WASHINGTON, Aug. 4, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- The Caterpillar
Foundation, supported by Caterpillar Inc. (NYSE: CAT), continues
working to alleviate poverty worldwide, including on the African
continent, through a series of investments. Since 2010 alone,
corporate social innovation has driven the Caterpillar Foundation
to invest $30 million in African
programs that address access to clean water, energy, empowering
girls and women and microfinance, as well as food and
shelter. The Foundation targets investments to organizations
working in areas of policy that will enable sustainable growth and
development across the continent.
"The Caterpillar Foundation is committed to finding ways to spur
vibrant growth in Africa," said
Doug Oberhelman, Caterpillar
Chairman & CEO. "Just as it has in other parts of the world,
the Foundation is investing to help millions of Africans become
economically self-sufficient. The investments announced today will
provide essentials – water, energy and opportunity – to help
families and communities build and grow."
ONE Campaign – Advocacy and Public Policy
The
Caterpillar Foundation is making an initial investment of
$5 million with the ONE Campaign to
address advocacy and public policy needs and the lack of access to
power, which is a key factor in making it more difficult for
Africa to lift itself out of
poverty. The Caterpillar Foundation plans to announce an additional
grant with ONE later this year.
"ONE is incredibly grateful for the Caterpillar Foundation's
investment in our work to help bring reliable supplies of energy to
the nearly 600 million people across Africa who presently lack it," said
Michael Elliot, ONE Campaign CEO.
"We're also excited about continuing our partnership with the
Foundation to enhance global advocacy and campaigning around the
world that inspires citizens to use their voices and take action to
end extreme poverty by 2030."
charity: water – Water Distribution Pipeline
Extension
The Caterpillar Foundation is investing nearly
$5 million to bring clean water to
two countries in Africa through
charity: water, whose mission is to bring clean and safe drinking
water to every person in the world.
The investment will help fund an extension of a current water
distribution pipeline into two underserved countries in
Africa: Tanzania and Ethiopia. An extension of this pipeline and
the addition of water access points are expected to benefit more
than 126,000 Tanzanians and Ethiopians who currently travel long
distances to collect water from unsanitary sources.
"Since 2010, charity: water, with the help of the Caterpillar
Foundation, has worked to bring clean water to almost 100,000
people throughout Africa and
beyond," said Scott Harrison,
charity: water CEO. "charity: water is honored to work with
Caterpillar Foundation in such a significant way and looks forward
to putting thousands more people on the path to prosperity
together."
United Nations Foundation – Clean Cookstove
Initiative
As cooking and fuel collection largely remain a
woman's responsibility in many African countries, the health and
economic effects of household air pollution from traditional
cookstoves disproportionately impact girls and women. The
Caterpillar Foundation is investing more than $1 million in energy and cookstoves programs to
help address this deadly issue in Ghana, Kenya,
Nigeria and Uganda.
Through a United Nations Foundation program, the money will help
teach them about the dangers of traditional cooking and the
benefits of adopting clean cooking solutions.
"By involving women and girls in the design and sale of clean
cookstoves and fuels, we can increase project effectiveness and
help scale the adoption of clean cooking products and services
around the world," said Radha
Muthiah, executive director of the Global Alliance for Clean
Cookstoves. "With the Caterpillar Foundation's support, we can
better integrate women into the value chain and, in doing so,
improve the health and well-being of women across Africa."
A common thread of all three programs is the fact they target
the root causes of poverty, which is key to Caterpillar's corporate
social innovation strategy. Moving forward, the Caterpillar
Foundation will increase its focus on similar programs throughout
the countries of Africa.
