Dove and UNICEF aim to reach 16.4 million young people in India with self-esteem education materials

London and New Delhi 11 October 2024 –Dove and UNICEF announced the renewal of their partnership today, aiming to provide educational resources on self-esteem and body confidence to 16.4 million young people in India over the next two years.

Through the partnership, which began in 2019, adapted modules on self-esteem and body confidence from the Dove Self-Esteem Project and included them in UNICEF programmes that empower young people with essential life skills. In the first phase of the partnership, over seven million students benefited from the ‘Who Am I’ self-esteem lesson kits, exceeding the partnership’s goal of supporting 6.25 million students with valuable life skills materials by the end of 2023.

In the next phase, UNICEF will work with state governments to advance the life skills programme in eight states across India, aiming to address the self-esteem concerns of young people aged 11-14 and 15+ years. The learning content includes comic books that tackle issues such as gender stereotypes, appearance ideals in the media and harmful body talk, and help students to become body confidence champions.

UNICEF will make the content available through in-person trainings, the Government e-learning platform Diksha, other state learning management systems and the Passport to Earning digital platform. To expand the programme’s reach, UNICEF will encourage parents, siblings, and teachers to support boys and girls as self-esteem champions.

“When young people do not feel confident, their ability to be changemakers and build a stronger future diminishes. With the renewal of our partnership with Dove, even more young people will be supported to feel confident in their ability to stand up for their rights and fulfil their promising potential,” said UNICEF Director of Private Fundraising and Partnerships Carla Haddad Mardini.

Positive self-esteem contributes to the learning of life skills and enhances their ability to gain and retain employment. This vital work will not only contribute towards their body-confidence, but will also contribute to their retention, transition, and completion of the education cycle, enabling young people to gain the needed skills to succeed in school, work, and life.

“Since 2004, Dove has supported 114 million young people to build their body confidence and self-esteem. With so many young people feeling pressure to look a certain way, we hope that our partnership with UNICEF can support many more young people to advocate for themselves and challenge beauty standards,” said Marcela Melero, Chief Growth Officer, Dove Personal Care North America & Dove Masterbrand.

In addition to the programmes in India, during the first phase of the partnership UNICEF and Dove, reached over 130,000 adolescents in Brazil with body confidence and self-esteem materials, both through in-person sessions and online through UNICEF’s Topity chatbot. In Indonesia, over 180,000 teachers attended online training sessions to learn how to deliver self-esteem and body confidence lessons.

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Notes to editors:
UNICEF does not endorse any company, brand, product or service.

Multimedia assets, including our hero film and photography, can be accessed here.

For more information please contact:
UNICEF:
Chloe Cole, Media & Communications Manager (partnerships), [email protected]/ [email protected]

UNICEF India: Alka Gupta, UNICEF India, [email protected] ,7303259183/ 9810216226 (WA)

Dove: [email protected]

About Dove
Dove started its life in 1957 in the US, with launch of the Beauty Bar, with its patented blend of mild cleansers and ¼ moisturising cream. Dove’s heritage is rooted in care – proof, not promises grew Dove from a Beauty Bar into one of the world’s most beloved beauty brands. 

Real women have always been our inspiration, and since the beginning, Dove has been wholly committed to providing superior care to all, and to championing real representations of beauty in our advertising, communications, and campaigns. Dove believes that beauty is for everyone, and the Dove mission is to ensure a positive experience with beauty is universally accessible to all.

For 67 years, Dove has been committed to broadening the narrow definition of beauty in the work they do. This includes the ‘Dove Real Beauty Pledge,’ and commitment to:
– Portray women as they are in real life with honesty, diversity, and respect. We feature women of different ages, sizes, ethnicities, hair colour, type, and style. 

– Represent individuals with zero digital distortion, with all images approved by the women they feature.

– Help young people build body confidence and self-esteem through the Dove Self-Esteem Project, the biggest provider of self-esteem education in the world with a goal to educate 250 million young people by 2030.

About the Dove Self-Esteem Project

Dove is the largest self-esteem education provider in the world, offering no-cost, academically validated tools to parents, teachers, mentors, and kids for nearly two decades with the Dove Self-Esteem Project. To date, Dove has reached more than 114 million young people globally across 153 countries with DSEP, with a goal of reaching 250M young lives by 2030.

About UNICEF

UNICEF works in some of the world’s toughest places, to reach the world’s most disadvantaged children. Across more than 190 countries and territories, we work for every child, everywhere, to build a better world for everyone.

The UK Committee for UNICEF (UNICEF UK) raises funds for UNICEF’s emergency and development work for children. We also promote and protect children’s rights in the UK and internationally. We are a UK charity, entirely funded by supporters.

United Kingdom Committee for UNICEF (UNICEF UK), Registered Charity No. 1072612 (England & Wales), SC043677 (Scotland).

For more information visit unicef.org.uk. Follow UNICEF UK on Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook and YouTube.