I was pleased to be invited to speak at the Society for International Development’s annual conference in Washington D.C. recently.
'Common ground on foreign aid: deepening the dialogue', included a broad-based audience of more than 500 people actively engaged in the field of international development. My co-panelists included Jon Ortmans from the Kauffman Foundation/Global Entrepreneurship Week, Michael Levett from CDC Development Solutions and Robert Mosbacher, Jr.of the Overseas Private Investment Corporation. The audience for my session primarily consisted of entrepreneurs who do business at the local and community levels.
One of the most interesting things I took from the discussion was the degree to which they thought of Nestlé as only a chocolate company. They didn’t realise that we are the world’s largest food and beverage company, and I sensed their genuine surprise at the extent of our engagement. Not only were they interested to learn that we produce some of the USA’s best-known brands, including Lean Cuisine, Gerber and Purina, but also that because of our global commitment to Creating Shared Value, we are still able to provide a lot of support to communities at local level, particularly in our three focus areas of nutrition, water, and rural development.
Using The Cocoa Plan as an example, as I described the research and development work Nestlé has undertaken to develop higher-yielding, hardier cocoa plantlets (young plants used for plant propagation) and the steps we’ve created to take them to local farmers:
- Hardier cocoa plantlets are brought to farmers so that they will get more yield on less land
- Farmers are trained in best practice techniques to improve yields and water management
- The supply chain is then improved with more streamlined collection and distribution, directly increasing farmers’ income
I think the examples I shared underscored that Nestlé isn’t just focused on the short-term, but that our investments are meaningful and long-term. We participate in multi-stakeholder engagement to enhance social and working conditions in cocoa farming regions by collaborating with organisations like the The World Cocoa Foundation, with the goal of driving our business and strengthening local communities in ways that are truly sustainable. I was proud to join in this productive discussion, and based on the feedback I later received from my fellow panelists and audience members, I believe people appreciated learning about the work we do and the merits of Creating Shared Value.
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