HUF is a subsidiary of Hindustan Unilever Limited (HUL) -- India’s largest Fast Moving Consumer Goods Company. HUF is a not-for-profit company that anchors various community development initiatives of Hindustan Unilever Limited. HUF supports national priorities for socio-economic development through its ‘Water For Public Good’ programme. Each of the projects also complies with the requirements of the Companies Bill 2013.

The projects that HUF supports under its programme ‘Water for Public Good’ are based on three principles: Governance for Water, Quantity of Water and Benefits to Community.

Governance:

• HUF support actions, processes and systems that further the understanding of institutions for water management, and if need be, create new ones
• HUF facilitate working arrangements that address institutional issues, enabling government and community institutions to deliberate within and across hydrological boundaries. Such arrangements include, for example, the Watershed User groups or Tank Associations
• HUF support the creation of knowledge-management systems, working with professionals across disciplines. For example, to explore the feasibility of a standard for “community stewardship”, foundation brought together Development Support Centre (our implementing partner on Participator Irrigation Management), Deloitte (our Assurance Partner) and the Alliance for Water Stewardship.
• HUF enable community participation in public policy by supporting locals to express their views on what works best in practice.

Quantity of Water:

• HUF support measures to increase the quantity of water available by building harvesting and storage structures, and conserving moisture in the soil.
• HUF support measures to conserve water and enhance efficiency by promoting better practices for water management and efficient use of the supply, especially in agriculture.
• Over time, foundation seeks to increase understanding of the correlation between water availability and water use. Greater awareness among communities regarding the volume of water withdrawn, consumed, diverted and returned to the site, will be matched by greater awareness of availability in the catchment areas and so leads to a more prudent use.

Benefit to Community:

• HUF  encourage communities to work together to improve agricultural production
• HUF generate income for the locals from the project civil works and from downstream (livelihood) opportunities
• HUF support measures towards treating and stabilising the land, to improve long-term sustainability
• HUF encourage measures to enhance multi- functionality of water infrastructure for multiple end uses
• Foundation’s community institutions benefit the people in other tangential ways, due to the social capital created.

Goal:

• Enable knowledge & action democratise water management so that communities, other stakeholders are in both policy & decision making
• Build water conservation & storage potential
• Promote community involvement & ownership of project
• Enhanced agriculture production in project area

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