Empowering Women

A STORY OF EMANCIPATION

The story of L'OCCITANE and the women shea butter producers of Burkina Faso began in the 1980s. Since then, we've built up a joint development partnership and a close, supportive relationship. There were about a dozen women at first. Now there are over 10,000! And since 2009, our shea butter supply chain has been 100% Fair Trade (Fair Trade certified according to the Fair for Life standard available at (www.fairforlife.org).

Did you know?

In Burkina Faso

shea butter is known as "women’s gold".

By tradition

it is only women who harvest the shea nuts and make shea butter.

Women in Burkina Faso

are the pillars of society and play a key role in the country's economic and social development.

OUR COMMITMENT

BURKINA FASO IS ONE OF THE POOREST COUNTRIES IN THE WORLD.
By supporting and empowering Burkinabe women, we can help lift them out of poverty.

L’OCCITANE has been working with women’s cooperatives in Burkina Faso since the 1980’s, and more recently in Ghana. We purchase the Shea butter directly from the producers, which is financially advantageous for them, and gives the women more economic security so they can achieve a higher level of independence.
Since the establishment of the L'OCCITANE Foundation to Empower Women in 2006, more than 26,000 women have received support in developing and strengthening their activities in Burkina Faso.

Our Mission as a Brand

OUR AIM

To support over 60,000 women in their socio-economic development by 2025 in Burkina Faso.

TWO WAYS TO DO THIS

1. Trade fairly together.
2. Reinforce women's leadership together.

The Resist Programme

SUPPORTING WOMEN IN MANY DIFFERENT WAYS

In 2018, L'OCCITANE launched the RESIST programme (Resilience, Ecology, Strengthening, Independence, Structuration, Training). Through it, we help the women of Burkina Faso to:
• protect their shea trees and have access to organic areas to collect the shea nuts,
• consolidate their shea butter supply chain,
• diversify their incomes by finding new customers for their shea butter,
• develop new activities, such as producing bissap.
The aim? To help them become more financially autonomous.

Social and Economic Impacts

MAKING A DIFFERENCE TO WOMEN'S LIVES

By earning their own income and developing their activities, the women shea butter producers in Burkina Faso are able to improve their social status. They can contribute more to household expenses and help to pay for their children's education. The whole family benefits!
In addition, it enables them to invest in improving working conditions and making the production chains more sustainable. We’ve also worked alongside these cooperatives, providing support when needed, so they could apply for Fair Trade certification and adopt organic production methods.

Promoting Women's Leadership

FOUR KEY AREAS OF ACTION

In Burkina Faso, our Foundation works on ways to open up opportunities for women and offer them a brighter future. By focusing on literacy, microcredits, education for girls and entrepreneurship, we can help to break the cycle of illiteracy and give women entrepreneurs a much-needed financial boost.

Entrepreneurship

ENCOURAGING WOMEN TO UNLEASH THEIR POTENTIAL

We need more women entrepreneurs! That's why the L'OCCITANE Foundation has joined forces with the NGO "Entrepreneurs du Monde" to help women develop economic initiatives and generate additional incomes. And through our "L'OCCITANE pour Elles" competition, we've helped four determined winners to pursue their business dreams.

“L’OCCITANE has established itself as a true partner that aims to support the entire community of women’s Shea butter cooperatives and their working and living environment. This support comes through the Shea butter supply chain, but also through the L’OCCITANE’s foundation, which is involved in projects focused on training, entrepreneurship, education and safety.”

Kady Traore, AFRICA PHILANTHROPY PROJECT MANAGER