Water is arguably the world’s most valuable commodity. In many countries, it’s taken for granted. Turning on the tap for clean water is an expectation. While we all know this isn’t the case for the majority across the world, its unlikely many of us consider this each time we wash the dishes.
Yet, for millions of women across the globe, walking miles and waiting hours for water is a part of their daily lives. In South Africa alone, women collectively walk the equivalent distance of 16 times to the moon and back every day just to get water.
Worldwide, women spend an estimated 200 million hours collecting water every day. That’s time that could be used to generate an income, get an education or to spend with family and friends.
At Unilever we believe that business has a role to play in addressing issues that impact us all. With a portfolio of brands and products used by two billion people every day, Unilever has a unique opportunity to drive change, as well as a business imperative.
Many brands within our portfolio are now what we refer to as ‘sustainable living brands’ – brands that are on a journey to do well by doing good.
Our hand dishwash brand, Sunlight, is one of the brands that has embarked on the journey.
What is the role of a brand, whose primary users are women, in helping to tackle water issues?
Sunlight was launched in 1883 to ‘ease the daily labour of women’. This ambition has now evolved to liberate women’s time, but it extends beyond convenience. It’s not just about faster, easier dishwashing, it’s about time-saving water solutions for women around the world. We, along with governments and NGOs, need to work together to find solutions that liberate and empower women.
While my job is about finding new ways to make people’s lives easier at home, and uncovering creative innovations for the people we serve, it’s also about understanding how we can contribute to the wider Unilever Sustainable Living Plan. That’s what took me to India, where I met Vanita – a housewife who, like many, spends hours waiting for water every day.
When I asked her what she would do if she had more time, she said, without hesitation, she would sew more, to earn more money, and send her children to school. Vanita’s story, like many others’, was captured in the report ‘Water for Women. Every woman counts. Every second counts’ that Unilever co-authored earlier this year with Oxfam, NextDrop WaterAid and Unesco WWAP.
We are not the only ones who see the need to address this issue. That’s why we are committed to exploring, with partners, how these time-saving solutions can be a key driver of women’s empowerment and global development. Women reclaiming time can have a massive effect on their families and wider communities – women typically reinvest 90% of their income back into their families, improving their health and nutrition and ensuring that their children get a good education .
We are only at the start of our journey; working to help women like Vanita through partnering with Oxfam to pilot water centres programmes in Nigeria, and with NextDrop to pilot a programme in India that provides real-time text alerts to people about water availability.
Our ambition is to grow the Sunlight brand, to reach an even wider network of women worldwide, while – together with our partners – increasing our social impact and offering a genuine and lasting solution for the women that we serve.
Hanneke Willenborg is the Global Vice President for Dishwash, Unilever. Sunlight is supporting World Water Week, follow the debate on Twitter #WaterForWomen
Content on this page is paid for and provided by WSSCC, a sponsor of the Guardian Global Development Professionals Network.
