Social responsibility

The SOMDIAA Group wrote a social chart in which it recognizes the growing importance of its social responsibility.
Abiding by its social objectives all the while following strict ethics and respecting the environment is for the SOMDIAA a critical condition for the durability of the Group's businesses.

Going beyond legal requirements and the declaration of human rights, the SOMDIAA Group is committed to empowering its employees in an atmosphere of openness and sharing across its affiliates.
In keeping with the fundamental rights of employees socially-aware development expands from industrial operations to other areas such as training, quality, safety, hygiene, health and the protection of the environment.

We have taken part in a number of initiatives on a voluntary basis in support of education, local community outreach, sustainable development and environmental standard enforcement with a view to conducting our activities in a responsible and seamless fashion.

Training

Training is one of the SOMDIAA Group's top priority focuses as it helps raise general skill levels and bring our African affiliates in line with other global companies in terms of technical capacity.
The Group grants the utmost importance to its training programs and allocates a significant portion of its budget in that regard, thus showing how its actions fit into the strategy defined by the Group's Corporate Office.
Each affiliate writes and signs an annual training program comprising specific objectives, and determines the training needs of company employees.

Product quality

Since 2002, the Group's sugar plants have been working on implementing a consistent quality approach.
The system that was set up based on the ISO 9001 standard aims at reaching an optimal quality level for each of the Group's products supplied to industrial customers, traditional producers, retailers or end-consumers.
Moving beyond better customer satisfaction this quality approach helps us keep improving our industrial process.

Safety and hygiene

Safety is another key focus for the SOMDIAA Group as it enforces safety regulations and increases security across its sites.
A collective committee on hygiene and safety (Comité d'Hygiène et de Sécurité Collectif au Travail; HSCT) was set up for each site.
On site training programs are facilitated depending on the concerned workshops in order to raise awareness among employees.
Safety procedures have been specially designed taking into account the specific risks associated with the agro-industry while emphasizing the importance of prevention.
Workshops and seminars facilitated by the Group on an annual basis give an opportunity to tighten requirements in terms of prevention in Africa.

Health

The SOMDIAA Group takes health matters quite seriously when it comes to its African employees and their families. It strives to foster work conditions exempt of specific health hazards, and a safe and healthy environment fostering better knowledge and practices.
As a result, the Group set up and maintains a hospital in the city of N'Kayi, Congo.
In Cameroon, a health center was also set up within the SOSUCAM facilities with an ambulance service, doctors and nurses.
In addition, the Group finances and manages volunteer medical outreach programs on an annual basis in conjunction with famous organizations such as the Lion's Club.

Faced with HIV-associated issues in Africa the SOMDIAA Group has worked with SIDA-Entreprise since 2003 both as a member and as a director.

Environmental protection

Following the model used to address the quality issue the SOMDIAA Group decided to implement a real environmental policy based on the 14001 standard.
This initiative helps us better control our waste in the air, soil and water, cut our resource use (energy and water) and establish a real waste processing plan. It must take into account the challenging operational conditions in our sugar plants as their distance from urban centers makes it difficult to ensure optimal waste collection and recycling management.