Kanika Pal

• Spearheading the development and evolution of CSR Livelihoods strategy, embedding principles of social sustainability, human rights, and livelihoods into strategic decision-making to foster responsible, inclusive growth. • Driving the expansion of the SAFAL programme, enhancing social sustainability by collaborating with the sales and retail ecosystems to create sustainable livelihoods for youth, achieving a pioneering SROI of 68% and a ~20% blended external financing model—setting new benchmarks for HUL CSR initiatives. • Steering the design and oversight of livelihoods frameworks, such as Sales Pro Academy and Didi Ki Dukaan, proactively identifying risks, strengthening governance structures, and ensuring rigorous, audit-compliant data systems alongside transparent, high-integrity public disclosures. • Defining and continuously evolving Unilever's global community engagement strategy for the top 100 water stewardship sites, aligning environmental, social, and governance (ESG) objectives with community impact. • Administering advocacy on living wages, livelihoods, and ethical supply chains, positioning the company as a thought leader in driving industry standards for responsible business practices. • Representing company externally as a thought leader, tracking and analyzing emerging social and geopolitical trends to shape proactive, strategic business responses. • Forging strategic, high-impact partnerships with governments, multilateral organizations, civil society, and industry platforms, driving collective progress in skills development and entrepreneurship at scale. • Innovating HUL’s volunteering strategy through CSR initiatives, creating an impactful framework that leverages employee engagement to drive social change and enhance community outreach.

- Set up the sustainability department and realigned the organisation sustainability strategy, governance framework and goals to reflect government priorities aligned with business objectives - Fostered internal performance management by incorporating metrics that assess the impact of sustainability-related activities, providing valuable insights for strategic decision-making. - Developed a region-specific training and awareness plan, empowering employees to be sustainability advocates. - Supported the sustainability reporting within and outside the organisation while working with a cross-functional team of comms, finance and legal. Also helped from time to time in the presentations for the board meeting, investors, contributing to the ESG risk register etc. Also supported the sustainability audit requirements for publishing externally. - Strategized and enabled meaningful relationships on the future of work agenda with diverse internal and external stakeholders, including customers, NGOs, governments, and communities. - Became a part of the top ten people in the Management Committee's strategy co-creation workshop for the company, representing Sustainability priorities. Also was part of the HUL Leaders Forum for top 100 employees shaping the future of the company.

Under the key Challenge “Work, Wages and Job Creation”, I have been invited by WEF as a social sector expert, to be a member of the working group on Unlocking Social Economy. The Working Group has four main objectives: 1. Provide strategic guidance on the structure of the report on Advancing the Social Economy: Policies to drive social inclusion, innovation and enterprise to be released in Davos 2. Engage in a strategic thought process about delivering change through public-private cooperation in the social economy. 3. Share insights, data and best practices on the social economy; 4. Identify opportunities for communication and dissemination of the report.

UNICEF YuWaah’s Leaders Council is part of YuWaah’s governance structure and is an advisory group comprising of select thought leaders and champions for young people with a breadth of practical experience and technical expertise. It is presently chaired by the United Nations Resident Coordinator (UN in India) and Secretary (Youth Affairs), Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports, Government of India.

- Created and led impact driven community programmes such as Prabhat and SAFAL, benefitting over 10 million people - Developed and drove the region’s approach to water stewardship in collaboration with the factory teams

Prabhat, under HUL's CSR is the holistic community development initiative, aligned with Unilever Compass (earlier Unilever Sustainable Living Plan - USLP) across the value chain. The key areas of Prabhat programme are – economic empowerment, environmental sustainability, health and education. From its launch in December 2013 in eight locations in India, Prabhat is live in over 30 locations (factories, branches, depots) across South Asia. My key responsibilities as Lead - Prabhat include: - Building and executing the strategy on "sustainable and inclusive communities" creation in HUL locations - Aligning it with UN SDGs, NITI Ayog development indicator and other national priorities. To that end, prototype, test and iterate development projects that can work on ground and back it with evidence based recommendations on value proposition for HUL and its communities - Identify and drive key partnerships with stakeholders across NGOs, private and public sector and multi-lateral and bi-lateral organisations for the mission of creating 'smart'/ 'model' / 'sustainable'/ 'eco'/ 'inclusive' villages or communities - Maximising the 'purpose' of HUL and the social mission of its brands through 'Prabhat' interventions - Analysing technology leverage in development projects around every factory location of HUL, to achieve the mission of 'Prabhat' under HUL's CSR - Mentoring and guiding teams on implementing effective programs on ground - Managing budgets and CSR forecasts viz-a-viz Prabhat - Ensuring quality of Prabhat's delivery on global USLP agenda - Representing the organisation internally and externally on Prabhat / CSR / Sustainable Community Development

