Our investment in society is borne out of a recognition of the important and symbiotic relationship we have with our communities, employees and society at large. We work hard to ensure our fenceline communities, peopled with hardworking, vibrant and talented individuals, are not only functional but thriving. Social investment is an integral part of our growth strategy.
We have adopted a multi-pronged approach to social investment that works to build the inner wealth and capacities of individuals while providing long-term infrastructural and programmatic support. It is encouraging to see these efforts beginning to bear fruit.
Many of our achievements would not have been possible without collaboration with key public, private and community stakeholders. Collective efforts yield greater impact. We are very proud of the yield of our collective efforts and we will share in more detail throughout this book, the many ways we have impacted the lives of the communities in our fenceline and society at large.
Education is crucial in securing economic and social progress. In collaboration with national and local government we have made a tremendous impact to contribute to the education of the national workforce of South Africa, focussing on STEM education. Our Sasol Foundation Trust has touched the lives of over 10 million educators and learners over the last 10 years from Early Childhood Education to Tertiary Education through our investment in education.
Skills development is an enabler for economic inclusion and growth. The complementary need for a skilled workforce around our operations and the needs of our local fenceline communities for access to economic opportunities, especially our youth, within the context of rising unemployment rates has fostered our passion to contribute to an enabling environment for young people to gain lifelong skills that allow them to participate actively in economy.
Our North American operations partnered with the Community Foundation of Southwest Louisiana to develop the Workforce Resource Guide Scholarship Program which has seen 187 scholarships awarded, and nearly 500 people attending our Workforce Readiness seminars since its inception.
Through community development, we are partnering with our communities for sustainability. Ensuring that the living conditions within our communities are conducive to economic development and growth is good business. In the last financial year we impacted over 600 000 people living within our operations in South Africa and Mozambique with investments in community infrastructure projects. Our Qatar operations continue to invest extensively in (dis) Ability programs such as the partnership with UNESCO and the Qatar National Library (QNL) launching a series of films to raise awareness about the challenges that blind and visually impaired face in their daily lives.
Through small business development, we support the integration of local economies into our value chain and beyond. Our growth and investment should enable the growth and development of SMMEs both within and outside of our supply chain. That is why in Nigeria we supported over 300 young entrepreneurs to undergo training in business education in the Mushin and Yaba areas of Lagos giving potential access to economic activity. Our Sasol Siyakha Trust, whose focus is Enterprise and Supplier development in South Africa, entered into a R400 million agreement with Nduna Maritime, the first ever locally-owned maritime vehicle, a huge step forward on our supply chain transformation journey representing our single largest funding agreement to date.
We look forward to seeing our partnerships continue amplify our work and legacy within our fenceline communities. During the past year we entered into strategic partnerships that will support our collective efforts:
In South Africa we entered into a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the Department of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (COGTA) whose main aim is to foster a greater understanding of the synergies between the private sector and the public sector and strengthen collaboration on the implementation of initiatives in our fenceline communities. This is a continuation of our partnership which began in 2012 through our Ikusasa Programme, focusing on infrastructure development in communities, education, health, as well as skills development to mention but a few, in the Metsimaholo and Govan Mbeki Municipalities.
In Mozambique, we signed a US$20 million commitment as part of our Local Development Agreement (LDA) with our key stakeholders in Mozambique, government and communities. The LDA is a strategic agreement on programmes to be implemented in our fenceline communities. More information on our LDA and key projects will be discussed in the Mozambique section.
As part of our stakeholder commitments, we have designed an internal process dedicated to checking progress against delivery of our commitments to stakeholders externally, which is reported on a quarterly basis to the Policy, Sustainability and Stakeholder Relations Committee (PSSR), a sub-committee of the Group Executive Committee and the Safety, Social and Ethics Committee (SSE), a sub-committee of the Board. In this way we remain responsive to stakeholder issues and identify material issues that impact both the organization and stakeholders.
In the coming year, our aim is to engage more deliberately, with our fenceline communities and key stakeholders, around the development of our social investment initiatives to ensure that they are relevant to all parties and target the sweet spot of shared value for all.
We have laid a solid foundation for the past 70 years that will ensure that Sasol remains relevant and our growth supports our communities through continued focus on our key focus areas, harnessing the vast resources in the countries in which we operate, for the greater good of our global community of employees, communities and key stakeholders.
