The Interactive Advertising Bureau MENA (IAB MENA) organised a ‘Diversity Equity & Inclusion’ (DEI) workshop by UN Women in Dubai. The workshop was held in collaboration with UN Women with an aim to drive fast-forward progress for women’s representation and inclusion in businesses at all levels.
The Women Empowerment Principles (WEPs) workshop provided IAB MENA members with a methodology for designing a roadmap and action plan to advance gender equality in their organisations and drive transformative action.
Ian Manning, executive director of IAB MENA, said, “We are here to discuss a very important topic, which is how to ensure women’s representation, participation and leadership in business at all levels. We are happy to be holding today’s session, which is in line with our vision of accelerating knowledge and sharing and establishing accountability standards that cultivate trust and credibility to grow the MENA digital advertising economy.”
Detailing IAB’s DEI strategy, Racha Makarem, chair of the IAB’s People Development Committee and CEO of Starcom MENA said, “IAB believes in positively influencing corporate leaders and policy makers to value diversity and inclusion as a key currency for growth. IAB aims to promote this concept through awareness initiatives like this workshop and by enabling thought-starting conversations between IAB members and partners.”
Noha Hefny, senior consultant, and Maya Rmeity, consultant at UN Women, took the stage to introduce the Women Empowerment Principles, a framework and roadmap for business to advance gender equality and the Gender Gap Analysis Tool, an assessment that helps organisations evaluate their progress on gender equality.
Dr. Mouza Al Shehhi, director, UN Women UAE Liaison for the GCC said, “As part of our role, as the global United Nations entity dedicated to gender equality and the empowerment of women, we aim to increase awareness about the UN’s Women Empowerment Principles (WEPs) to strengthen the role of businesses and the private sector at large in advancing gender equality in the workplace, community and marketplace. We hope that this session will drive fast-forward progress for women’s representation, participation, and leadership in business at all levels, while taking into consideration the cultural context that is specific to the UAE and Middle East. By encouraging the adoption of gender-responsive practices such as gender-responsive procurement, this would additionally drive transformative change for women-led businesses.”
