International Finance Corporation (IFC), a member of the World Bank Group, and the Pakistan Business Council (PBC), on Monday hosted their first awards conference in recognition of companies working to reduce gaps between men and women in the workforce.
They also released case studies highlighting gender diversity best practices in five Pakistani companies. The special half-day event also marked conclusion of IFC-PBC year-long partnership to boost employment opportunities for women in Pakistan and drive development. They have held webinars, an International Women's Day conference, in March; Women on Boards training session, and an awareness campaign. Since the conference, 13 companies have pledged to create more jobs for women in their workforce.
The Gold award went to Telenor Pakistan, the Silver Award to Serena Hotels and the Bronze award to HBL for working on gender diversity in the last one year. It was announced at the event titled IFC/PBC Employer of Choice for Gender Balance Awards held at Marriot Hotel.
Both Artistic Milliners Ltd and Interloop Ltd were given an honourable mention for their achievements for gender equality. Fuad Hashimi, executive director PBC Centre of Excellence in Responsible Business (CERB), said that survey on gender diversity in Pakistan's businesses last year illustrated just how far off many organizations were, in this regard.
He said the CERB's recommendations included measuring the pay gap, developing leadership pipeline, equity in promotions and working on better retention, especially post-marriage. "Since then and thanks to this very successful partnership between IFC and the PBC, we've come a long way in promoting awareness of this important topic and taking steps to address the issue," he said.
The joint case studies focus five Pakistani companies leading the way in boosting workforce gender diversity: Artistic Milliners Limited, National Foods Limited, HBL, Packages Limited and Interloop Limited in five areas: women in leadership, combating sexual harassment, women in non-traditional roles, introducing family-friendly policies and implementing equal opportunity recruitment practices. Representatives from the companies will join a panel at the event to discuss the case studies.
The IFC Principal Country Officer in Pakistan said Shabana Khawar said they were delighted with the success of this partnership and the number of people they have been able to reach in the business community. But, she added, we also know there is still a long way to go. She affirmed that IFC remains committed to working with individual firms to help them develop and implement gender-smart strategies to attract and retain women in their workforce.
It was the IFC's first engagement in Pakistan focused exclusively on increasing female employment. Although women represent 49 percent of the country's adult population, only 7 percent of Pakistan's workforce is women, the third-lowest rate in the world. The PBC expressed hope they would continue awarding companies for their aforesaid role every year.
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