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Supporting UNICEF, WaterAid and CARE with SEK 180 million

With the aim of achieving long-lasting improvements in the areas of education, clean water and strengthening women, the H&M Foundation initiated three Global Programs, one each with UNICEF, WaterAid and CARE. These three programs for change started in February 2014 and the organizations received a total of SEK 180 million over a three-year period.

The global programs aimed to drive change within each focus area by supporting new policies and thereby help create long-lasting improvements.

“I congratulate the H&M Foundation for choosing to support programs in three areas that are critical to sustainable development. The donation can contribute to big breakthroughs in each area.”

Professor Jeffrey D. Sachs – Director, Earth Institute, Columbia University and Special Advisor to United Nations Secretary-General on the Millennium Development Goals

Investing in children’s early education and development

The aim of the education program, managed by UNICEF, was to place early childhood development on the global agenda so that more children achieve their full developmental potential. The goal was that by 2017 73,600 children from the most vulnerable groups, attended preschool education and thus were more prepared for learning.

Ly Thi Kim Ngoc, 5, and other students engage in role play at Van Giao Kindergarten, Tinh Bien District, An Giang province, Vietnam. Ngoc and the other children come from Vietnam’s Khmer ethnic minority.

Investing in clean water and sanitation in schools

The global program on clean water, run by WaterAid, will aimed to change the lives of 250,000 school children by ensuring their access to safe water, sanitation and hygiene by 2017. The program also sought to influence policies at national level and advocate for universal access to water and sanitation in the new global development framework.

Mumtaz Ali (5) washes his hands using water from a newly installed WaterAid supported WASH facilities Government primary school in Ahmad Khan Jamali village in Badin district, Sindh Province, Pakistan.

Investing in women’s economic empowerment

The global program for change with CARE aimed to focus on empowering women in poor communities economically and to inspire and offer advice on policy changes needed worldwide to allow women’s full participation in all walks of life. By 2017, the goal was for 100,000 women in developing countries to have access to tools, knowledge, skills or seed capital, enabling them to start or expand small enterprises in order to empower them economically.

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Global Program for Education

Children who experience love, proper nutrition and protection in a stimulating environment during early childhood become resilient, learn effectively and can help build strong, safe communities and economies when they reach adulthood. Together with UNICEF, the H&M Foundation ran a global program over six years to invest in a better future for the most vulnerable children through early education and care. A total of 288,000 young children, parents, teachers, and other relevant influencers did directly benefit from the programme.
Boy in Pakistan washing his hands
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Global Program for Water

Across the world, women are forced to waste precious time walking long distances to collect dirty water. Girls are dropping out of school because there are no  private toilets, and young children are not surviving to see their fifth birthday because of preventable diseases. The lack of clean drinking water and functioning toilets affects the lives of millions of people. More than 10% of the world’s population still live without safe water to drink and must drink water that can make them sick, and one in three live without a decent toilet. In the Global Program for Water, the H&M Foundation together with WaterAid, worked to change this.
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Global Program for Equality

Women and girls around the world are disproportionately affected by poverty and discrimination. In all regions, women spend at least twice as much time as men on unpaid domestic work, but are often not allowed to make decisions that affect their own lives. Women from the poorest communities worldwide reveal enormous potential. Despite difficult circumstances, they can successfully change their own – and their family’s – future. Through H&M Foundation’s global program with CARE, almost 270,000 women have been supported. The success of the women has been astounding, with their daily enterprise earnings increasing by an average of 91% across all countries.