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Goal 3: Promote gender equality and empower women
One of the main reasons preventing girls from attending school in the developing world is the burden of collecting fuel wood and water, and undertaking cooking. In addition, cooking using traditional biomass (dung, firewood, agricultural residues) exposes women and children disproportionately to deadly toxic fumes. An estimated 1.6 million women and children die each year as a result. Providing modern energy can free girls’ and women's time and improve health.
What are we doing?
1. Core business activities
Producing and delivering modern energy for development, see Millennium Development Goal 1.
Providing employment and economic empowerment for women, Shell has a long-standing commitment to create a workplace that values equality and diversity. We have a long-term objective to increase the representation of women in senior leadership positions to 20%. By 2008, women in these positions had increased to 13.6%. We are increasing training opportunities tailored to women’s needs – for example our Women’s Career Development programme runs globally in Brazil, China, Nigeria and South Africa.
Promoting flexible working: Our Shell General Business Principles require that we provide employees with good and safe working conditions. Our commitment to diversity and inclusion requires that our companies respect the work-life balance of our staff.
2. Social investment
The Shell Foundation’s programme to help tackle indoor air pollution from cooking with wood or dung
Tackling indoor air pollution, Breathing Space - opens in new window is the Shell Foundation’s programme to help tackle indoor air pollution from cooking with wood or dung. The programme provides finance to small companies that build and sell cleaner burning cooking stoves and provides loans for poor families to buy them. The initiative aims to have cleaner stoves sold to 20 million poor households worldwide by 2010.
Supporting women’s groups. For example:
In Nigeria, The Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria Ltd entered its first partnership with women's groups in 1997. In 2000, the programme was dramatically extended with a new emphasis on sustainable development. Today, the company works in partnership with many development agencies and groups.
In Venezuela, with Shell’s assistance, women of the Barranquitas community created the first micro-company to sell fish caught by their husbands.
In South Africa, in partnership with the Free State University, Shell supports rural women of Thabanchu to run household enterprises for chicken and egg-production.
The Shell Group contributed to Dawliffe Hall Educational Foundation with programmes focusing on empowering women in third world countries.
3. Partnerships, policy dialogue and advocacy
Supporting efforts to combat indoor air pollution. The Shell Foundation is active in the Partnership for Clean Indoor Air (PCIA) - opens in new window, along with governments, public and private organisations and multilateral institutions, to increase the use of affordable, clean and safe home cooking and heating practices. Shell was the first private organisation to join the Healthy Homes and Communities Partnership - opens in new window initiated by the US Environmental Protection Agency and US government development agencies.
Supporting international codes: With regard to health, we support the
- International Labour Office (ILO) Declaration on the Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work (1998) - opens in new window
- ILO Tripartite Declaration of Principles concerning Multinational Enterprises and Social Policy (2000) - opens in new window
- UN Global Compact
- Global Sullivan Principles
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