The H&M Foundation has pledged $20.5 million to help improve education, clean water and women’s empowerment, around the world.
Through three-year partnerships with UNICEF, WaterAid and CARE, the foundation hopes to transform the lives of some of the world’s poorest. It will also aim to influence national, regional and global agendas to work towards an equal society.
The new Global Programs build on the previous pledges, which ended in January this year. The new programs bring the total donation from the foundation to $41 million since 2014.
These Global Programs have allowed the H&M Foundation to educate over 100,000 children, give access to clean water and toilets to over 250,000 school children and empowered over 100,000 women to start or expand their businesses.
Speaking about the news, Diana Amini, Global Manager, H&M Foundation said, “We’ve seen that our programs can make real change and that makes both the H&M Foundation and our partner organisations very eager to move into the next gear.”
“With our insights from the first three years, we are well-equipped to create even move impact together in the years to come.”
All three programs will also include a component that will break new ground. UNICEF will develop a tool to highlight the relevance of Early Childhood Development efforts for tolerance, cooperation and respect to prevent conflicts and bring communities together. CARE will launch a pioneering Global Report on the economic and social value of investing in women’s enterprise development and WaterAid will share learnings and best practice on how to deliver long lasting access to water, sanitation and hygiene services.
The H&M Foundation is a non-profit global foundation, privately funded by the Stefan Persson family, founders and main owners of H&M. Its mission is to drive long lasting positive change and improve living conditions by investing in people, communities and innovative ideas. Through partnerships with organisations around the globe, the H&M Foundation drives change within four focus areas; education, water, equality and planet.
