Natura Cosméticos of Brazil, one of Latin America's largest cosmetics firms, has pledged to provide new skills training to low-income sales representatives in Mexico as part of its commitment to the Business Call to Action (BCtA), a global anti-poverty initiative backed by the UN Development Programme (UNDP).

Natura expects to integrate all of its nearly 74,300 beauty advisers into a specialized job training programme aimed at optimizing and upgrading job skills and self-development over the next three years, the company said. The training modules, designed by Natura, are expected to increase productivity as well as earning potential by teaching essential business skills and self-knowledge. Some of the training offered includes strategic planning, direct sales, computer skills, customer service, accounting, and project management. There is also a focus on creating self-awareness and helping the consultants become agents for change in their own communities.

Some 98 percent of Natura’s beauty advisers in Mexico now are women who lack formal education or prior work experience. Natura, as part of its focus on sustainability, hopes to empower its advisers with entrepreneurial skills that will serve them well in the future.

Natura employs 7,000 staff and more that 1.5 million beauty advisers globally, with 110 staff and 74,275 beauty advisers in Mexico alone, as of December 2012.

“This important commitment represents a new, multi-level direct sales model that embraces entrepreneurship and social responsibility. Natura consultants have the opportunity to develop skills and capacities to improve their relationship with themselves, their communities, and the whole,” Natura CEO Alessandro Carlucci said.

“This commitment to BCtA demonstrates that companies can have simultaneous commercial and development impacts across varied industries and regions,” BCtA Programme Manager Sahba Sobhani said. “Through innovation, investment, and adaptation of business models to the needs of low-income people, the private sector continues to play a viable role in promoting equitable economic development.”

Enhanced and specialized skills training provide valuable support that prevents people from falling into poverty and primes them for social and economic success. Through its commitment to BCtA, Natura will expand training for low- and middle-income consumers in Mexico and introduce affordable new products in the fast-growing cosmetics industry.

“For Natura, relationships are critical to direct sales and building sustainable development models in new and innovative markets. For this reason we are more than pleased to support women and the important role they bring to the cosmetics market,” Carlucci said.

With a strong focus on human development and basic business skills training, the program also aims to transform sales representatives into inspired entrepreneurs, aligned with the Natura brand.

To learn more, contact:

BCtA: Suba Sivakumaran, suba.sivakumaran@undp.org, Tel: +1 212 906 5820

Natura: Vivian Broge, vivianbroge@natura.net, Tel: +5511 041478750

About the Business Call to Action (BCtA)

Business Call to Action is a global initiative that challenges companies to develop inclusive business models that offer the potential for development impact along with commercial success. The initiative is the result of a partnership between the Australian Agency for International Development (AusAID), the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida), UK Department for International Development (DFID), US Agency for International Development (USAID), United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the United Nations Global Compact, the Clinton Global Initiative, and the International Business Leaders Forum to meet the anti-poverty Millennium Development Goals by 2015. Companies report on progress toward commitments on an annual basis. www.businescalltoaction.org

@BCtAInitiative on Twitter

About Natura Cosmeticos

Natura is one of the largest cosmetics, toiletry, and fragrance companies in Latin America. Based in Cajamar, Sao Paulo, it employs nearly 7,000 staff and more than 1,500 million beauty advisers around the globe—with its primary markets in Brazil and Mexico, respectively. In 2011, Natura was named the eighth most innovative company in the world by Forbes Magazine. For the last four years, Natura has been ranked as the second most sustainable company in the world by the 100 Global Sustainability Ranking. www.natura.net

@naturanet on Twitter

Business Call to Action (BCtA)

Business Call to Action (BCtA)

Business Call to Action is a global joint advocacy platform that works to accelerate progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by challenging and supporting companies to develop inclusive business models that offer the potential for both commercial success and development impact. It is hosted by the United Nations Development Programme and funded by Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida), Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation, UK Department for International Development (DFID). To date, 230 companies from around the world have signed on to commit to contribute to the SDGs, from large multinational companies to national and small- and medium-enterprises in 70 countries.

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