2015 Global Responsibility Report

Sourcing

It’s estimated by the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor that 224 million women are starting or running businesses in 67 countries around the world. Often, substantial barriers stand in the way of growing their businesses. For example, although women are starting businesses at a rate of 1.5 times faster than the national average, women-owned businesses remain small, with an average employee size of just one person since 1997 (The 2014 State of Women-Owned Businesses Report, American Express Open). We’re focused on helping women-owned businesses (WOB) around the world to overcome persistent hurdles and grow by creating access to markets through direct-sourcing opportunities in our stores and online.


Aspiration

Source $20 billion from WOBs for our U.S. business through 2016 (began in 2011).

Since 2011, Walmart has sourced $11.24 billion in products and services from women-owned businesses (WOB), including $4.16 billion in FY2015. Our female customers in the U.S. have told us they’re interested in purchasing products sourced from WOBs. Walmart supported WEConnect International and WBENC in the creation of a Women Owned logo that can be used by businesses certified by WEConnect or WBENC to clearly identify products and services offered by WOBs. All women-owned businesses that are WBENC- and/or WEConnect-certified are eligible to display the logo on their product packaging. To continue this progress, we introduced our Accelerator Training Program, which guides high-potential WOBs on how to best grow with Walmart.

  • WOB sales increased at a higher rate than the rest of the business
  • WOB profit percent was higher than sales percent (KPI report from 8/29/14 last 52 weeks)


Calson Investment Limited: Growing business and opportunity

Recently recognized as Walmart Supplier of the Year, Calson Investment Limited serves as the first women-owned shoe company in China. Our growing relationship with this diverse supplier demonstrates the impact we’re having through our commitment to increase sourcing from WOB for our U.S. business.

“With Walmart as our largest customer, we’ve grown to $150 million in sales,” said Willy Tsoi, president. “As a result, we’re investing in more factories and providing our employees — most of whom are women — with even more opportunities. I’m proud of the work we’re doing together.”

 

Aspiration

Double sourcing from women-owned businesses in our international markets through 2016.

We’ve calculated the baseline spend on WOBs in seven markets, tracked quarterly progress toward the goal and have begun to implement tailored strategies by market to grow spend. In five tracked international markets, Walmart has increased annual spend among women by more than 21 percent from FY2012 to FY2015. We created a global Women-Owned Business Directory for buyers to identify the WOBs with the highest growth potential from all of our international markets. Walmart and WEConnect International have started working on six e-learning modules in Spanish and English to help current and potential suppliers navigate the process of supplying to Walmart. The modules will be completed by the end of 2015.

Canton Fair: Promoting awareness and making connections

Walmart’s Global Sourcing team promoted our Women’s Economic Empowerment initiative and identified new WOBs at Canton Fair, the largest trade fair in China, with thousands of companies represented. At its booth, discussions were held with more than 70 WOBs across various categories. After the event, the team hosted 15 WOBs for a minisummit. This first-of-its-kind gathering gave potential women-owned suppliers an opportunity to learn about the responsible sourcing and compliance processes required by Walmart and to meet directly with buyers.

Promoting innovation through competition

To support our goal to double sourcing from WOBs, our business in Japan organized a competition for small companies to showcase their newest ideas. Our panel of judges selected more than 30 winning entries, based on affordability, usability, overall concept and story.

The winning products are now sold at Seiyu.com, opening the door to a relationship with Walmart and a larger audience than ever before. One of the items, the Curumi, is a baby carrier cover designed with moms in mind.

 

Aspiration

Launch a dedicated e-commerce platform designed to give small women-owned businesses/women-empowering businesses access to customers.

In 2013, Walmart launched the platform Empowering Women Together (EWT) to provide opportunities to small businesses with less than $10 million in annual revenue that aim to economically empower women. Since then, the platform has offered 300 distinct products from 28 small businesses from multiple countries, including Nepal, Tanzania and Kenya. On Mother’s Day in 2014, more than 2,600 Walmart stores sold products from the EWT assortment.

In 2015, EWT will expand to encompass products from all WOBs, rather than exclusively small businesses. The new Women-Owned page at Walmart.com features products from certified WOBs and thousands of products featuring the new Women-Owned logo. In addition, the platform continues to sell products from inspiring nonprofit organizations and businesses that support the economic empowerment of marginalized women from all over the world.

Friends Handicraft

Friends Handicraft is a women-owned, fair trade social enterprise in Katmandu, Nepal, that supports skills-training and income-generation programs for nearly 100 female heads-of-households. By participating in Walmart’s EWT initiative, the company has fulfilled more than $40,000 in orders for Walmart. Through the EWT partnership, Friends Handicraft has expanded its design and production capacity, developing new product categories that will help attract a broader customer base and build a stronger, more sustainable business.


Challenges: Sourcing

We face multiple challenges in sourcing more from WOBs around the world. First, many WOBs are small and struggle to access the capital required to scale up to serve a large retailer like Walmart. Second, smaller businesses often need to make enhancements to comply with Walmart’s supplier standards. Third, identifying WOBs in emerging markets can sometimes be difficult. Finally, barriers to growth vary from market to market, meaning there’s no one-size-fits-all solution.

Training

From factories and farms to desks and sales floors, women play a significant role in the global workforce. For example, women are responsible for 43 percent of the world’s farm production. Walmart and the Walmart Foundation have committed to train 1 million women around the world on farms, in factories and in retail in emerging markets. We believe that elevating women not only strengthens their families and communities, but also improves the health of supply chains and promotes economic growth. By the end of FY2015, the Walmart Foundation and Walmart contributed funding to train 540,102 women globally.


Aspiration

By the end of 2016, in emerging markets, train 500,000 women in the agriculture value chain.

