Daily Times

Women Business Network, have paved the way for delivering gender inclusion agenda for Pakistan at their recent event of WOMENBIZ2022 meetup in Islamabad club. The WOMENBIZ2022 was held on 7th December 2022 as part of their efforts for policy advocacy and women empowerment series of networking events held throughout the year. The main event brought together from Corporate, Government sector, Embassies and Women Chambers across Pakistan, to discuss the challenges and opportunities of Gender Inclusion in Pakistan and move from dialogues and talks to definitive actions and initiatives taken by government, various corporates, and women networks and building the future based on these initiatives to improve the representation and inclusion of women in economic growth of Pakistan. The event was convened by WBN in partnership with the Dunya Foundation, Euro Petroleum, Bima and Coca Cola.

Speaking at the event Ms. Sam Dada, Founder of WBN said WBN is active in advocating for gender inclusion and mainstreaming the gender in business, facilitating women to network, policy advocacy and bringing together all stakeholders to collectively further the agenda of improving the Pakistan’s image and ranking on the global index for gender parity.” Further Iftikhar Hussain, Founder of WBN explained the objective of Womenbiz and its sustainability through different initiatives. H.E. Alfred Grannas, German Ambassador to Pakistan said the event made it possible for Pakistani Corporate, Women in business and gender champions to connect, to discuss challenges and identify opportunities. “The event has reminded me of the importance of collective power and partnership and really connecting between communities, at the national, regional and global levels and the influence that this can have.” H.E. Henrik Persson Swedish Ambassador to Pakistan appreciated the WBN efforts and echoed the inclusiveness of both genders to uplift women in the workforce.

Panel discussion session during the event, included a discourse of Corporate leaders and gender champions discussing the role of corporate sector in improving the women representation in workplaces, and realising women’s leadership for resilience, confirmed the need for women to be at the centre of corporate policy and decision making and for delivering gender-transformative action. The panel was moderated by Sabahat Bokhari, Director D&I in Jazz and the panelists include Dr Sadia Nadeem, Professor, School of Business Management, FAST- NUCEES, Mr. Murtaza Khalil, Country Head, Bima Milvik, Mr. Faisal Hashmi, Director Regularity Affairs & Stakeholders Management, PAKISTAN & Afghanistan,Coca Cola and Ms. Faryal Sadiq, Chief Sustainability Officer, Interloop.

Another dialogue and panel session focused on Creating Opportunities for Women, and was moderated by Ms. Nazia Ramzan, of The Change Factory and the panelists included were Ms. Fareeha Ummar, Head of Partnership & Programs, UN Women Pakistan, Dr. Shagufta Jabeen, CEO, Next-Gen Impact, Mr. Umair Ahmad, Joint Director, State Bank of Pakistan and Mr. Suhail Shah, COO, Euro Petroleum. The Panelists shared the initiatives taken by their respective organizations to create more opportunities for women in Pakistan empowering not only the women themselves but bringing about the change in the livelihood through these initiatives. Towards the end success stories from Dunya Foundation and Hifsa Khan Impact Fund for shared followed by the key note speaking from Mr. Robert Folley, Trade and Investment Advisor, US Embassy Islamabad, he says while emphasizing the need of such events to bring the stakeholders together for the cause. The chief Guest of the event was Dr. Aisha Ghaus Pasha, Minister of State for Finance and Revenue who commended WBN on their efforts for highlighting the challenges and bringing in the actions for future initiatives building on the already existing work from all stakeholders including government.