Q&A: Working with PepsiCo to Build the Business Case for Private Sector Investment in Women’s Empowerment

Under the partnership between PepsiCo and USAID, PepsiCo local staff and agronomists have been trainings to women, equipping them to take on the role of community agronomists, and supporting women’s self-help groups access land leases to grow PepsiCo potatoes. As a result, women in the PepsiCo potato supply chain are producing higher quality and quantity of potatoes, expressing feelings of increased empowerment, and finding support from their families and communities. Given their success in West Bengal, USAID and PepsiCo have expanded their work in India and to three more countries — Pakistan, Vietnam and Colombia — through a new Global Development Alliance funded through USAID’s women’s economic empowerment funding.