By the end of FY2015, Walmart and the Walmart Foundation had contributed to training 297,655 women in the agriculture value chain. In FY2015, the Walmart Foundation funded four additional projects in Africa and Asia that are expected to reach 79,976 women. Through our cooperation with the U.S. Agency for International Development, the Walmart Foundation supported Agribusiness Systems International in reaching additional soybean growers in Zambia and vegetable programs with One Acre Fund in Kenya, the International Fertilizer Development Center in Bangladesh and Global Communities in Rwanda. With these additional projects, funding is now in place to train an estimated 475,537 women in agriculture.

Improving agricultural techniques in Rwanda

Since April 2014, Nukanyandwi Cresence has been learning improved horticulture techniques through a Walmart Foundation/USAID-sponsored farming program facilitated by Global Communities in the Mukura Sector of Huye District in Rwanda’s Southern Province. Prior, Nukanyandwi sold cabbage locally for an average of 60 Rwandan Francs (about U.S. 10 cents) per head. After incorporating the improved techniques she learned — including crop spacing and the use of organic manure — she now sells her cabbages for 200 and 250 Rwandan Francs (U.S. 29 to 37 cents). The expansion of this program will benefit approximately 50,000 farmers — an estimated 60 percent of them women — by teaching improved agricultural techniques in the production of corn, beans, dairy farming and bio-intensive gardening.

 

Aspiration

Help 200,000 women in the U.S. from low-income households gain the skills they need for employment by the end of 2016.

Since the launch of the Women’s Economic Empowerment initiative, 180,423 U.S. women from low-income households have received support through programs funded by the Walmart Foundation. In 2015, the Walmart Foundation provided a grant to the Institute for Women’s Policy Research (IWPR), a leading think tank on U.S. women’s issues, to conduct research identifying supportive services most critical for women to be successful in short-term job training programs.

Dress for Success: Establishing a support system for Samantha

Having left what she describes as a “destructive relationship and lifestyle” behind in Texas, Samantha H. and her young daughter arrived in northwest Arkansas looking for a new start in December 2014. She found a hotel for them to stay in, but wondered how they would survive in a new state without any family or friends. A local workforce agency opened a door for Samantha by referring her to Dress for Success, a Walmart Foundation-supported organization that promotes the economic independence of disadvantaged women by providing professional attire, a network of support and career development tools.

“The experience at Dress for Success was powerful,” Samantha said. “Not only did it provide one-on-one attention for my suiting, but it helped with a mock interview and constructive feedback. These things gave me the confidence to ace the interview and land my dream job. Dress for Success has continued to be a great support system for me and I really feel like I have the edge I need to succeed.”

 

Aspiration

By the end of 2016, train 200,000 women for their first jobs in retail in our emerging markets.

By the end of 2014, 13,295 women in eight countries received retail training. Pilot programs were completed this past year in Argentina, Chile, Mexico and South Africa. Using those results, the Walmart Foundation funded larger-scale programs in Nigeria, Ghana, Kenya, Argentina, India and Chile. Those grants, combined with existing programs, put us on track to reach approximately 71,000 women. We’ll focus on scaling projects in China and Mexico in 2015.

 

Aspiration

Help 60,000 women working in factories develop the skills they need to become more active decision-makers in their jobs and for their families by the end of 2016.

By the end of 2014, the Women in Factories program had trained 48,729 women in foundational training for life and work skills. Of those women, 2,546 completed advanced training. The training has been implemented in 82 factories in Bangladesh, China, El Salvador, Honduras and India. The Walmart Foundation provided a grant for $1 million to Tufts University to evaluate the Women in Factories program in India, Bangladesh, El Salvador and Honduras. Business for Social Responsibility (BSR) publicly launched the China program in March 2014 and Swasti held a national conference in India, raising the engagement of key stakeholders in the initiative. With the program fully funded and the evaluation under way, our focus in the coming year will be on sustaining it.

Avani Bhadra: Empowered to change and help others

The eldest of five siblings growing up in Anhar, India, Avani Bhadra didn’t have the financial resources to pursue higher education. But she did find a job as a machine operator at the Welspun Factory, where her mother worked. There, she was encouraged to join the Women in Factories Training Program, organized by Swasti and made possible with funding from the Walmart Foundation.

Avani learned critical communication, leadership and budgeting skills, while immersing herself in women’s equality issues through the program. Once shy, Avani developed the ambition and confidence necessary to earn a promotion to become a master trainer at Welspun, and she and her siblings are now actively pursuing higher education.

“In my village, an unmarried woman is typically not allowed to go outside the home to work, but because of my success at Welspun, young women are now able to work in the factory,” she said. “I initially saw the training as a way to further my own studies, but I now see it as a chance to empower others.”

Avani is one of the 48,729 women who have completed the Women in Factories Training Program under way in China, India, Bangladesh, Honduras and El Salvador.

 

Aspiration

The Women’s Economic Empowerment initiative will be supported by more than $100 million in grants from the Walmart Foundation and donations from Walmart’s international business.

Since the launch of the Women’s Economic Empowerment initiative, we’ve been committed to supporting opportunity for women through our charitable giving. By the end of FY2015, the Walmart Foundation and our international business contributed $110 million in grants and donations to support women’s economic empowerment, and we exceeded our goal two years ahead of schedule. A significant portion of these grants has covered workforce and farmer training around the world, putting us in a position to meet our commitment of training 1 million women by the end of 2016.

 
Challenges: Training

This year, we prioritized accelerating retail pre-employment training in emerging markets because we’ve already made so much progress in other parts of the Women’s Economic Empowerment training program (e.g., agriculture, factories). We investigated where to focus our retail training efforts and determined that a demand-driven approach would be most effective. We examined the retail sector, identified the biggest needs and opportunities, and are now integrating the lessons from pilots to design scaled programs with impact.

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