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Nestlé in Central and West Africa drives commitments with year of achievements in Creating Shared Value

Nestlé in Central and West Africa (CWAR) has continued to drive its commitments in nutrition, rural development, water, environmental sustainability, and compliance,with a number of significant achievements this year.

The world’s leading nutrition,health and wellness company has globally set 35 pledges in these areas – as part of the Nestlé in Society report ‘Creating Shared Value and meeting our commitments 2013’ – which it aims to fulfil by 2020 or earlier.

This year, Nestlé CWAR has already made steady progress to achieve these through its actions and accomplishments.

“2014 has been a substantial year in attaining our commitments to create shared value where we operate,” said Kais Marzouki,Market Head for Nestlé Central and West Africa. “In our region, we impact directly the life of more than 120,000 people. Throughout our value chain, we have been working with various stakeholders to enhance the lives of our consumers, bringing them Nutrition, Health and Wellness.” he added.

Nutrition achievements

As part of its nutrition pledge, Nestlé is helping reduce the risk of under-nutrition through micronutrient fortification.

After Cameroon, Côte d’Ivoire, Nigeria, Senegal, Ghana,Niger and Guinea, Nestlé launched this year its iron and iodine-fortified Maggi bouillons in Togo and in Benin to meet the dietary habits and needs of consumers in the country.

Nestlé’s popular brand Ideal launched its new dairy-based Milky Choco, Milky Coffee and Milky Tea drinks packed with protein, calcium,iron and vitamin C in Ghana.

The new products are the latest additions to CWAR’s fortified range, which includes Nido with iron, calcium and zinc, Golden Morn with vitamin A and iron, and Pure Life with zinc.

The company also launched Cerelac Millet infant cereal fortified with essential micronutrients and probiotic Bifidus BL in Ghana, Senegal,Burkina, Mali, Côte d’Ivoire and Nigeria.

The product completes the brand’s infant cereals range, which are enriched with vitamins and minerals such as iron,zinc, vitamin A, vitamin C and probiotics.

As well as improving the nutrient value of children’s diets by producing affordable, nutritious and sustainable products, Nestlé is helping farmers how to improve the quality of crops.

Thanks to Nestlé’s Grains Quality Improvement Project (GQIP), which is implemented since 2007 with the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) in Nigeria and Ghana, local crops now meet strict specifications and can be used in the production of cereals like Cerelac and Golden Morn.

In fact, 100 percent of millet used in its new Cerelac Millet infant cereal products is sourced locally from farmers in Ghana, Senegal and Nigeria.

Healthy kids

Nestlé is committed to promoting healthy diets and lifestyle/physical activity, by rolling out its Healthy Kids Global Programme in 80 countries by 2015 with the help of the International Association of Athletics Federations Kids Athletics programme.

The initiative, which is already up and running in Cameroon, Ghana and Nigeria, was kicked-off earlier this year in Côte d’Ivoire and Senegal.

The pilot Nestlé Healthy Kids Programme in Côte d’Ivoire aims to reach about 300 children in their fourth year of primary school, teachers,school cooks, parents and families to boost balanced diets and nutrition,enhance their physical activity and improve their nutritional hygiene.

In Senegal, the pilot was announced in August. It will be implemented in five schools in Grand Yoff, Thiaroye, Diamagueune and Sandiara, to reach about 500 schoolchildren aged nine to 12.

Good nutrition practices

Nestlé has also committed to implement nutrition education programmes to promote good nutrition practices, through the Nestlé Nutrition Institute (NNI), the world’s largest independent and non-profit private publisher of nutritional information.

Nestlé Nutrition Institute Africa (NNIA), part of the NNI, held its fourth ‘CoursAfricain de Nutrition Pédiatrique’ in Cameroon, which brought together 49 French-speaking healthcare professionals from the region in May. A similar course for English-speaking HCPstook place in the same month in Nigeria.

The NNIA also presented a paper on ‘Maternal and Infant Nutrition, the first 1,000 days of life’ at the sixth African Nutrition Epidemiology Conference in Accra, Ghana in July on the theme of ‘Food and Nutrition Security in Africa: New Challenges for Sustainability’.

