Up Close: Empowering women with access to mobile savings As part of ExxonMobil’s commitment to empowering women economically, the ExxonMobil Foundation joined forces in 2012 with the United Nations Foundation to produce A Roadmap for Promoting Women’s Economic Empowerment , a study outlining the most effective interventions to directly advance women’s economic opportunities. The Roadmap identified providing women access to savings opportunities through mobile phone technology as a high-potential community investment. To build on the research findings from the Roadmap , the ExxonMobil Foundation began collaborating with TechnoServe, Mercy Corps and the Center for Global Development (CGD) in 2015 to pilot mobile saving opportunities and financial literacy training for women entrepreneurs in Indonesia and Tanzania. A large number of women in Indonesia and Tanzania do not have access to banking and other financial services, live long distances from a bank branch or are deterred by burdensome bank fees and administrative requirements. This program, which runs through the end of 2016, will test the theory that women entrepreneurs and farmers with access to basic banking and insurance services through mobile telephones will be able to save more, invest their increased savings in their businesses and see increased income from those businesses. To streamline program efforts, TechnoServe and Mercy Corps are simulta- neously providing mobile savings access and financial literacy training to 3,000 women farmers and entrepreneurs in Indonesia and Tanzania. As part of our ongoing effort to evaluate program results and maximize positive outcomes, CGD is conducting a two-phase impact evaluation of the women entrepreneurs and farmers participating in the program. This evaluation will study the efficacy of the program and test the theory that access to mobile savings can increase business income. In 2015, key evaluation efforts included developing the initial surveys, piloting survey instruments and conducting preliminary research on methodologies for the pilot. Once approved, CGD will implement the study design and select a third-party organization to conduct the surveys in Tanzania and Indonesia.
of their families and communities. Our investments focus on three key areas: supporting research to identify effective interventions; developing women farmers, entrepreneurs and business leaders; and improving women’s access to technology. Our support has reached tens of thousands of women in more than 90 countries. In 2015 alone, our contributions totaled nearly $12 million. See the adjacent Up Close and visit the ExxonMobil Foundation website for additional information on our efforts to improve women’s economic opportunities. Employee participation Volunteering and charitable giving are integral to ExxonMobil’s culture. Around the world, our employees support local communities by becoming mentors to students, assisting local food banks and providing environmental education opportunities, among other activities. We encourage employees to contribute to the communities where they live and work by granting time off to volunteer with charitable organizations. Where applicable, ExxonMobil’s modified workweek program provides supervisors the flexibility to work with employees to adjust their work schedules to participate in such events. For additional information on ExxonMobil’s workplace flexibility programs, see page 28. ExxonMobil offers several programs that allow our employees and retirees to maximize their charitable impacts. Our volunteer involvement program encourages employees, retirees and their families to volunteer and contribute their time and talent to charitable organizations, either individually or in teams. In the United States, the program provides a $500 donation on their behalf for every 20 hours volunteered, up to four times per volunteer per year. Additionally, our educational matching gift program matches employee and retiree donations to U.S. higher education institutions at a ratio of 3-to-1. In 2014, 6,000 employees and retirees donated $19 million to nearly 4,000 colleges and universities, as well as minority scholarship programs — which the ExxonMobil Foundation then matched with $34 million in 2015. ExxonMobil Foundation
Local Tanzanian, Asia Diwala, applies the skills she learned from the enterprise development training she received through support from the ExxonMobil Foundation, Cherie Blair Foundation for Women and the Tanzania Gatsby Trust.
Community and social impact exxonmobil.com/citizenship
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