About the author
Matteo Rizzi
During his six years at Unilever, Matteo has worked with brands like Domestos,
Surf and Sunlight to develop strategies and partnerships that help drive
positive social impact.
Business growth fuels our programmes
My team helps brands – including Domestos, Surf, Sunlight and Living Hygiene – bring to life their social purpose by building the expertise required for them to be able to talk to consumers about a specific topic.
It is key that we look at ways to unlock business growth opportunities through our social impact work. This how we can keep fuelling our commitment to these activities and implementing programmes on the ground.
Helped over 5 million people so far
Take Domestos. The brand’s ambition is to help 25 million people get improved access to a toilet by 2020. We are the first company to make a commitment to improving sanitation on this scale, so we need the expertise and authority to encourage others to help us reach that target.
We work with academics, development agencies, NGOs and governments. Our partnership with UNICEF is a great example where we support its global sanitation programme, focused on behaviour change and capacity building.
Since 2012, through our Domestos brand, Unilever has helped over 5 million people gain access to a toilet through behaviour change interventions and capacity building initiatives.*
Changing behaviours
On top of the infrastructure challenges linked to building a toilet, culturally many people are used to defecating in the open. Simply owning a toilet does not mean that the entire family will use it.
So it’s firstly about getting people to realise they need one. And once they have it, everyone using it, all the time. A completely new behaviour must be adopted to ensure that these challenges can be overcome in a sustainable way.
Improving sanitation
Since 2009, Domestos has been helping improve sanitation. As a leading toilet hygiene brand, it has used its marketing reach to educate consumers about the importance of sanitation, while working with partners to improve sanitation for millions of people.
In addition to its partnership with UNICEF, it is running sanitation programmes and addressing toilet maintenance in schools in Vietnam, South Africa, Turkey, Russia, Brazil, and Central and Eastern Europe (CEE), and has also set up set up a market-based model in Vietnam and India called the Domestos Toilet Academy. As part of this programme our partners train entrepreneurs to establish businesses to produce and install toilets, and provide financing for households, while generating awareness and demand.
I was in Bihar, India, recently – where we’re working with our partner PSI – and talked to one of the entrepreneurs. I was struck by his sense of pride. Not just because the job means he can provide for his family, but because he feels he’s doing something good for the community.
Watch this short video to hear from some of the people involved.
We’re also focusing on behaviour change which remains a huge challenge. We have been doing a lot of work with our experts and we are presenting our learnings at World Water Week. We hope this will encourage other partners to leverage our consumer understanding and expertise to scale up sustainable sanitation solutions.
* These results are reported by our partners in accordance with their respective methodologies and includes reach from direct and indirect initiatives