As part of the Unilever Sustainable Living Plan and in contribution towards the Sustainable Development Goals and the ambition outlined by the updated Every Woman Child Global Strategy for Women's, Children's and Adolescents' Health (2016-2030), BD committed to help more than a billion people to improve their health and hygiene, to help reduce child mortality and the incidence of life-threatening diseases such as diarrhoea and pneumonia. By the end of 2019, we surpassed this target, reaching over 1.3 billion people through our health and hygiene initiatives covering handwashing, oral health and self-esteem: 1.07 billion people were reached with Lifebuoy and handwashing promotion efforts, over 28 million with improved access to a toilet; over 102 million with our oral care brands; over 60 million through Dove selfesteem programmes; over 5 million through Vaseline’s Healing Project and 55 million with safe drinking water from Pureit. Pureit also provided 114 billion litres of safe drinking water by the end of 2019.
We are also working to improve opportunities for women; economically empowering women has a transformative effect on entire families and communities, helping to lift them out of poverty. In partnership with others, by 2019 we had enabled over 2.3M women to access initiatives aiming to promote their safety, develop their skills or expand their opportunities. To protect rights, in December 2018 A Global Women’s Safety Framework in Rural Spaces was published. This ground breaking guidance was created by UN Women, with our support. In 2019, we published Implementation Guidance to facilitate wider take-up of the Framework. Increasing agricultural yields and securing our supplies can be better achieved if women have fair and equal rights and access to skills and opportunities.
- By 2020, our Lifebuoy soap brand aims to improve the handwashing behaviour of 1 billion people in subSaharan Africa, South Asia and Latin America, including school children and mothers with newborns. Handwashing with soap reduces diarrhoeal disease and pneumonia – the world’s two leading causes of deaths in under-5s.
- We are also working to reduce diarrhoeal disease by improving access to clean drinking water and basic sanitation. By 2020, we aim to provide 150 billion litres of safe drinking water through our Pureit filtration devices – while our Domestos brand will help contribute to Unilever’s target to help 25 million people gain access to a toilet by promoting the benefits of clean toilets and making them more accessible.
- Unilever believes that by working with partners such as Oxfam, Save the Children, the World Food Programme, Population Services International and UNICEF we can together achieve our goals. We will reach millions of children in the poorest communities in sub-Saharan Africa, South Asia and Latin America with life-saving nutrition, sanitation and health interventions.
