PepsiCo Foundation Announces $5 Million Grant to the Inter-American Development Bank's AquaFund

PURCHASE, N.Y. and GUAYAQUIL, Ecuador, March 17, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- The PepsiCo Foundation today announced a $5 million grant to the AquaFund, a fund launched by the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) to facilitate investment in water supply and sanitation, water resources, and solid waste management and wastewater treatment. PepsiCo Foundation is the first private sector donor to contribute to the AquaFund.

A direct output of the landmark public-private partnership initiated last month between PepsiCo (NYSE: PEP) and IDB, the grant will fund a variety of projects, including but not limited to, microcredit loans for safe water and improved sanitation projects in Latin America, reaching approximately 500,000 people in the region by the end of 2015.

The AquaFund agreement was signed today by Luis Montoya, president of PepsiCo Latin American Beverages, and Luis Alberto Moreno, president of the IDB, at the International Environment Summit in Guayaquil, Ecuador. The first PepsiCo Foundation-supported AquaFund project will launch in Peru and others are likely to be implemented in Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras and Mexico.

"PepsiCo and the PepsiCo Foundation are deeply committed to respecting the human right to water and have publicly announced a global goal to provide access to safe water to three million people in developing countries by 2015; this partnership with the IDB is a crucial step toward achieving that goal," said Indra Nooyi, Chairman and CEO of PepsiCo and Chairman of PepsiCo Foundation. "Building on the momentum of the public-private partnership with the IDB we announced in February, our contribution to the AquaFund will help drive social and economic development across Latin America."  

"In Latin America, more than 20 percent of the rural population does not have access to safe water and 45 percent lack adequate sanitation," said Luis Alberto Moreno, President of the IDB.  "PepsiCo is the first private sector organization to participate in our innovative regional trust funds for development activities, and we look forward to working together to significantly expand the AquaFund initiative, which will address the growing demands for drinking water and sanitation services in the region."

Today's announcement also marks the expansion of microfinance in the water sector, building on an innovative private sector initiative that facilitates microcredit loans for water and sanitation, launched in India with support from the PepsiCo Foundation and Water.org, a U.S.-based nonprofit committed to providing safe drinking water and sanitation. The PepsiCo Foundation made a $4.1 million grant to Water.org in 2008. As of March 2011, more than 165,000 people in India have received improved water and sanitation and more than 50,000 household water and sanitation connections have been installed as a result of this program.  

Water stewardship is a central part of Performance with Purpose – PepsiCo's mission to deliver sustainable growth by investing in a healthier future for people and our planet – and builds upon PepsiCo and the Foundation's history of supporting safe water and sanitation projects in developing countries.  

The partnership between PepsiCo and IDB aims to spur social and economic growth in 26 countries in Latin America and the Caribbean by addressing a variety of critical issues including water and sanitation, recycling, youth development, disaster relief and recovery, sustainable agriculture, nutrition and food security, and sharing knowledge and best practices about sustainability. The partnership kicked-off with an agriculture initiative in Mexico that creates a sustainable market for sunflowers, providing loans and a source of income for some 850 Mexican farmers and their families. The sunflowers will provide a source of heart-healthy high-oleic sunflower oil (HOSO) for PepsiCo products produced in Mexico under the Sabritas and Gamesa-Quaker brands. Through this partnership, PepsiCo will leverage the IDB's technical and financial strengths to maximize program impact and achieve scale, while the IDB will leverage PepsiCo Foundation resources on behalf of its development agenda for Latin America and the Caribbean.

For additional information about the partnership between PepsiCo and IDB, click here.

About PepsiCo

PepsiCo offers the world's largest portfolio of billion-dollar food and beverage brands, including 19 different product lines that generate more than $1 billion in annual retail sales each. Our main businesses -- Quaker, Tropicana, Gatorade, Frito-Lay, and Pepsi Cola -- also make hundreds of other enjoyable and wholesome foods and beverages that are respected household names throughout the world. With net revenues of approximately $60 billion, PepsiCo's people are united by our unique commitment to sustainable growth by investing in a healthier future for people and our planet, which we believe also means a more successful future for PepsiCo. We call this commitment Performance with Purpose: PepsiCo's promise to provide a wide range of foods and beverages for local tastes; to find innovative ways to minimize our impact on the environment, including by conserving energy and water usage, and reducing packaging volume; to provide a great workplace for our associates; and to respect, support, and invest in the local communities where we operate. For more information, please visit www.pepsico.com.

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About the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB)

The IDB is the main source of multilateral financing and expertise for economic, social and environmental sustainable development in Latin America and the Caribbean. The IDB priorities are reducing poverty and inequality; ensuring sustainable development; addressing sustainable energy and climate change, addressing the special needs of the poorest countries, promoting regional integration, and fostering development through the private sector. The IDB offers exceptional opportunities for partnership in areas of high social impact, leveraging its unique financial strength as the largest source of development financing for Latin America and the Caribbean. For more information, please visit: http://www.iadb.org/en/topics/public-private-partnerships/outreach-partnerships/outreach-partnerships,1716.html.

About AquaFund  

AquaFund provides grants that contribute to the achievement of the water-related Millennium Development Goals and the targets established under the IDB's Water and Sanitation Initiative.  It facilitates investment in water supply and sanitation, water resources management, solid waste management, and wastewater treatment in Latin American and the Caribbean. AquaFund resources can be used for technical assistance, policy and capacity development, knowledge creation and dissemination, project preparation and community pilot projects.  Government entities, water and sanitation service providers (public, private, mixed-capital, cooperatives), and academic and research institutions are eligible to receive AquaFund grants. NGOs may be eligible at the request of governments. For more information: www.iadb.org/aquafund.

SOURCE PepsiCo