Coca Cola Commits to Fostering Economic Development in Africa

CEO Muhtar Kent provided detail on a $5 million contribution from The Coca-Cola Company to The Clinton Foundation to support programs in the developing world. The contribution will comprise $1 million per year, beginning in 2009 and ending in 2011.

23 Sep 2009 --- During the opening plenary of the Clinton Global Initiative, the Chairman and CEO of The Coca-Cola Company, Mr. Muhtar Kent, committed to foster economic development in Africa and other developing markets by bringing more women into its distribution business.

The Manual Distribution Centers ( MDC ) in Africa that distribute Coca-Cola products in urban areas currently employ over 12,000 people and generate over $550 million in annual revenues. A new Learning Laboratory project in Tanzania with partners AED (Academy for Educational Development) and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation will explore ways to increase numbers of women owners in the MDC program. The objective of the Learning Laboratory is to identify strategies for overcoming the two biggest barriers to women's increased participation in Coca-Cola's distribution business: access to finance and skills development.

"Enhancing economic opportunities for women in developing markets will result in increased wealth, enhanced skills in business, accounting and marketing, increased profile and stature within the community, and increased economic opportunity to be applied to future jobs," Kent stated during the session, which was moderated by President Clinton.

During the session, Kent provided detail on a $5 million contribution from The Coca-Cola Company to The Clinton Foundation to support programs in the developing world. The contribution will comprise $1 million per year, beginning in 2009 and ending in 2011. Over the same period, the Company plans to contribute $2 million toward programs in the developing world that are jointly identified with the Clinton Foundation as being of mutual interest, with a particular focus on Africa.

This commitment is the latest by the Company to advance both business goals and the international development agenda through its system's MDC program. The MDC model utilizes small businesses to deliver Coca-Cola products manually to small-scale retailers in Africa's hard-to-reach urban and peri-urban markets.

To date, the Coca-Cola system has created more than 2,600 MDCs in Africa. Currently, women make up about 30 percent of the MDC entrepreneurs. "Over the next three years, we plan to greatly increase the participation of women in our MDC program," Kent said.

President Clinton applauded the ongoing work by The Coca-Cola Company to support women. "I would like to thank The Coca-Cola Company again for this valuable commitment. Solutions that empower women around the world improve communities, drive economic development and foster sustainable markets for the future," he said. "The Coca-Cola Company's micro-distribution model is an excellent example of the way companies can leverage core business activities to provide opportunities for women and developing communities."

The Company has been working to scale-up the number of MDCs in Africa since joining the Business Call to Action, an initiative that mobilizes large companies to help reach the Millennium Development Goals by harnessing core business competencies. Last year, The Coca-Cola Company asked the Corporate Social Responsibility Initiative at the Harvard Kennedy School and the International Finance Corporation ( IFC ) to study the MDC model in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, and Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, and recommend specific ways to improve and expand the program. This research identified a number of opportunities to further enhance the MDC approach, including bringing more women in to the business opportunity.