ABU DHABI, 4th May, 2023 (WAM) — UN Women UAE Liaison Office for the GCC, announced today the launch of the #WEPsinAction campaign in collaboration with the General Women’s Union (GWU), a call-to-action for private sector companies of all sizes to sign and/or extend their efforts on the implementation of the Women's Empowerment Principles (WEPs).
The WEPs are a set of Principles offering guidance to business on how to advance gender equality and women’s empowerment in the workplace, marketplace and community, and were established through a collaboration between UN Women and the UN Global Compact, with 122 signatories in the UAE to date.
The campaign aims to start a partnership across the UAE to promote cooperation with the private sector to create a better and more enabling environment for women. It is a call to action to bring forward sustainable and measurable solutions as well as best practices in the benefit of women and society at large.
On the occasion, Noura Al Suwaidi, Secretary General of the UAE General Women’s Union, said, "We believe that businesses have a critical role to play in advancing gender equality. By signing on to the WEPs, companies in UAE can show their commitment to creating a more equal and just society for all. Under the wise leadership of the UAE rulers, we continue to expand the scope of women’s participation in the economy and their active role in the economic development of the country.
In the “Women, Business and the Law” report issued by the World Bank, UAE ranked in the Middle East and North Africa region, achieving a perfect score in 5 indicators: mobility, workplace, wages, entrepreneurship, and pension. The report has indicated that the country has shown great improvements in the field of women’s economic empowerment, in fact UAE is one of the best countries in the world in terms of the documented improvements by the bank in this field. In recent years, the UAE have witnessed the issuance of many laws and legislative amendments aiming at empowering women, including Federal Decree-Law No. 6 of 2020 which amended some provisions of Federal Law No. 8 of 1980 regarding the organization of labor relations.
The principles are a primary vehicle for corporate delivery on gender equality dimensions of the 2030 agenda and the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. They seek to point the way to best practice by elaborating the gender dimension of corporate responsibility, and business' role in sustainable development.
Dr. Mouza Al Shehhi, Director, UN Women GCC Liaison Office, said, "We know that when women thrive, businesses thrive. Signing on to the WEPs is a crucial step towards creating a more inclusive and enabling environment for women in the workplace, marketplace and community. We encourage private sector entities to take the first step towards gender equality by signing the WEPs and joining the 122 companies who are already working proactively towards this important goal.”
By joining the WEPs community, CEOs signing onto the principals signal their commitment to this agenda at the highest levels of the company and to work collaboratively in multistakeholder networks to foster business practices that empower women. These practices include women’s leadership representation, ensuring equal pay for work of equal value, enabling work-life-balance, and embedding gender-responsive supply chain practices into organizations. The principles emphasize the business case for corporate action to promote gender equality and women's empowerment and are informed by real-life business practices and input gathered from across the globe.
The seven principles of empowering women are: “First, establishing high-level leadership within companies to achieve gender equality, secondly, ensuring that all women and men are treated fairly at work – respecting and upholding human rights and non-discrimination, thirdly, ensuring the health, safety and well-being of all workers, women and men, fourthly promoting Education, training and professional development for women Fifthly, the development of business enterprises and the supply chain, supply and marketing that focus on empowering women Sixthly, promoting gender equality through community initiatives Seventh Measuring progress in achieving gender equality and disseminating it to the public.
The WEPs consists of the following 7 principles, principle 1- establish high-level corporate leadership for gender equality, principle 2- treating all women and men fairly at work and respecting and supporting human rights and nondiscrimination, principle 3- ensuring the health, safety and well-being of all women and men workers, principle 4- promoting education, training and professional development for women, principle 5- implementing enterprise development, supply chain and marketing practices that empower women, principle 6- promoting equality through community initiatives and advocacy and principle 7- measures and publicly report on progress to achieve gender equality.
Private sector companies with a minimum of 10 employees are eligible to join and all those interested are invited to start the process through signing a CEO Statement of Support, committing their company to taking progressive steps towards the realization of the principles.
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