific supply chain communities, our partners have provided essential resources to fight the pandemic and intersecting crises where the needs are greatest for the most vulnerable people. Throughout our COVID-19 response, CARE has continued to collaborate with our stakeholders through four key channels:

Through these varied partnerships – some existing and some created in response to the pandemic – we have seen first-hand the lasting power of collaboration and the potential to work together by ‘building forward’. While the challenges of the pandemic are staggering, the support from our partners in the UK and beyond has been generous. 1. Strategic partnerships through 3. Advisory services which combine our We know that together we can achieve our shared goals, and so much more. As we look which we provide our expertise and knowledge and network to advise ahead to the delivery of vaccines and beyond, let’s go deeper and further in addressing solutions across sectors to deliver and influence business; and not just the individual issues of gender inequality, the pandemic, the climate crisis shared value and impact; and social injustice, but also how these problems intersect and amplify one another. Business can play a unique role in COVID-19 recovery and we have a unique opportunity to correct imbalances and advance much-needed progress toward a more just and sustainable future. In the meantime, we appreciate the collaboration and commitment of our partners to driving change in communities around the world. Thank you for your support and we look forward to continuing to partner with business for a more just and gender- inclusive world. 2. Corporate fundraising so that 4. Multi-stakeholder partnerships which companies can engage with CARE and bring together institutional funders Laura Hawkesford support delivery of our programmes; and the private sector to create gender- Head of Private Sector Engagement inclusive and sustainable business models. CARE International UK

UK Businesses Respond: CARE Partnerships During COVID-19 3 Diageo

CARE and the global beverage company Diageo have collaborated since 2016 to “We are committed to championing inclusion and diversity within our business and our address barriers to gender inclusion throughout the Diageo value chain, creating communities, and have recently launched a series of targets as part of Society 2030: Spirit recommendations and building action for more gender-inclusive business models. This of Progress, our ten-year action plan to help create a more inclusive and sustainable work has extended to Diageo’s support of CARE’s COVID-19 Emergency Response Fund, world. Partnering with CARE is helping us strengthen our gender strategy within that and a pooled resource which enabled CARE to immediately deploy resources to meet the to better meet the needs of our employees, customers and those in the communities most critical in-country priorities. With support from Diageo and others, the Fund has in which we live and work. We are looking forward to continuing to work with CARE to reached people in 69 of the 100 countries where CARE works to meet critical needs. It has advance our shared visions”. provided clean water supplies to more than three million people, hygiene kits with crucial In addition to supporting CARE’s response to COVID-19, Diageo’s response has included supplies such as hand sanitiser and soap for 2.7 million people, and nutritious food for the donation of alcohol to manufacture more than 8 million bottles of hand sanitiser in more than two million people. The Fund has also supported community outreach to countries around the world that were experiencing shortages, a US$100 million recovery provide critical information about how to prevent COVID-19, as well as related challenges fund for the hospitality sector, and a community fund to support social justice in America, such as gender-based violence. helping black communities and businesses recover from COVID-19. “COVID-19 has had a devastating effect across the world, with a disproportionate impact on women and girls and those living in . These inequalities are not new, but we must all accelerate our response”, said Kate Gibson, Global Director, Diageo in Society.

UK Businesses Respond: CARE Partnerships During COVID-19 4 GSK

CARE has worked with pharmaceutical company GSK for a decade to strengthen frontline health worker networks and capacity in remote and underserved areas in , , , Cameroon, Chad, , , and Togo. In recent years, Bangladesh has experienced concurrent and compounding emergencies, including natural disasters such as seasonal flooding and humanitarian challenges such as the arrival of refugees from Myanmar. As many as 800,000 of the refugees are now in camps in Cox’s Bazar, where they face cramped and unsanitary conditions: 20% of residents lack access to clean water, a third of households in the camps lack access to soap, and an estimated 25% of people do not have latrines. CARE and GSK have worked together in Cox’s Bazar since November 2017, just a few months after the first refugees arrived from Myanmar. Together, CARE and GSK have built the capacity of health workers, establishing health clinics as well as door-to-door services to provide sexual and reproductive health services and referrals. Because these health systems were in place before the arrival of COVID-19 in the camps in March 2020, CARE was already established as a trusted service provider and able to respond rapidly and effectively to the virus. With support from GSK, the Cox’s Bazar programme has been delivering infection prevention and control interventions with the Rohingya community and strengthening the provision of emergency health services, while continuing to increase accessibility and uptake of quality sexual reproductive health, mental health, and psychosocial services and support.

