Global Compact – UN Women

Event on Women’s Empowerment

AM & PM Meetings

Thematic Event Pays Tribute to ‘Women’s Empowerment Principles’; Secretary-General

Says Private-Sector Buy-in for Women Vital to Sustainable Development

 

UN-Women’s Executive Director Says ‘Principles’ Spreading

To National Level along Supply Chains Linked to Willing Businesses

An unbreakable link between women’s empowerment and sustainable development was underlined today by United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, UN-Women head Michelle Bachelet and a range of private-sector executives, as they marked the second anniversary of the Women’s Empowerment Principles.

The Principles — a set of seven steps companies can take to empower women in the workplace, marketplace and the community — also gained their four-hundredth corporate adherent today, announced early this morning by Georg Kell, Executive Director of the Global Compact Office, the United Nations unit that promotes responsible globalization and that, along with UN-Women, co-hosted today’s event. 

The event, which included nearly 200 business leaders and representatives from civil society, Governments and the United Nations, was entitled “Equality Means Business:  Gender Equality for Sustainable Business”, emphasizing the lead up to the major United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development (Rio+20) set for June.

“Companies must realize that women’s empowerment is not a human resources problem”, Secretary-General Ban said as he opened the meeting.  “Do not isolate the issue in this way”.  Sustainable development was impossible to achieve without empowering the world’s women and without a buy-in from the private sector, he stressed.

New maternity leave policies, equalization of compensation and entrepreneurship training for women in poor rural areas had already been sparked by the Principles, strengthening the contribution women made to achieving sustainable development in their societies, he said.

Executive Director Bachelet concurred that gender equality was essential for growth that was inclusive and sustainable, through the creation of what she called a “healthy economy”.  To that end, the Empowerment Principles were reaching the national level, spreading along the supply chains of companies that had signed on.  She said that women’s increased participation in the political sphere, which was a major focus of UN-Women this year, would amplify that effort.  

“Gender diversity is not a burden, it is a blessing,” according to Güler Sabanci, Chairperson and Managing Director of Sabanci Holdings of Turkey, who made opening remarks today, stating that “gender diversity leads to higher performance; it is already measurable”.  It made perfect business sense, she added, because it broadened the pool of available talent and brought in new perspectives along with social responsibility, which led to greater sustainability. 

She stressed, however, that “this is a long journey which requires serious effort.”  In her company, she said, she spoke of the principles at every available opportunity to create an atmosphere conducive to inclusion.  “The leadership has to own the whole thing.”

The other opening speaker, Joseph Keefe, Chief Executive Officer of Pax World Management LLC, was an early embracer of the Principles and spoke of them from an investor’s perspective.  Citing sources that said the best clue to a nation’s growth potential was the status and role of women, he added that it was also an excellent clue to a company’s growth potential. 

In that context, “we should begin to see gender equality as an investment asset”, he said.  He said companies’ potentials for growth could be predicted by their policies for women’s advancement and whether they had women executives.

To find the best candidates for jobs, he insisted that women were in the finalist pool for every posting.  Then the best person in the pool was selected.  “I’m tired of hearing it’s a supply problem,” he said, maintaining that the Principles were a great aid in getting women into position to contribute to their best abilities.

Following the opening session, the meeting went into thematic discussions moderated by Linda Tarr-Whelan, Distinguished Senior Fellow at Demos.  The first two-part session was entitled “Moving the Gender Equality Dial:  The Women’s Equality Principles in Action”, which showcased innovative approaches and cutting-edge initiatives that companies have initiated to implement the seven Principles.

The first part of that discussion, subtitled “Innovation and Inclusion”, included Tinna Nielson, Senior Diversity Consultant at Arla Foods amba; Ursula Schwarzenbart, Chief Diversity Officer of Daimler AG; Alethea Lodge-Clarke, Programme Manager of Public Private Partnerships of Microsoft Corporation; Naila Chowdhury, Chief Executive Officer at Grameen Solutions; Maya Margie, Head of Marketing and Products Development of BLC Bank; and Kasumi Blessing, Diversity Consultant, Diversity & Inclusion of Novo Nordisk A/S.

