Last Updated: 2023.11.07
Fast Retailing and UNHCR Strengthen Global Partnership
FAST RETAILING CO., LTD.
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Fast Retailing and UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, today announce the signing of a new four-year global partnership agreement to strengthen their response to the world's growing refugee crisis.
Since 2006, Fast Retailing has been working with UNHCR to provide clothing to refugees and their supporting communities around the globe. In 2011, to offer more comprehensive support towards responding to the global forced displacement crisis, Fast Retailing became the first company based in Asia to enter into an official global partnership with UNHCR.
To date, the company has provided more than 50.5 million items of clothing to refugees and people in need in 80 countries and regions around the world, both through its partnership with UNHCR and with other non-government organizations. Additionally, Fast Retailing has also been working to provide emergency assistance and self-reliance programs for refugees around the world.
In late October, Filippo Grandi, United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, and Tadashi Yanai, Fast Retailing Chairman, President and CEO, held a meeting at Fast Retailing's Ariake headquarters in Tokyo to strengthen their partnership. At the meeting, the two exchanged opinions on the increasingly serious challenges facing refugees and other people forced to flee, and Fast Retailing pledged to further expand its support, based on the belief that private companies have an essential role to play in responding to the refugee crisis.
Speaking of the renewed partnership, Tadashi Yanai said: "As the world becomes increasingly divided, the refugee crisis has become more critical than ever before. As a company with operations around the world, global stability and peace are the cornerstones of all our business activities. To achieve this, in addition to efforts to prevent increases in the number of refugees, we must provide protection and support self-reliance for people currently living as refugees. Through our clothing business, we will expand our support in these areas and work with UNHCR towards building better futures for people around the world."
Filippo Grandi also commented, saying: "My sincere thanks to Fast Retailing for continuing our partnership for another four years. With more than 114 million people forcibly displaced, this support is more important than ever. Our partnership is an example of how business can assist people forced to flee through their products, direct funding, advocacy, and expertise. I hope other companies will pledge similar support at the forthcoming Global Refugee Forum."
As part of this global partnership, Koji Yanai, Fast Retailing Director and Group Senior Executive Officer, is scheduled to participate in a discussion at the second Global Refugee Forum, to be held in Geneva, Switzerland, from December 13 to 15, 2023, a forum which Japan is a co-convener with a few other states. Held every four years, the forum is hosted by UNHCR and the Government of Switzerland and is the world's largest international conference on refugees, bringing together stakeholders from governments, the private sector, academia, civil society, and refugees themselves from around the world.
To achieve the goals set out in the Global Compact on Refugees--an agreement for the international community to work together for the protection of refugees--attendees of the forum will meet to discuss best practices in refugee assistance, share the results of their activities, and discuss future challenges and opportunities.
As part of its continuing global partnership with UNHCR, Fast Retailing's main efforts over the next four years to support refugees, and other people forced to flee, are as follows:
1. Total contribution of US$6 million over four years
Fast Retailing will donate a total of US$6 million (approximately ¥900 million) over four years to assist a wide range of activities, including logistical support for clothing donations, emergency aid, support for employment and self-reliance activities, and communication initiatives.
Among these activities, supporting the self-sufficiency of refugees and internally displaced people is an urgent issue. Since November 2022, as one of the key activities of their partnership, Fast Retailing and UNHCR have been carrying out a skills development project for Rohingya refugee women at the world's largest refugee camp in Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh. In addition to providing the funding for this project, Fast Retailing will also engage in other activities including the dispatch of Fast Retailing employees to UNHCR to provide on-ground support. Additionally, in the event of emergency requests for assistance from UNHCR, Fast Retailing will continue to provide necessary additional support.
2. Donation of proceeds from the PEACE FOR ALL project
UNIQLO's PEACE FOR ALL is a charity T-shirt project developed from the idea of "sincerely wishing for world peace and taking action." Through this project, UNIQLO parent company Fast Retailing will continue to donate all profits (equivalent to 20% of the sale price of each T-shirt) divided equally between three international aid organizations, including UNHCR. Donations to UNHCR will be used for emergency aid, skills development and livelihood projects, and awareness-raising activities undertaken through the company's global partnership, as well as to provide timely support for other global initiatives as the need arises.
3. Clothing donations amounting to 10 million garments per year
Fast Retailing will increase its current support of donating clothing to refugee camps around the world from approximately 7 million items to 10 million items a year. In line with this increase, the company will also increase funding to cover the costs associated with UNHCR's logistics and distribution of clothing around the world, to ensure stable and prompt clothing support. In addition to providing winter clothing, which is in high demand around the world, Fast Retailing will do its best to also meet specific individual requests, such as the provision of uniforms and kids' clothes. Finally, the company will continue to coordinate with UNHCR to ensure that its clothing donations are meeting the needs of refugees and people in need appropriately and without waste.
