Hanoi, 10th October 2023 – The PepsiCo Foundation, the philanthropic arm of one of the world’s leading food and beverage companies, today announced the expansion of the She Feeds the World program, in partnership with CARE International in Vietnam. With a USD 1.1 million investment, the program will work with National Agricultural Extension Center (NAEC), Partnership for Sustainable Agriculture in Vietnam (PSAV), and Community Development Center (CDC) to support more than 22,000 farmers in Dak Lak and Gia Lai, 60% of whom are women, to improve their livelihood. Committed to accelerating real and sustainable change, the program aims to improve food security and tackle gender inequality in the agriculture sector by providing small-scale women farmers with education, productive resources, and economic support to help them increase their crop yields and incomes.
Since 2019, the PepsiCo Foundation has partnered with CARE, a global poverty-fighting organization, on the She Feeds the World program. She Feeds the World is a $18.2 million multi-year initiative that aims to improve the food security and nutrition of poor rural households, with a strong emphasis on women small-scale producers. The program works directly with women to build their skills and confidence in sustainable agriculture practices, market engagement, gender equality, and food and nutrition security, aiming to reach five million women farmers.
With expertise in food systems and commitment to addressing global inequities, the PepsiCo Foundation and CARE are uniquely positioned to foster change in food security and agriculture at scale. The program has been active in Uganda, Peru, Egypt, Thailand Vietnam, India, Pakistan, and Colombia. Each program is tailored to meet the unique needs of the local community through work with women farmers, local nonprofits, industry stakeholders, and suppliers.
“With PepsiCo Foundation’s unique position in the global food system, we are committed to driving sustainable, scalable change,” said C.D. Glin, President of PepsiCo Foundation and Global Head of Philanthropy, PepsiCo. “The Foundation is eager to expand She Feeds the World, in partnership with CARE, to empower more women farmers, develop sustainable farming practices, and redefine gender norms in agriculture.”
Women farmers account for more than half of all agricultural labor in developing countries and it’s the same context in Vietnam with 52% of women engaging in agriculture. However, gender inequality is pervasive. Despite their central role, these women are systemically denied equal access to proper resources and are often excluded from training designed to support farmers, which reduces women farmers’ productivity by 30 percent.
Research shows that if female farmers had the same access to resources as men, they could increase yields on their farms by 20–30 percent. It’s estimated that closing the gender-based gap in agriculture and increasing the yield of women farmers could potentially reduce the number of hungry people in the world by up to 150 million.
By September 2023, SFtW already supported 3,136 people to improve sustainable agricultural practices, access & control over productive resources as well as access to the market. The project has changed the sustainable practices of more than 700 ethnic minority farmers, including the use of water dripping systems, a better fertilization plan with the use of organic fertilizers, etc., leading to the increase of productivity by 10% and a reduction of water in production by 20%. The project also brokers 13.5ha of land on contracted farming with the private sector for potato farming. The project also connects with a textile company to pilot the new processing model of pineapple leaves to produce textiles for a higher income through the connection with the pineapple textile company. This potentially helps to process at least 750 tons of pineapple leaves/year, equivalent to 1.3 billion/year, creating additional income for pineapple farmers by 20% and utilizing the pineapple leftover for fertilization and animal feeds. Through all the interventions that engage female farmers, 65 women have improved their leadership as group leaders in regular group meetings and activities
With a unique role as the government partner in this initiative, NAEC and PSAV can bring in diverse stakeholders to discuss, share, and replicate successful models that promote sustainable agriculture, women’s leadership, and market linkage. “Vietnam’s agricultural extension is currently undergoing a renewal phase, with a focus on enhancing the capabilities of farmers to apply appropriate technologies in production based on various farmer organizations such as cooperatives and other forms of organizations, with special attention to gender mainstreaming in agricultural extension activities”, Dr. Le Quoc Thanh – Director of the National Agricultural Extension Center.
Ms. Le Kim Dung, Country Director of CARE International in Vietnam shared: “Sustainable agriculture protects and enhances natural resources and at the same time it is driven by inclusive and accountable institutions and policies. CARE looks to promote sustainable social and economic policies that prioritize gender equality through in program in collaboration with PepsiCo in Vietnam because we do believe that sustainability is impossible without tackling gender-based discrimination.”
