Fund is mother of invention for female ventures

Walmart China recently announced a donation of 10 million yuan ($1.63 million) to the China Women's Development Foundation to support its Revolving Fund for Mothers' New Ventures project over the next three years.

It is the fifth time Walmart China has donated to the project, which started in October 2010 to help women in impoverished areas. Including repaid funds, total investment from the retailer in the project had reached 7.6 million yuan before the latest donation.

In the next three years, the company will provide 3 million yuan, 3.3 million yuan and 3.7 million yuan, respectively, to continue its support to the project.

The poverty alleviation model will shift from supporting individual women directly to supporting agricultural associations dominated by women.

One-third of the future donations will be used on training women to improve their job skills and enterpreneurial ability.

"Investing in women is of special significance to Walmart's business, to the communities where we have a presence and to the harmonious development of the whole society," said Dan Bartlett, Walmart's global executive vice-president for corporate affairs.

In 2011, the company launched the global Women's Economic Empowerment Project, which increased sourcing from women's enterprises in the US and worldwide, helping about 1 million women.

Through the Mothers' New Ventures fund, the global Women's Economic Empowerment Project has been extended and developed in China, Bartlett said.

Walmart will consider sourcing from the Mothers' New Ventures project in the future.

Over the past four years, Walmart has been working with the China Women's Development Foundation to explore a new model to promote women's economic empowerment, said Sean Clarke, president and chief executive officer of Walmart China. "We hope that through training and providing market entrance opportunities, as well as combining Walmart's own supply chains, we can improve poor women's sustainable production and capacity and really help them improve their standard of living," Clarke said.

Almost 200 million yuan has been invested in the Mothers' New Venture project so far and more than 300,000 women from 20 provinces have been helped, said Qin Guoying, deputy board director and secretary-general of the women's foundation.

"The project does more than just provide startup capital for women-led ventures. It also offers skill training," Qin said.