The Caterpillar Foundation Announces $11 Million in Investments for Africa's Future Through Water, Energy and Women

WASHINGTON, Aug. 4, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- The Caterpillar Foundation, supported by Caterpillar Inc. CAT, continues working to alleviate poverty worldwide, including on the African continent, through a series of investments. Since 2010 alone, corporate social innovation has driven the Caterpillar Foundation to invest $30 million in African programs that address access to clean water, energy, empowering girls and women and microfinance, as well as food and shelter. The Foundation targets investments to organizations working in areas of policy that will enable sustainable growth and development across the continent.

"The Caterpillar Foundation is committed to finding ways to spur vibrant growth in Africa," said Doug Oberhelman, Caterpillar Chairman & CEO. "Just as it has in other parts of the world, the Foundation is investing to help millions of Africans become economically self-sufficient. The investments announced today will provide essentials – water, energy and opportunity – to help families and communities build and grow."

ONE Campaign – Advocacy and Public Policy
The Caterpillar Foundation is making an initial investment of $5 million with the ONE Campaign to address advocacy and public policy needs and the lack of access to power, which is a key factor in making it more difficult for Africa to lift itself out of poverty. The Caterpillar Foundation plans to announce an additional grant with ONE later this year.

"ONE is incredibly grateful for the Caterpillar Foundation's investment in our work to help bring reliable supplies of energy to the nearly 600 million people across Africa who presently lack it," said Michael Elliot, ONE Campaign CEO. "We're also excited about continuing our partnership with the Foundation to enhance global advocacy and campaigning around the world that inspires citizens to use their voices and take action to end extreme poverty by 2030."

charity: water – Water Distribution Pipeline Extension
The Caterpillar Foundation is investing nearly $5 million to bring clean water to two countries in Africa through charity: water, whose mission is to bring clean and safe drinking water to every person in the world.

The investment will help fund an extension of a current water distribution pipeline into two underserved countries in Africa: Tanzania and Ethiopia. An extension of this pipeline and the addition of water access points are expected to benefit more than 126,000 Tanzanians and Ethiopians who currently travel long distances to collect water from unsanitary sources.

"Since 2010, charity: water, with the help of the Caterpillar Foundation, has worked to bring clean water to almost 100,000 people throughout Africa and beyond," said Scott Harrison, charity: water CEO. "charity: water is honored to work with Caterpillar Foundation in such a significant way and looks forward to putting thousands more people on the path to prosperity together."

United Nations Foundation – Clean Cookstove Initiative
As cooking and fuel collection largely remain a woman's responsibility in many African countries, the health and economic effects of household air pollution from traditional cookstoves disproportionately impact girls and women. The Caterpillar Foundation is investing more than $1 million in energy and cookstoves programs to help address this deadly issue in Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria and Uganda.

Through a United Nations Foundation program, the money will help teach them about the dangers of traditional cooking and the benefits of adopting clean cooking solutions.

"By involving women and girls in the design and sale of clean cookstoves and fuels, we can increase project effectiveness and help scale the adoption of clean cooking products and services around the world," said Radha Muthiah, executive director of the Global Alliance for Clean Cookstoves. "With the Caterpillar Foundation's support, we can better integrate women into the value chain and, in doing so, improve the health and well-being of women across Africa."

A common thread of all three programs is the fact they target the root causes of poverty, which is key to Caterpillar's corporate social innovation strategy. Moving forward, the Caterpillar Foundation will increase its focus on similar programs throughout the countries of Africa.

About Caterpillar:
For nearly 90 years, Caterpillar Inc. has been making sustainable progress possible and driving positive change on every continent. Customers turn to Caterpillar to help them develop infrastructure, energy and natural resource assets. With 2013 sales and revenues of $55.656 billion, Caterpillar is the world's leading manufacturer of construction and mining equipment, diesel and natural gas engines, industrial gas turbines and diesel-electric locomotives. The company principally operates through its three product segments - Resource Industries, Construction Industries and Energy & Transportation - and also provides financing and related services through its Financial Products segment. For more information, visit caterpillar.com. To connect with us on social media, visit caterpillar.com/social-media.

About the Caterpillar Foundation:
Caterpillar Inc. supports the philanthropic efforts of the Caterpillar Foundation. Founded in 1952, the Caterpillar Foundation has contributed more than $550 million to help make sustainable progress possible around the world by providing program support in the areas of environmental sustainability, access to education and basic human needs. To learn more about the global impact of the Caterpillar Foundation, please visit caterpillar.com/foundation.

Forward-looking Statements:
Certain statements in this release relate to future events and expectations and are forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Words such as "believe," "estimate," "will be," "will," "would," "expect," "anticipate," "plan," "project," "intend," "could," "should" or other similar words or expressions often identify forward-looking statements. All statements other than statements of historical fact are forward-looking statements, including, without limitation, statements regarding our outlook, projections, forecasts or trend descriptions. These statements do not guarantee future performance, and we do not undertake to update our forward-looking statements.

Caterpillar's actual results may differ materially from those described or implied in our forward-looking statements based on a number of factors, including, but not limited to: (i) global economic conditions and economic conditions in the industries we serve; (ii) government monetary or fiscal policies and infrastructure spending; (iii) commodity price changes, component price increases, fluctuations in demand for our products or significant shortages of component products; (iv) disruptions or volatility in global financial markets limiting our sources of liquidity or the liquidity of our customers, dealers and suppliers; (v) political and economic risks, commercial instability and events beyond our control in the countries in which we operate; (vi) failure to maintain our credit ratings and potential resulting increases to our cost of borrowing and adverse effects on our cost of funds, liquidity, competitive position and access to capital markets; (vii) our Financial Products segment's risks associated with the financial services industry; (viii) changes in interest rates or market liquidity conditions; (ix) an increase in delinquencies, repossessions or net losses of Cat Financial's customers; (x) new regulations or changes in financial services regulations; (xi) a failure to realize, or a delay in realizing, all of the anticipated benefits of our acquisitions, joint ventures or divestitures; (xii) international trade policies and their impact on demand for our products and our competitive position; (xiii) our ability to develop, produce and market quality products that meet our customers' needs; (xiv) the impact of the highly competitive environment in which we operate on our sales and pricing; (xv) failure to realize all of the anticipated benefits from initiatives to increase our productivity, efficiency and cash flow and to reduce costs; (xvi) additional restructuring costs or a failure to realize anticipated savings or benefits from past or future cost reduction actions; (xvii) inventory management decisions and sourcing practices of our dealers and our OEM customers; (xviii) compliance with environmental laws and regulation; (xix) alleged or actual violations of trade or anti-corruption laws and regulations; (xx) additional tax expense or exposure; (xxi) currency fluctuations; (xxii) our or Cat Financial's compliance with financial covenants; (xxiii) increased pension plan funding obligations; (xxiv) union disputes or other employee relations issues; (xxv) significant legal proceedings, claims, lawsuits or investigations; (xxvi) compliance requirements imposed if additional carbon emissions legislation and/or regulations are adopted; (xxvii) changes in accounting standards; (xxviii) failure or breach of IT security; (xxix) adverse effects of unexpected events including natural disasters; and (xxx) other factors described in more detail under "Item 1A. Risk Factors" in our Form 10-K filed with the SEC on February 18, 2014, for the year ended December 31, 2013, and in our Form 10-Q filed with the SEC on August 1, 2014, for the quarter ended June 30, 2014.

SOURCE Caterpillar