Leading the CSR function for the network of 31 channels and providing leadership in expanding the CSR business integration, strengthening CSR processes and governance. My role included providing CSR strategy, networking and liaising for strategic partnerships, NGO due diligence, management & trainings, CSR budget control, project design and implementation, monitoring and evaluation, and communications. • Strategising to align CSR with business objectives and identifying new projects under environment, education and empowerment • Providing detailed framework for employee volunteering programme, aligning with existing CSR programmes • Streamlining NGO partner working, viz-a-viz budget control and reconciliation, timely reporting, monitoring and evaluation of programmes • Planning and forecasting overall CSR budget to ensure future readiness of projects • Managing the development sector communication and engagement plan for the global Picture This Festival for the Planet, inviting speakers, case studies and short films on SDGs

SoCHE is a social enterprise aimed at promoting environment conservation, especially among marginalised communities such as potters. As a Founder, I have contributed towards organisation development and given it strategic direction to contribute towards sustainable development goals 13, 12 and 17 through: • Reducing pollution emanating from potters’ baking kilns in Delhi, by creating a first of its kind energy efficient kiln at affordable cost • Documenting the cultural heritage of handicrafts such as ‘Kalavat’ in remote villages ahead of Barmer that have not been documented thus far • Up cycling Barmer's embroidered patches into high end sustainable fashion for promoting sustainable living. These garments have been showcased at India Runway Week season 8 & 9. • Planning, designing and implementing environment advocacy initiatives under the banner of 'Nature's Jamboree' among masses through strategic partnerships and tie-ups with different schools, NGOs and corporations • Preparing financial and operational forecasts, implementation plan, involving volunteers for different projects, monitor and evaluate ongoing programs, document outcomes, successes, and areas for improvement • Building and expanding visibility of the foundation including generation and management of content for social media, outreach, website, brochures, posters, films, PR and overall communication • Networking and liaising for funds generation of different projects on an on-going basis

- Leading company’s sustainability efforts including strategising and identifying risks, opportunities and areas of intervention to reduce resource consumption - Undertaking carbon footprinting, stakeholder engagement, materiality assessment, sustainability reporting, natural capital accounting - Designing relevant sustainability and CSR projects for different stakeholders across value chain and managing the budget for same - Front-running the environment vertical aimed at responsible behaviour change for resource conservation among stakeholders for water, sanitation, hygiene (WASH), waste management, energy conservation, emission reduction and biodiversity enhancement: from setting the vision, strategizing, providing practical guidance for budgeting and implementing, to advocacy and outreach - Internal communications for building a culture of Sustainability and CSR; providing technical support to teams to implement innovative behavior change communication strategies through different learning tools, education materials, mid-media activities and other outreach approaches - Leading research work on environment impact related to issues of biodiversity, end-of-life tyres, innovative waste management, WASH etc - External assessments on sustainability risks for other corporations especially down the value chain - Representing the organisation at relevant CSR and Sustainability forums nationally and internationally - Managing and liasoning with external stakholders such as NGOs, business partners, customers for different CSR and Sustainability projects - Guiding teams in manufacturing locations to identify relevant community projects linked to waste management, biodiversity enhancement, energy conservation and livelihood generation - Supporitng HIV-AIDS initiative at workplace, supply chain and customers - Undertaking capacity building trainings of CSR teams and Green Champions across regions - Monitoring and evaluating of different initiatives across regions