NEW YORK: For the seventh consecutive year, the UN Global Compact will participate in Ring the Bell for Gender Equality — a collaboration of stock exchanges around the world ringing opening or closing bells to celebrate International Women’s Day on 8 March and promote the Women’s Empowerment Principles (WEPs).
The initiative is a partnership between the UN Global Compact, IFC, Sustainable Stock Exchanges (SSE) Initiative, UN Women, the World Federation of Exchanges and Women in ETFs to draw attention to women’s economic empowerment, and the opportunities for the private sector to advance gender equality and sustainable development.
Stock exchanges around the world are working with investors and businesses to take practical action to advance gender equality through listing requirements, voluntary guidance documents, investment products, internal policies and training and awareness raising.
In March 2020, 77 exchanges rang their bells for gender equality. This year more than 100 stock exchanges are participating in the initiative and local partners are hosting virtual events around the world where in-person ringings are not safe due to the ongoing pandemic.
Ring the Bell for Gender Equality events around the world encourage participants to scale-up efforts to achieve gender equality in their markets, industries and organizations by adopting and implementing the Women’s Empowerment Principles.
A joint initiative of the UN Global Compact and UN Women, the WEPs provide a holistic roadmap to advance gender equality and women’s empowerment in the workplace, marketplace and community. Private sector, civil society, Governments and the UN are working together to achieve gender equality targets and the other Sustainable Development Goals by 2030.
Commenting on the initiative, Sanda Ojiambo, CEO & Executive Director of the UN Global Compact said: “The Covid-19 pandemic risks reversing progress towards greater gender equality. I hope this year’s Ring the Bell for Gender Equality reminds business leaders that gender equality is a key driver of financial success and must be central to our efforts to build back better from this difficult time.”
This year, UN Women’s theme for International Women’s Day is ‘Women’s full and effective participation and decision-making in public life, as well as the elimination of violence, for achieving gender equality and the empowerment of all women and girls’. This theme directly aligns with the work of the UN Global Compact on gender including the WEPs , which more than 4,500 CEOs have signed, as well as a successful first year of the Target Gender Equality accelerator programme.