The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, adopted by all United Nations Member States in 2015, provides a shared blueprint for peace and prosperity for people and the planet, now and into the future. At its heart are the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), which are an urgent call for action by all countries – developed and developing – in a global partnership.
At WildHearts, we recognise that the SDGs have become the global common language for responsible business and we are committed to mapping our impact directly to this framework. Through our impact programmes, WildHearts address more than 50% of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.
22,000 children die each day due to poverty. WildHearts works to alleviate some of poverty’s key drivers; unemployment, lack of access to education,
healthcare and nutrition.
Our global microfinance programme enables our predominantly female clients to start or grow a business with a WildHearts micro-loan. With a 99% payback rate,
WildHearts microloans are reinvested, continuing to create positive impact beyond the first recipient.
With their increased income, our clients invest in their family’s healthcare, nutrition, housing, and education. As a result, when we invest in women we address the key drivers of poverty, transforming entire communities.
1 in every 6 people on Earth does not get enough food to live a healthy life. To address this issue, WildHearts supports – predominantly – female micro-finance clients across the developing world in over 40 countries.
Women invest 90% of their income back into their family, prioritising their health and nutrition. As a result, our micro-finance clients’ families are significantly less likely to suffer the consequences of hunger.
Furthermore, our micro-finance programme promotes the launch of agricultural micro-businesses, ensuring increased variety in the crops available to communities – diverse harvests tackle malnutrition and hunger.
Climate change is one of the biggest threats to global development, disproportionately impacting the world’s poorest and most vulnerable. Natural disasters have a profound impact on the world’s poorest girls; girls’ dowries help ease the burden on disaster-struck households, increasing the likelihood of child marriage.
Similarly, girls are taken out of school before boys during droughts to help with family chores. Female education is repeatedly cited as one of the most powerful solutions for carbon emissions abatement – even more so than low-carbon energy options – due to the reduction in average family size of educated mothers. By championing female education through our social impact programmes, WildHearts is ensuring the key barriers to girls’ education are reduced.
In the UK and across the developed world, WildHearts provides world-class business education in schools. It is designed to level the playing field and provide opportunities for students from all backgrounds.
Globally, WildHearts distributes reusable sanitary pads that have a significant impact on girls’ education in the developing world, ensuring they can go to school during menstruation, avoid falling behind and ultimately dropping out. Distribution of WildHearts education packs, containing key learning materials such as pens, pencils and paper, facilitates access to education in the developing world. Our microfinance programme further supports this goal as clients frequently cite that their children’s school fees are a top priority when investing their earnings.
75% of the world’s women are excluded from all forms of banking and credit. Financially empowered women are more likely to be involved in decision-making in their families and experience less violence and domestic abuse.
Our microfinance programme supports the empowerment of women and their daughters across forty developing countries, enabling them to become leaders in their communities. Our education packs, free reusable sanitary pads and robust Menstrual Hygiene Management programme facilitate access to education in the developing world, helping restore gender equality in the education space – opening doors to employment opportunities and safer futures.
Had women and girls been given the same access to education and employment as men over the last 30 years, Africa’s economies would have doubled.
We facilitate access to education, employment and trade opportunities creating decent work and economic growth via our financial inclusion and business training programmes in over 40 different countries. We empower our clients to grow their businesses, and as result, are able to train and employ others in their community. Furthermore, our Menstrual Health Management programme generates jobs across rural South Africa, launching production factories for reusable sanitary pads, upskilling local people, creating safe, meaningful and sustainable employment.
The UK is one of the least socially mobile countries in the developed world. All too often your success in life is determined by the postcode you were born in. That is why the WildHearts Schools Programme is free for everyone, providing world-class education
and employability training regardless of your background.
In the developing world, we reduce inequalities by focusing on education, health, and enterprise, lifting some of the world’s poorest and most marginalised, out of extreme poverty. By economically empowering women to support their families; their children have access to education. By providing education for their children, we can break generations of educational inequality and poverty.
To be sustainable, cities and communities must be inclusive, safe, and resilient. At our microfinance trust groups, resilience and sustainability go hand-in-hand creating collective, thriving business communities. When women are financially empowered, domestic abuse rates drop, female voter representation increases and entire communities benefit.
This creates a significant knock-on impact for the next generation, providing a network of role models who promote the key values that underpin sustainable, inclusive, resilient and safe communities.
Climate change is one of the biggest threats to global development, disproportionately impacting the world’s poorest and most vulnerable. Natural disasters have a profound impact on the world’s poorest girls; girls’ dowries help ease the burden on disaster-struck households, increasing the likelihood of child marriage.
Similarly, girls are taken out of school before boys during droughts to help with family chores. Female education is repeatedly cited as one of the most powerful solutions for carbon emissions abatement – even more so than low-carbon energy options – due to the reduction in average family size of educated mothers. By championing female education through our social impact programmes, WildHearts is ensuring the key barriers to girls’ education are reduced.
