Women make up around half the workforce of the tea gardens and smallholder farms we source from. Yet they often face systemic challenges including discrimination and gender-based violence and harassment (GBVH), as well as limited access to education, health services and economic resources.

Empowering women is not only central to respecting human rights but also essential to strengthening communities and building a more inclusive and resilient supply chain. We’ve been rolling out a dedicated GBVH policy across our tea supply chain and providing suppliers with training and resources on best practice where appropriate. We’re also actively investing in a range of ongoing programmes and industry partnerships to support women throughout our sourcing regions.

What we're doing:

• Supervisor training: In Kenya, we’ve trained 958 supervisors across three tea gardens on preventing, identifying and responding appropriately to GBVH.
• Women’s Safety Accelerator Fund (WSAF): With other brands, we’re funding partners of this programme – active in 98% of our suppliers’ tea estates in India – which runs awareness and training sessions for managers, tea workers and wider communities. It also supports women and girls who have experienced discrimination, harassment or violence.
• Community Development Forums: In Indonesia, we’re supporting these decision-making platforms, which bring together tea workers, managers and community leaders to identify and resolve issues together. The model promotes the representation of women in workers’ unions and workplace leadership committees.
• Farmers’ Voice Radio: In Kenya, we’ve supported the broadcast of a radio series designed by and for women smallholders with information on farming, health, family planning and gender equality, in partnership with the Lorna Young Foundation and the National Organisation of Peer Educators.