KUALA LUMPUR, June 4 — Global luxury beauty brand Clé de Peau Beauté and Unicef have concluded the first year of their renewed partnership, reaching more than three million girls around the world.

This puts the partnership on track to unlock the potential of even more girls than projected by 2025.

Driving this success is the partnership’s Skills4Girls initiatives, which incorporate a range of innovative programs working with and for girls around the world, connecting them to the STEM knowledge and skills they need to be competitive in the 21st century workforce.

Globally, one in four girls aged 15 to 19 years old is neither employed nor in education or training compared to one in 10 boys of the same age.

The transformative Skills4Girls initiatives are designed to help address this gender inequality.

"Over 90% of jobs worldwide have a digital component but options remain limited or non-existent for girls, especially adolescent girls, in these male-dominated fields.

"We are thrilled to see such significant progress made in bridging the STEM gender gap in only the first year of our renewed partnership with Clé de Peau Beauté,” said Unicef Director of Private Fundraising and Partnerships Carla Haddad Mardini.

The partnership began in 2019 and was renewed in 2023 with the new goal of reaching 5.7 million girls in Bangladesh, China, Indonesia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Namibia, Niger, Peru, Uzbekistan and Vietnam by 2025.

To see this impactful work in action, a group of Unicef and Clé de Peau Beauté representatives, including Clé de Peau Beauté Chief Brand Officer Mizuki Hashimoto recently visited Bangladesh — one of the partnership’s main supported regions — to witness the benefits up close.

"All of us at Clé de Peau Beauté are so proud to see our partnership with Unicef making such a positive impact on the lives of girls across Bangladesh. It truly was a thought-provoking experience.

"Our support for the National Curriculum and Textbook Board is transforming the educational system on a national level through redesigned, gender-responsive, skills-based curricula and textbooks that are equipping students for the 21st century,” said Hashimoto.

Clé de Peau Beauté has pledged the world's largest private sector contribution of US$17.4 million (RM81.6 million) to Unicef’s Gender Equality Program since the partnership started in 2019.

This contribution is funded through the brand’s global Cause-Related Marketing Campaign, where US$3 (RM14) from every purchase of The Serum, one of the brand’s best-selling products, benefits Unicef’s on-the-ground work.

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