Business leaders pledge $6m worth of investments to boost gender equality

Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and Unilever, Sunday at a United Nations event in New York, made commitment worth millions of dollars to promote gender equality.

Commitments made at the Business and Philanthropy Leaders’ Forum, hosted by the UN entity dedicated to gender equality and the empowerment of women (UN Women), seek to close the financing gaps that hinder progress for women and girls.

The forum, co-hosted by Alibaba Group and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, received $5 million and $1 million contributions from these organisations, respectively.

Achieving gender equality is one of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of UN 2030 Agenda, adopted by world leaders on Friday.

According to UN Women, gender equality is crucial to realising the “transformative promise” of the new global development agenda.

“There can be no gender equality without investment and willingness to change the status quo,” Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, the agency’s director said, adding that to make 2030 the expiry date for all forms of gender discrimination, everywhere, all businesses will need to step up essential investments in gender equality.

Jack Ma, executive chairman, Alibaba, noted that achieving gender equality by 2030 was an ambitious, yet realistic goal in the modern age and the private sector had a critical role to play.

Melinda Gates, co-chair and trustee of the Gates Foundation, also noted that the world was moving in the right direction because women were pushing it that way. “Women drive progress for all of us by demanding better healthcare and opportunities for their children and greater equity for everyone. That’s why, when we invest in women and girls, we’re investing in the people who invest in everyone else,” she said.

Unilever, which has set for itself the goal of empowering 5 million women across the world by 2020, also extended support to promote economic opportunities for women, reduce unpaid care work and ensure the safety of women and girls.

Other organisations taking part in the event in support of UN Women are representatives of Coca-Cola, Cisco, Infosys, Itaipu, MasterCard, H&M, Citibank, State Bank of India, Ford Foundation, General Electric Foundation and Nigeria-based Dangote Foundation.

The event took place preceding the Global Leaders’ Meeting on Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment – a Commitment to Action, at which Heads of State and Government will discuss actions to achieve gender equality by 2030.