The Business in the Community International Award identifies examples of how businesses are helping to tackle global poverty and whether using microfinance models or the power of the brand through cause related marketing, Citigroup and Redbush Tea Company win for their different responsible business programmes supporting global communities
Citi won Business in the Community’s International Award for a Large Business for its microfinance programme which has funded 29 microfinance institutions in 16 countries, having a direct outreach of more than 330,000 loans to micro-entrepreneurs, approximately 84% of whom are women.
“With this entry, Citgroup demonstrates that microfinance is embedded in the core business, with strong senior leadership and ambition. Through strategic partnerships and a clear sense of social purpose, Citi are tackling poverty and empowering women.”
Lord Hastings of Scarisbrick, International Director, Corporate Citizenship, KPMG and chair of the judging panel
HRH Prince of Wales presents the BITC International Award to Robert Annibale, Global Director, Citi Microfinance
The Redbush Tea Company has won Business in the Community’s International Award for a Small Business for its partnership with the Kalahari People Fund. Redbush is a small business with three employees dedicated to the sale of exclusive rooibos (red bush) tea to leading supermarkets in the United Kingdom. The Redbush Tea Company donate a percentage of their profits to support education and water projects for the indigenous people of Kalahari in Bostwana and Namibia, whose ancestors were the first to use rooibos as a herbal medicine.
“The judges were struck by the energy and passion of this small company. They have taken on a marginal community, working in partnership to make a real difference. Much larger companies can learn from the way Red Bush has integrated such a compelling cause into their brand.”
Lord Hastings of Scarisbrick, International Director, Corporate Citizenship, KPMG and chair of the judging panel
Other businesses that were recognised through the Business in the Community International Award 2012 for positively impacting on global poverty, include:
- Goldman Sachs for ‘10,000 Women’, a 5-year, $100 million initiative to provide 10,000 underserved female entrepreneurs around the world with a business and management education
- Procter & Gamble for their Children’s Safe Drinking Water Programme which has delivered over 4 billion litres of clean drinking water preventing over 165 million days of disease and saving over 22,000 lives
- Tata Consultancy Services in India for rolling out banking services across 25,000 villages to 20 million customers in the next 5 years. To date, over 9000 villages are covered, with just under 2 million customers enrolled and 6,423 Business Correspondent agents have been deployed.
- Ferrovial for their Maji ni Uhai project in Tanzania (with Amref Flying Doctors) which has provided drinking water and sanitary infrastructures to 51,000 people in Serengeti District
- The Cooperative Group for their ‘Kibagenge’ project in Kenya, where the livelihoods and trading position of 11,000 smallholder farmers have been significantly strengthened through a trade development project
- KPMG for their Global Development Initiative, which uses KPMG’s skills, knowledge and resources in professional collaborations with International Development Agencies and Non-Governmental Organisations in pursuit of the MDGs.
“Each year, the business in the Community Awards for Excellence showcase some of the most inspiring and impactful examples of corporate responsibility in action. The International Award highlights the significant impact and creative approaches that business employ to tackle challenges facing the poorest global communities and least well off in society.
This year’s winners demonstrate how using widely different approaches, they have used their passion and core business strategies to address global poverty. Building these programmes into the business, both companies are benefitting their business and by embedding these programmes in their business model, they are supporting the sustainability of these strategies.
By sharing their stories and successes, we hope to inspire and challenge other companies to place responsible business at the heart of their operations.”
Sue Adkins, International Director, Business in the Community
