H&M Foundation supports UNICEF, WaterAid and CARE with SEK 180 million

Press releases

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.