The second part of the session, subtitled “Setting the Pace:  Multi-Stakeholder Efforts at the National Level”, looked at multi-stakeholder efforts being undertaken at the national level to encourage the private sector to embrace the Principles.

That discussion included Gudrun Sander, Senior Lecturer and Vice Director of the Executive School of Management, Technology and Law of the University of St. Gallen; Anna Paula Dacar, LAA General Manager, Dow Brasil SA; Pinaki Roy, Independent Consultant; Alka Pathak, Chief Advocacy and External Relations Officer, and Rashmi Singh, Director, Gender Equity and Development, of CARE India; Shalini Sarin, Vice President for Human Resources at Schneider Electric India; Heather Smith, Lead Sustainability Research Analyst for Pax World Management LLC; Nomsa Daniels, Executive Director of New Faces New Voices; and Freda Miriklis, International President, BPW International.

The following discussion, entitled “Demystifying the Metrics:  Overcoming Obstacles to Increase Transparency”, introduced the new reporting guidance for the Principles, which was developed as a tool to help businesses track and communicate progress over time.  The discussion was facilitated by Parul Soni, Executive Director of Development Advisory Services for Ernst & Young Pvt. Ltd.  Respondents included:  Shireen Muhiudeen, Managing Director of Corston-Smith Asset Management, and Aditi Mohapatra, Senior Sustainability Analyst at Calvert Investments

A session on “Integrating Gender into Corporate Sustainability” explored the linkages between corporate sustainability, gender equality and sustainable development, offering examples of corporate sustainability efforts in that regard.

Participants for that included:  Monika Weber-Fahr, Senior Manager of the Sustainable Business Advisory Department of the International Finance Corporation (IFC); Nidhi Tandon, Director, Gender Consultant and Trainer for Networked Intelligence for Development; Ana Cristina Rosa Garcia, Division Manager for Human Resources and Sustainable Development and Vice President of Banco do Brasil; Kristen Sullivan, Partner at Deloitte & Touche LLP; Nathalie Tancrede, CEO of Pathways, Haiti, and Co-Founder of the Artisan Business Network — ABN; Nina Gardner, Director of Strategy International; Eleanor Blomstrom, Programme Coordinator of the Women’s Environment & Development Organization; and Tess Mateo, Managing Director of CxCatalysts.

The final session, entitled, “Transforming the Leadership Pipeline to Advance Gender Equality and Sustainability” recognized new efforts and research in the effort of changing leadership models and training the next generation of business leaders who could manage and prioritize diversity. 

Participants included:  Meryle Mahrer Kaplan, Senior Vice President of Advisory Services at Catalyst; Elisabeth Kelan, Associate Professor, Senior Lecturer at Kings College London; Marie Royce, Senior Director for International Affairs at Alcatel-Lucent; Elisabeth Karako, Global Head of Diversity for BNP Paribas; Maria Teresa González García, Director of the Customer Service Department at Endesa S.A.; Debbie Connelly, Global Head of Foreign Exchange, Commodities, Carbon and Energy Distribution at Westpac; and Maureen Kilgour, Associate Professor of Management at the Université de St-Boniface School of Business Administration.

During the discussion on integrating gender into corporate sustainability, Ms. Weber-Fahr expanded on the link between green growth and the role of women in business.  She said that growth and gender equality were, of course, closely related, as many studies had shown.  The argument in Rio would be that current growth and consumption patterns were completely unsustainable.  That meant changing behaviours. 

“You have to look at the part of the population that is used to changing behaviours”, she said.  “You know who they are”.  She cited an example of a project to ensure sustainability of fishing in a developing country, which had not taken hold until a woman joined and insisted on changing fishing methods in a way the men were reluctant to do. 

Other speakers talked of changing an economic framework in which more and more resources were removed from the “economic commons”, and estranged from women’s influence, at the same time that such resources were exploited privately in a way that was estranged from the common good, making such exploitation unsustainable.

The closing keynote address was given by Elizabeth Thompson, United Nations Assistant Secretary-General and Executive Coordinator of the 2012 United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development.  Ms. Thompson is the former Minister for Energy and Environment of Barbados.

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For information media • not an official record