How L’Oréal Encourages Women’s Economic Empowerment Through Sourcing?

Two-thirds of beneficiaries of the Group’s Solidarity Sourcing programme are women. A total of 48,061 beneficiaries come from 66 projects specifically related to the emancipation of women in 30 countries, with the support of 17 associations and NGO partners. These Solidarity Sourcing projects support the following women:

• producers of raw materials such as shea, argan or galanga grown and harvested in accordance with fair trade principles;

• hailing from various vulnerable local communities, or who have assumed positions usually reserved for men; 

• beneficiaries through support for Women-Owned Businesses (suppliers owned, controlled and led by 51% or more women);

In 2021, the Group continued to accelerate its strategy to support female entrepreneurship, reconfirming its involvement in WEConnect International and multiplying by 3.8 the number of suppliers led by women supported in 16 countries.

Gender equality is one of the global priority of L’Oréal. As part of our Diversity & Inclusion commitments, we partnered with WeConnect International to improve its Solidarity Sourcing program’s scope.

L'Oréal's worldwide Solidarity Purchasing program has been a partner of WEConnect International, a global non-profit organization that supports inclusion and sustainable economic growth by connecting women entrepreneurs with qualified buyers since July 2019.

This partnership, which is the result of a collaborative effort between L'Oréal's Diversity & Inclusion and Inclusive Purchasing teams, is a step forward in supporting women-owned businesses around the world. This strengthens the Group's commitments on the "women's economic empowerment" dimension.

L'Oréal has already set up - through its Solidarity Sourcing program - thirty inclusive purchasing projects that have enabled women from vulnerable communities to have access to secure employment and a decent income.

This initiative is in line with other partnerships developed by the Group, such as the Women&Business Circle with the Women’s Forum, which aims to encourage suppliers’ diversity on a European scale.

With this new partnership, we ambition to increase the number of projects supporting women's entrepreneurship at a worldwide level.