AAK Responsible growth | 23 Kolo Nafaso – women’s groups in Burkina Faso During the past season, i.e. 2013/2014, we continued our work with women’s groups in %XUNLQD)DVR7KLVSURMHFWVWDUWHGLQ and is now turning into a permanent way of buying shea kernels. The aim is to develop the trade and AAK is thus educating the women in how to treat the shea kernels in the best possible way, from collection to storing the shea kernels. This work will increase income from the shea trade for the women, generated by higher quality shea kernels. In the season from June 2013 to May 2014, AAK increased the number of women involved from 14,000 to 37,000. Our objective was 30,000 women, but the interest from the women to participate exceeded our expectations. We continue to follow the Fair Trade principles in our work with the women’s groups and give the women full freedom with whom to trade with. Some of the Fair Trade criteria are pre- ¿QDQFLQJHGXFDWLRQIDFLOLWDWLRQLQORJLVWLFDO issues and transparency. Transparency of the market is of vital importance for the trade in order to elevate the women’s livelihood. We have set a new goal for our work in the coming season, which means that we aim to include 50,000 women in our work with the ZRPHQ¶VJURXSVLQ%XUNLQD)DVR As in previous seasons, we have also this season conducted a questionnaire among the women and the women’s groups in order to follow up on our initiatives and performance. We thus get feedback giving mutual improvement areas to work on in the coming years. This cooperation is of vital importance for both parties and is leading the way to a more transparent market. Monika Hjorth Sourcing & Trading Manager “ “
AAK - Sustainability report 2013/2014
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