The PepsiCo Foundation is CARE’s largest private-sector donor in this initiative to date. This partnership aligns with PepsiCo’s broader effort to empower women in its own agricultural supply chain through investment in its Sustainable Farming Program, which is currently active in 38 countries, and other multisector agricultural programs that have the potential to achieve systemic change at scale.
Each of these initiatives supports PepsiCo Positive (PEP+), the company’s strategic, end-to-end business transformation that puts sustainability and people at the center of how the company will create growth and value. PEP+ goals and execution of PepsiCo’s sustainability programs in Vietnam will support the Government in achieving the ambitious objectives of Vietnam’s Green Growth Strategy. Specifically, She Feeds the World contributes to Positive Agriculture, one pillar of the pep+ agenda which aims to source crops and ingredients in a way that accelerates regenerative agriculture and strengthens farming communities. This includes goals to, by 2030, spread the adoption of regenerative farming practices across 7 million acres, improve the livelihoods of more than 250,000 people in its agricultural supply chain, and sustainably source 100% of its key ingredients.
For more information about She Feeds the World visit www.pepsicofoundation.com and www.care.org.vn. For more information about pep+ visit here.
About PepsiCo
PepsiCo products are enjoyed by consumers more than one billion times a day in more than 200 countries and territories around the world. PepsiCo generated more than $63 billion in net revenue in 2017, driven by a complementary food and beverage portfolio that includes Frito-Lay, Gatorade, Pepsi-Cola, Quaker, and Tropicana. PepsiCo’s product portfolio includes a wide range of enjoyable foods and beverages, including 22 brands that generate more than $1 billion each in estimated annual retail sales.
At the heart of PepsiCo is Performance with Purpose – our fundamental belief that the success of our company is inextricably linked to the sustainability of the world around us. We believe that continuously improving the products we sell, operating responsibly to protect our planet, and empowering people around the world enable PepsiCo to run a successful global company that creates long-term value for society and our shareholders. For more information, please visit www.pepsico.com.
About the PepsiCo Foundation
The PepsiCo Foundation, the philanthropic arm of PepsiCo, invests in the essential elements of a sustainable food system with a mission to support thriving communities. Working with non-profits and experts around the globe, we’re focused on helping communities obtain access to food security, safe water, and economic opportunity. We strive for tangible impact in the places where we live and work—collaborating with industry peers, local and international organizations, and our employees to affect large-scale change on the issues that matter to us and are of global importance. Learn more at www.pepsicofoundation.com.
About CARE
Founded in 1945 with the creation of the CARE Package®, CARE is a leading humanitarian organization fighting global poverty. CARE places special focus on working alongside women and girls because, equipped with the proper resources, they have the power to lift whole families and entire communities out of poverty. That’s why women and girls are at the heart of CARE’s community-based efforts to confront hunger, ensure nutrition and food security for all, improve education and health, create economic opportunity, and respond to emergencies. In 2022, CARE worked in 111 countries and reached more than 174 million people around the world.
CARE International in Vietnam (CVN) has actively collaborated with various Vietnamese organizations and counterparts in the past 30 years in more than 300 projects. CVN realizes that keys to equal development achievements are interventions to address deeply rooted, underlying structural causes of poverty, social injustice, and gender inequality that pull part of the population out of the development process and make them vulnerable.
CVN’s long-term objective is that poor and marginalized ethnic minority and urban people of all genders, particularly women, equitably benefit from development.
For more information about the organization, please visit www.care.org.vn
About The National Agricultural Extension Center
The National Agricultural Extension Center (NAEC) is the agency of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD) responsible for state management implementation of agricultural extension activities in the fields of agriculture, forestry, fisheries, and other agricultural and rural development activities. NAEC works closely with a nationwide network of extension centers at the provincial level.
About Partnership for Sustainable Agriculture in Vietnam
PSAV was established in 2010 under the “New Vision for Agriculture 2020” approach to the 20-20-20 objective, which is a 20% increase in productivity, 20% reduction in poverty, and 20% reduction in emissions. PSAV focuses on linking actors in the agricultural sector to share experiences and collaborate on the value chain development of key agricultural commodities in Vietnam in the form of a Public-Private Partnership (PPP). Up to date, PSAV has eight PPP Task Forces (TF), including Coffee, Tea, Vegetables and Fruits, Fisheries, Rice, Spices and Pepper, Livestock, and Agro-Chemicals, which are formed and operated with the participation of 120 organizations, including government agencies, companies, industry associations, research institutes, international and non-governmental organizations.