Considering sustainable development, one of the most important actions companies can take is to build human capacity, not only among their staff but also their suppliers and communities in their zone of influence. For women especially, the vicious cycle of poverty can only be broken by building women’s capacity to function as truly valued members of society – a challenging task given historic gender roles still pervasive today, lack of education, in many countries, not being able to own property, and with disasters such as the COVID-19 pandemic often the first staff members to be let go or leaving employment themselves to look after sick family members. All Agri-Vie Fund II investee companies develop annual comprehensive training plans based on training needs analyses. These cover on-the-job training, formal job training as well as life skills training. In South Africa, modular job training can lead to a formal qualification. Several companies also take in interns who have just completed university – Terrasan, Frostan and others – as well as include suppliers in their training courses or taking them on site visits. During the 2023 year, collectively, Agri-Vie Fund II companies provided training in one form or another to a total of 3 356 staff members. Commendable is that most companies now provide prevention of gender-based violence and sexual harassment training. Agri-Vie receives the training materials and, with permission from the companies, share it with others. Signage is also shared among companies. Life skills training that is being presented covers, for example, literacy, numeracy, information and communications technology, family planning, family budgeting, personal hygiene, and methods of growing vegetables and fruit at home, among others. Agri-Vie also encourages companies to post educational materials, and, where necessary, in local languages, on notice boards, such as prevention of HIV/AIDS, nutrition, gender-based violence and other topics. These training initiatives and most of the training topics relate directly to some of the targets of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of the United Nations.
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