Coca-Cola, UN Women enter collaboration to support economic empowerment among women

NEW YORK — Coca-Cola has teamed up with United Nation's organization UN Women to promote women's economic empowerment.

The partnership, which stems from UN Women's strategic plan and Coca-Cola's 5 By 20 initiative — which looks to enable the economic empowerment of 5 million women entrepreneurs across the Coca-Cola value chain by 2020 — will help develop and implement programs to help break down barriers for female entrepreneurs in the small businesses that the Coca-Cola system touches. In addition, the organizations will collaborate to provide increased access to business skills training, financial services and support networks of peers and mentors.

“We believe there is no better time to invest in women as engines of economic growth and sustainable development. Women are the fastest-growing economic force, and no business or economy will be able to grow without them,” Coca-Cola chairman and CEO Muhtar Kent said. “This partnership with UN Women, which leverages their extensive expertise, will greatly impact our efforts to enable the empowerment of women around the world.”