Coca-Cola Saksham 2.0 – bringing change DigitALLy & locally

KATHMANDU: Women’s empowerment and gender equality can hasten societal development. This is why Coca-Cola is focusing on these factors in order to have a positive impact on society.

Coca-Cola Nepal is resuming the Saksham training program as Saksham 2.0 after an impactful season in 2022.

Through its one-day training session, Saksham 2.0 intends to strengthen and empower another 1000 women grocery retailers and Eating & Drinking owners across the country.

Saksham 2022 was launched in March 2022 with the goal of increasing the capacity of micro and small-scale female entrepreneurs in and outside of Kathmandu Valley to improve their entrepreneurial knowledge and capacity for growth and innovation.

It was able to create a one-of-a-kind and shared platform for over 1000 women to learn from one another and share challenges and insights in order to run their businesses more efficiently and effectively.

Saksham 2.0 aims to support the theme of this year’s International Women’s Day, “DigitALL: Innovation and Technology for Gender Equality,” by raising awareness that women can and will run businesses that are innovative in building a flourishing society.

Thus, the Saksham 2.0 program is intended to increase the financial literacy, hospitality, sanitation management, and use of digital wallets of women retailers and women-owned small restaurant owners.

Saksham 2.0 will support startups and potential startups this year through a tailored mentorship program. The program will focus on equipping young women with the knowledge and skills they need to design and grow their businesses and ideas.

Mr. Deepak Nath Senthil, Managing Director of Bottlers Nepal Limited shared, “Through Saksham, we are focusing on strengthening the entrepreneurial skills and knowledge of 1000 women running grocery and E&D stores. Our women retailers have started their ventures through their own investments that they have scaled up over the years of growing their business. We hope to add value to their growth through our training program. I hope all the participants of Saksham 2.0 make the maximum of available resources and networks.

Mr. Adarsh Awasthi, Country Director of Coca-Cola in Nepal shared, “Here at Coca-Cola, we believe that women empowerment and gender equality is very vital for the overall development of a society. 5by20, STAR Program, and Saksham have successfully transformed the lives of those who participated in a positive way. We are hopeful that Saksham 2.0 will also carry on to create new success stories of another 1000 female entrepreneurs and be able to contribute to build a society that is gender-just and DigitALLy empowered.

Retailers who are less than a year old in their business can also apply for the mentorship program.

Nepal’s new constitution of 2015 prioritizes diversity, equity, and inclusion. Coca-Cola plays an important role in imparting and thus expanding the vision of government-sponsored programs. This can be seen in Coca-various Cola’s female empowerment initiatives over the years.

Coca-Cola announced the ambitious 5by20 program in 2010, with the goal of enabling the economic empowerment of 5 million female entrepreneurs across its value chain by 2020. In addition, Coca-Cola Nepal has successfully run the STAR (Shopkeeper Training and Resources) program for 5,800 retail women over the last six years.