5 IHG

The COVID-19 pandemic has created economic hardship for many industries, with travel cyclone, by providing emergency materials as well as the training and tools to rebuild and tourism expected to be hit particularly hard; the UN estimates the pandemic could homes. cost the industry more than US$1 trillion. In , CARE and IHG worked together to support the educational needs of girls from CARE UK and IHG Hotels & Resorts, the global hospitality company, have worked ten villages of District Nuh in the Haryana Province. In response to the disruption of together since 2011 to rapidly respond to emergencies such as hurricanes in more schooling caused by the pandemic, CARE India and IHG created temporary learning than ten countries around the world. Together, CARE and IHG have helped prepare the spaces in the villages to provide education, working with community ambassadors to communities where IHG employees live and work for disasters and also to create long- offer a safe space for learning and emotional well-being. In addition, thanks to IHG, term sustainable recovery when crises happen. CARE India provided digital learning materials for teachers on the socioemotional well- being of children. While the materials will initially be used for more than 2,000 students Despite the unprecedented socioeconomic difficulties caused by COVID-19, IHG and CARE and 500 parents this year, the curriculum could be used nationally to reach additional have continued to deliver life-saving responses to the pandemic. In 2020, CARE and IHG students and their families. provided essential COVID-19 prevention resources, such as personal protective equipment and essential hygiene items for almost 5,000 people in the Bogor district of , a COVID-19 hotspot located in a region that is also at high risk of severe flooding. In addition, CARE and IHG helped nearly 20,000 people in after a devastating

UK Businesses Respond: CARE Partnerships During COVID-19 6 Mondelēz International

Mondelēz International works with CARE in West through its Cocoa Life programme to create thriving cocoa farming communities in Ghana and Cote d’Ivoire and to make cocoa production a sustainable livelihood for farmers. When COVID-19 struck, the Mondelēz International Foundation quickly provided two urgent types of support to CARE’s COVID-19 humanitarian response. First, Mondelēz provided an early investment in CARE’s COVID-19 Emergency Response Fund, the largest such response effort in CARE’s history, to help communities around the world. To date, the Emergency Response Fund has reached more than 30 million people in 69 of the 100 countries in which CARE works around the world. Clean water supplies have reached 3.2 million people and hygiene kits, with crucial supplies such as soap, hand sanitiser, masks and sanitary napkins, have been provided for 2.7 million people. Additionally, nutritious food has been provided to more than two million people who faced the threat of malnutrition due to lockdowns or loss of income, and cash or vouchers were provided to 689,000 people to spend on their most urgent needs, while supporting local businesses. Mass media campaigns about prevention of the virus reached nearly 216 million people, with information on COVID-19 prevention and services. In addition, CARE has led community outreach efforts to engage nearly 14 million people in prevention education, as well as to answer questions and dispel rumours. Finally, as CARE places a special emphasis on ensuring that the most vulnerable people are protected and supported, CARE’s gender- based violence prevention and response efforts reached 2.3 million people. Furthermore, in 2020, a three-year project funded by the Mondelēz International Foundation in support of childhood food and nutrition access continued through the worst of the lockdown in Egypt, but was nearing the end of the funding cycle. In response to the crisis, the Foundation extended funds to ensure that the same households that participated in the programme received food and masks to carry them through the year. The households were trained in food hygiene practices and preparation of healthy meals, and also received cookbooks with healthy recipes. With this additional support, 1,000 households were able to apply their training to prepare healthy meals for their families at a time when the pandemic made it more challenging to access nutritious food. CARE distributed 1,000 boxes of staple food items, including lentils, beans, soybeans, chickpeas, curcuma, oats, molasses dates, pomegranate molasses, popcorn and black honey. Additionally, each household received four reusable cloth face masks.

