NGO, UN partner to drive Women Empowerment Principles at workplace

Women in Successful Careers (WISCAR), a non-governmental organisation focused on empowering and developing professional women to contribute to development and growth in Africa, has joined the United Nations Women (UN Women) to increase Women Empowerment Principles (WEPs) at workplace.

Last year, WISCAR was appointed as the UN private sector liaison; a position that has seen the NGO drive private sector engagements as regards gender equality and women empowerment through programmes and projects.

One of such projects is to ensure the implementation, measuring and evaluation of the WEPs project.

Speaking at the UN Women/WISCAR private sector recognition/rapid training engagement on gender action planning and gender-responsive budgeting in Lagos, Amina Oyagbola, founder and chairperson, WISCAR explained that the WEPs are seven principles which include establishing high-level corporate leadership for gender equality, treating all women and men fairly at work and ensuring the health, safety and well-being of all women and men workers.

Other principles she mentioned include promoting education, training and professional development for women, implementing enterprise development, safety chain and marketing practice that empowers women, promoting equality through community initiatives and advocacy and reporting on progress to achieve gender equality.

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Oyagbola said a year ago, WISCAR convened the first private sector leaders’ engagement forum on WEPs with the objective to raise awareness, build capacity and inspire private sector leaders to become signatories to WEPs.

Also speaking at the event, Fabia Ogunmekun, executive director, WISCAR said a year on, from 34 signatories at the time through the collaborative efforts of UN Women Nigeria, UN Global Compact Local Network, WISCAR and other strategic stakeholders, they have more than doubled the uptake to over 90 signatories.

“We are hoping to get over 100 organisations because we believe that the more organisations are signed on and activate these principles, the better we would be in terms of driving the opportunities. Today we are doing a practical training for the organisations that are signed on so they can get direct benefits and see how they can begin to activate the principles that they have signed on to in their workplaces,” Ogunmekun said.

She said the goal of WISCAR is to make sure there are more women in critical leadership spaces that will open the pipeline for more women to get into these spaces.

“We believe that the more women we have in leadership, the more we can move towards gender equality and inclusivity. Fifty-one percent of our population are women. We believe that for ultimate national and economic progress, we need to carry both genders along. Both women and men have opportunities for education and therefore have a role to play in growing our economy. And this is what WISCAR is about,” she explained.

Patience Ekeoba, national programme officer, UN Women Nigeria said signing the WEPs is the first step, adding that while there are no requirements to remain a signatory, and report on their progress, there are many actions companies can take, ranging from instituting pay equity analysis to creating targets for sourcing from women-owned
businesses.

Ekeoba said UN Women stands ready to offer support and guidance to help companies make the promise of the WEPs into a reality.

She said as businesses, communities and families continue to recover from the COVID-19 pandemic women, girls and persons living with disabilities have been most disproportionately affected by its impact.

“As we lead up to the 16 Days of Activism Against Gender-Based violence, we must ask questions on what measures are in place to ensure a zero tolerance on violence against women-a human rights issue which directly implicates business productivity and the livelihoods of women as we know they have a strong purchasing power,” she added.