About Caterpillar:
For nearly 90 years, Caterpillar
Inc. has been making sustainable progress possible and driving
positive change on every continent. Customers turn to Caterpillar
to help them develop infrastructure, energy and natural resource
assets. With 2013 sales and revenues of $55.656 billion, Caterpillar is the world's
leading manufacturer of construction and mining equipment, diesel
and natural gas engines, industrial gas turbines and
diesel-electric locomotives. The company principally operates
through its three product segments - Resource Industries,
Construction Industries and Energy & Transportation - and also
provides financing and related services through its Financial
Products segment. For more information, visit caterpillar.com. To
connect with us on social media, visit
caterpillar.com/social-media.
About the Caterpillar Foundation:
Caterpillar Inc.
supports the philanthropic efforts of the Caterpillar Foundation.
Founded in 1952, the Caterpillar Foundation has contributed more
than $550 million to help make
sustainable progress possible around the world by providing program
support in the areas of environmental sustainability, access to
education and basic human needs. To learn more about the global
impact of the Caterpillar Foundation, please visit
caterpillar.com/foundation.
Forward-looking Statements:
Certain statements in this
release relate to future events and expectations and are
forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private
Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Words such as "believe,"
"estimate," "will be," "will," "would," "expect," "anticipate,"
"plan," "project," "intend," "could," "should" or other similar
words or expressions often identify forward-looking statements. All
statements other than statements of historical fact are
forward-looking statements, including, without limitation,
statements regarding our outlook, projections, forecasts or trend
descriptions. These statements do not guarantee future performance,
and we do not undertake to update our forward-looking
statements.
Caterpillar's actual results may differ materially from those
described or implied in our forward-looking statements based on a
number of factors, including, but not limited to: (i) global
economic conditions and economic conditions in the industries we
serve; (ii) government monetary or fiscal policies and
infrastructure spending; (iii) commodity price changes, component
price increases, fluctuations in demand for our products or
significant shortages of component products; (iv) disruptions or
volatility in global financial markets limiting our sources of
liquidity or the liquidity of our customers, dealers and suppliers;
(v) political and economic risks, commercial instability and events
beyond our control in the countries in which we operate; (vi)
failure to maintain our credit ratings and potential resulting
increases to our cost of borrowing and adverse effects on our cost
of funds, liquidity, competitive position and access to capital
markets; (vii) our Financial Products segment's risks associated
with the financial services industry; (viii) changes in interest
rates or market liquidity conditions; (ix) an increase in
delinquencies, repossessions or net losses of Cat Financial's
customers; (x) new regulations or changes in financial services
regulations; (xi) a failure to realize, or a delay in realizing,
all of the anticipated benefits of our acquisitions, joint ventures
or divestitures; (xii) international trade policies and their
impact on demand for our products and our competitive position;
(xiii) our ability to develop, produce and market quality products
that meet our customers' needs; (xiv) the impact of the highly
competitive environment in which we operate on our sales and
pricing; (xv) failure to realize all of the anticipated benefits
from initiatives to increase our productivity, efficiency and cash
flow and to reduce costs; (xvi) additional restructuring costs or a
failure to realize anticipated savings or benefits from past or
future cost reduction actions; (xvii) inventory management
decisions and sourcing practices of our dealers and our OEM
customers; (xviii) compliance with environmental laws and
regulation; (xix) alleged or actual violations of trade or
anti-corruption laws and regulations; (xx) additional tax expense
or exposure; (xxi) currency fluctuations; (xxii) our or Cat
Financial's compliance with financial covenants; (xxiii) increased
pension plan funding obligations; (xxiv) union disputes or other
employee relations issues; (xxv) significant legal proceedings,
claims, lawsuits or investigations; (xxvi) compliance requirements
imposed if additional carbon emissions legislation and/or
regulations are adopted; (xxvii) changes in accounting standards;
(xxviii) failure or breach of IT security; (xxix) adverse effects
of unexpected events including natural disasters; and (xxx) other
factors described in more detail under "Item 1A. Risk Factors" in
our Form 10-K filed with the SEC on February
18, 2014, for the year ended December
31, 2013, and in our Form 10-Q filed with the SEC on
August 1, 2014, for the quarter ended
June 30, 2014.
SOURCE Caterpillar