7 Primark

As COVID-19 began to impact the garment industry, CARE was well-positioned to violence and COVID-19 prevention techniques, by disseminating leaflets and posters respond thanks to longstanding relationships with clothing companies in the UK, US and messaging via loudspeakers and holding awareness-raising sessions once factory and beyond, and strong partnerships with factories and suppliers in and Africa. work resumed, while in , research was conducted to identify support and referral CARE has supported 60 factories employing over 150,0000 people to implement good services related to gender-based violence in communities near these suppliers’ factories. practice policies, reporting and management systems to prevent and respond to sexual harassment. This project is great. We must all take responsibility to stop sexual Since 2019, CARE and Irish clothing retailer Primark have worked in partnership to harassment in our factory. Together we can do this . implement the ‘STOP’ sexual harassment prevention package in seven factories in “ Cambodia and Vietnam. The package includes tools such as a workplace policy, training Factory manager ” for staff and interactive sessions for worker engagement. As COVID-19 suddenly impacted the factories in which STOP is delivered, CARE and Primark immediately re-scoped the programme to address needs in the communities where the supported factory workers live. In Cambodia, we raised awareness of gender-based

UK Businesses Respond: CARE Partnerships During COVID-19 8 Twinings

For more than 300 years, Twinings has been producing tea for customers around the world. More recently, CARE UK and Twinings joined forces to support the needs of tea workers in and Malawi, who often have few opportunities for income diversity, with women and girls further marginalised by traditional gender roles, among other challenges. The arrival of COVID-19 in both countries amplified existing inequities and created new needs. In Sri Lanka, the fourth1 largest producer of tea in the world, Twinings is supporting the creation of Community Development Forums (CDFs) which are formal structures enabling tea workers, estate management and representatives to work together to break down barriers and help tea communities to achieve social and business benefits. With Twinings’ support, CARE is training workers to raise and resolve issues and is placing a special emphasis on and raising women’s voices. With the CDFs in place before COVID-19, the tea estates Twinings sources from in Sri Lanka were positioned to provide early assistance to tea communities. When the country entered a strict curfew in mid-March 2020, workers were suddenly faced with limited food supplies and significantly restricted movement. Twinings and CARE leveraged the CDFs to provide workers with emergency food rations and hygiene and sanitation supplies. Nearly 10,000 families on ten tea estates received emergency assistance to help them prepare for the onset of the pandemic. In Malawi, where CARE and Twinings piloted a similar CDF model programme (leveraging learnings from the Sri Lanka programme), CARE and Twinings provided tea workers with essential COVID-19 prevention as well as nutritional support. Restrictions caused by the pandemic started in Malawi in mid-April 2020, nearly a full month after the crisis emerged in Sri Lanka. CARE and Twinings identified that estate communities in Malawi were most in need of nutritional support. Because many tea pluckers have capacity to grow their own produce, 3,055 people received vegetables, local seeds, peas, maize, tomatoes and onions, to help ensure that they were able to feed their families and also to prepare for the spring planting season so they could harvest food later in the year. At the same time, Twinings’ support ensured that CARE was able to train local agents in COVID-19 preventive measures, provide the Malawian CDFs with handwashing facilities, and deliver community awareness materials to ensure local farmers and their families were informed about the situation and how to prevent the spread of the disease, indirectly reaching around 13,000 people.

1 http://teasrilanka.org/ UK Businesses Respond: CARE Partnerships During COVID-19 9 Unilever – Hygiene Behaviour Change Coalition

CARE is part of a public health behavioural change campaign partnership between Unilever maximum engagement with those we aim to reach. For example, CARE is using familiar and the UK’s Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) under the Hygiene games, such as Snakes and Ladders, which have been adapted by our partners to include Behaviour Change Coalition (HBCC). This £100 million initiative is aimed at curbing the relevant health information. In addition, in collaboration with Sesame Workshop, CARE spread of COVID-19 among the world’s most vulnerable populations through the promotion is using Sesame Street videos featuring beloved characters to teach handwashing skills of handwashing and good hygiene. The overall programme is expected to reach more than to young children in conflict settings such as Northeast Syria. Through HBCC, CARE is also one billion people around the world, raising awareness and changing behaviour, through reaching mothers with specialised information through WhatsApp groups and community a range of interventions including providing essential hygiene products, public health and centres. Finally, to reach the general public, CARE is providing information through a handwashing behavioural change, and targeted mass media campaigns. varied range of easily accessible communications including TV and radio shows, poems, songs, and cartoons, as well as via sign language advertisements on television and social As part of HBCC, CARE is working to de-stigmatize the virus in some of the most challenging media to ensure the most vulnerable communities are reached with the tips and tools and remote settings in Rwanda, Zimbabwe, , Syria and Jordan, including the Azraq they need to stay safe from COVID-19. refugee camp, where thousands of people live in close quarters and preventing disease outbreaks is essential. CARE places a special emphasis on reaching women and girls who are often amongst the most vulnerable. CARE has developed creative hygiene and sanitation messaging that is tailored for

