Caterpillar Foundation: Empowering Women to Raise 50 Million People Out of Poverty

Today, as you read this article, there are about 500 million women throughout the world that cannot read or write. It is a fact that girls who attend school earn better incomes, marry later in life and have fewer and healthier children. It’s also a fact that women entrepreneurs reinvest 90 percent of their earnings into their families and communities, leading to a disruption in the cycle of poverty. And yet, today, one in seven women do not have the education to simply write their name on a piece of paper. This is an intolerable waste of human capital, and a fundamental cause of poverty.

Five years ago – and more than 20 years into my career at Caterpillar – I received the honor and opportunity of my lifetime when I became President of the Caterpillar Foundation. I am so proud to lead a foundation with a long history of investing in organizations that do very good work. But, at the Caterpillar Foundation, we are determined to do more. We believe that the company whose products have helped build the world’s greatest bridges and skyscrapers shouldn’t shy away from the world’s biggest human challenges. That’s why we shifted our focus from a traditional corporate philanthropy model to a social innovation and social investment model. We began to focus on policy work as we believe sustainable changes in policy are necessary to making real change happen.

This bold vision shaped the Caterpillar Foundation’s ambitious goal: raise 50 million people out of poverty by 2020.

We recognize that to end poverty, we cannot just address its symptoms. We must attack its root causes. And one of those root causes is the economic and social disparities between women and men.

According to the latest Global Gender Gap report from the World Economic Forum, achieving economic equality between the sexes around the world could take 170 years. We simply don’t have the luxury of time.

That’s why we invest in programs that empower women and girls. The same 500 million women and girls that cannot read this article today. We know that an investment in women yields the strongest returns.

One of the most effective ways to empower women is providing the necessities of a stronger, healthier life by expanding access to education and basic human needs such as clean water and sanitation, nutritious food and shelter.

For instance, each day in sub-Saharan Africa, women spend an average of four or five hours – time that could be spent going to school or building a business – walking to and from remote water wells.  In Tanzania, I met a mother, who spent three hours every day waiting in line to collect water.  After clean taps came to her village, she had more time to devote to her business, double her income and afford the tuition fees to send her kids to school. Simply installing a safe, clean water tap in a village in Africa or Southeast Asia is transformative.