In 2017, Mary Kay launched a joint venture with UNDP China, the China Girls’s Improvement Basis, the China Worldwide Middle for Financial and Technical Exchanges, the Girls’s Federation of Yunnan Province and Yongren County Authorities referred to as “SDG Pilot Village Mission: Girls-focused Poverty Discount and Sustainable Improvement.” By way of that effort, Mary Kay has labored to enhance the lives of rural ladies, recognizing that doing so is the important thing to preventing poverty. 

By way of this effort, the venture “addressed the structural obstacles to ladies’s labor market participation, together with by way of the availability of social safety and the creation of inexperienced entrepreneurial alternatives by way of ecotourism, coupled with efforts to boost ladies’s management in group decision-making boards.”  

“The ladies-focused strategy of offering entrepreneurial alternatives to rural ladies proved to be transformative,” mentioned Wendy Wang, President, Mary Kay Asia Pacific Area. “When ladies began taking part in financial improvement and consequently gained standing of their communities, the entire village benefited.” 

Part 1, which occurred throughout the time interval of 2017-2021, resulted in vital achievements, together with: 

• The proportion of Waipula villagers residing under the nationwide poverty line falling from 28% in 2017 to 0% in 2020 
• 60 households and 193 folks had been lifted out of poverty by 2020 
• 210 seasonal migrant staff and 120 long-term migrant staff, most of whom are ladies, had been in a position to return dwelling to search out employment or begin their very own companies 
• 607 native ladies discovered employment and raised their revenue 
• Some ladies had been in a position to emerge as group leaders and take roles as members of the village committee 

“This venture exhibits how entrepreneurship is usually a highly effective device in addressing the revenue hole between women and men whereas preventing poverty in rural areas,” mentioned Beate Trankmann, UNDP Resident Consultant in China. “Yi ladies have gained the proper abilities and sources to leverage their cultural heritage, constructed stable financial foundations for themselves, and turn into leaders of their communities, paving the way in which for future generations.” 

Part 2 of the venture, which can finish in 2024, endeavors to speed up entrepreneurship and lift incomes for girls, promote range and inclusion and defend the pure surroundings by selling sustainable villages.