Rural accomplishments

Nestlé has committed to rolling out the Nescafé Plan, a CHF 350 million global initiative which is already active in Brazil, China, Colombia, Guatemala, Honduras, India,Indonesia, Mexico, Nicaragua, the Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam.

This year, the company, in collaboration with the Ministry of Agriculture, is helping coffee farmers in Côte d’Ivoire by signing a memorandum of understanding to boost the sustainable development of green coffee in the country, as part of the Plan.

By the end of this year, over 13,000 Ivorian farmers were trained and 1,800,000 plantlets were distributed in Côte d’Ivoire.

In December, the company also made progress on its commitment to roll out the Nestlé Cocoa Plan by launching the initiative in Ghana, as part o fits global target to source about 120,000 tonnes of cocoa by 2016. The Nestlé Cocoa Plan is currently active in cocoa-growing countries including Brazil, Ecuador, Venezuela, Mexico and Indonesia.

Nestlé has already trained over 9,000 farmers, built three schools and constructed eight boreholes benefiting 14,000 people in communities in the Eastern and Ashanti regions of Ghana.

In addition, it has built four Village Resource Centres, provided training facilities for local students, and offered video training on best farming methods for cocoa farmers.

Finally, the company renewed its global partnership with the International Federation of the Red Cross (IFRC) and the Red Cross Society. Through the partnership, Nestlé is giving access to clean drinking water and sanitation facilities to more than 100,000 people to cocoa-growing communities in Côte d’Ivoire. This programme will be extended to Ghana next year.

People,human rights and compliance success

Nestlé’s efforts on cocoa are part of its commitment to eliminate child labour in key commodities. As part of its pledge, it has set its sights on completing actions plans for cocoa, hazelnuts and vanilla by 2015.

Following a report by the FairLabor AssociationNestlé committed to redouble its efforts to improve the lives of women in cocoa communities in Côte d’Ivoire.

Its new action plan for women in the country includes training sessions on gender issues for all the cooperatives in Côte d’Ivoire. Other initiatives aim to increase women’s income so that they can afford to send their children to school, as well as create local women’s associations to provide support and assistance.

Water progress

This year, Nestlé has continued to provide access to clean water and sanitation to communities in the region and across the globe by advocating for effective water policies and stewardship.

This year, it started to roll out in all of its manufacturing facilities the World Business Council for Sustainable Development’s  Pledge for Access to safe Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH), of which Nestlé is a leading signatory.

The self-assessment Water Resources Review examines the level of WASH for employees in a facility by identifying areas of improvement, and supporting decision-making investments and priority actions.

Nestlé’s Douala factory site in Cameroon has already satisfactorily met the Pledge’s overall compliance level.

Investing in CWAR

Nestlé has reaffirmed its commitment to the region by making a number of investments in 2014 to boost local employment and sustainable production.

In October, it invested CHF 1.1million in a pre-treatment system at its Tema factory in Ghana to improve waste water efficiency. This builds on Nestlé’s CHF 38 million investment in the factory, which produces brands such as Carnation,Milo, Cerelac and Nescafé.

In Nigeria, Nestlé Waters also investedin a new CHF 25 million bottled water factory in Abaji to provide healthy hydration to consumers.

Prize-winning region

In 2014, CWAR has achieved accolade for its brands, quality and way of doing business.

Nestlé Ghana was crowned the winner of the Ghana CSR Awards for its Creating Shared Value work in the Nestlé Healthy Kids Programme, Nestlé Cocoa Plan and GQIP.

In Nigeria, Milo was awarded Brand of the Year at the prestigious Advertisers’ Association of Nigeria Marketing Excellence Awards.

The company also received a prize by the National Oscar for Quality in Senegal, which awards companies who excel in quality every two years.


Related information:
Nestlé in Society: Creating Shared Value
Nestlé in Society: Nestlé Nigeria Creating Shared Value
Nestlé in CWAR Creating Shared Value infographic
Nescafé Plan
Nestlé Cocoa Plan
Nestlé Healthy Kids Programme