UK Businesses Respond: CARE Partnerships During COVID-19 10 Unilever – Shakti

Starting in 2018, CARE and Unilever began delivering skills training and supporting opportunities and implementing cash transfers for the most vulnerable women. In community participation to help a cohort of women in become successful addition, CARE will work with the Shakti entrepreneurs to improve household nutrition entrepreneurs within Unilever’s Shakti sales channel. In 2020, the partnership was and economic security, by introducing family and community gardens and also providing expanded to focus on women’s safety and skills training for Shakti women in training on low-cost, high-nutrition crops. additional markets. CARE and Unilever’s activities within the Shakti communities in Guatemala have enabled As COVID-19 spread around the world in 2020 and prevented Shakti entrepreneurs from immediate response and support to households dealing with the impacts of COVID-19 in conducting sales, Unilever provided immediate support to 100 of the most financially the short term, while supporting entrepreneurs to diversify their livelihoods and increase insecure Shakti households in the CARE programme in Guatemala. Through CARE, Unilever their knowledge for greater resilience to economic shocks in the future. supported the women entrepreneurs and their families with handwashing and hygiene information, as well as essential products such as soap, buckets, menstrual products and staple foods. Under the collaboration in 2021, CARE will support the financial recovery and future resilience of the Shakti entrepreneurs. This will include helping to identify new economic

UK Businesses Respond: CARE Partnerships During COVID-19 11 Vulnerable Supply Chains Facility

CARE is participating in the Vulnerable Supply Chains Facility (VSCF) to increase healthcare to low-income urban women who work in the garment industry in Bangladesh. CARE International UK and CARE Bangladesh joined forces with Marks & Spencer through the VSCF which is a rapid COVID-19 response fund to strengthen global supply chains that have been hit particularly hard by the pandemic. The VSCF, which was set up by the UK Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) and managed by Mott MacDonald Ltd, partners with 20 UK and international retailers and brands, and seven not-for-profit organisations, supporting more than 100 suppliers across seven countries to provide economic, social and health benefits to around one million people. In Bangladesh, women and girls bear the burden of the crisis while negative gender norms – which already limit women’s decision-making around health access – are compounded. Furthermore, CARE’s rapid gender assessment showed that because of the pandemic there is an increased risk that all forms of gender-based violence (GBV) will increase during the COVID-19 pandemic which will create more demand and greater need for support and access to specialist services. The VSCF is working to strengthen urban primary healthcare systems in 25 garment factories and across fifteen communities. The programme will provide as many as 80,000 factory workers, management and medical teams, as well as government frontline health workers and community members with information about COVID-19, gender-based violence and wider health for women. The programme will strengthen community and factory approaches to addressing GBV in the context of COVID-19 and will help local leadership to manage community programmes in sexual and reproductive health, water and sanitation and hygiene infrastructure. Health Access and Linkage Opportunities for Workers Plus (HALOW+) project, a five-year The programme will use innovative technologies such as mobile apps, e-stations and programme created in 2015 with GSK, M&S and CARE which aided 50,000 garment workers evening satellite health clinics also to help thousands of women garment workers to in Bangladesh. access health services. This, in turn, will help reduce vulnerability to the health crisis, as well as increase access to and use of primary health services for the factory workers and community members. CARE and its partners have utilised this COVID-19 emergency response health intervention on the successful approach and infrastructure of CARE Bangladesh’s

UK Businesses Respond: CARE Partnerships During COVID-19 12 About CARE

CARE International works around the globe to save lives, defeat poverty and achieve social justice. We put women and girls in the centre because we know that we cannot overcome poverty until all people have equal rights and opportunities. To learn more, visit www.careinternational.org.uk.

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