The Arab International Women’s Forum was proud to collaborate with the Pearl Initiative, the American University in Cairo School of Business, and the 30% Club MENA on this virtual roundtable on ‘Women on Boards Roundtable: Models for transforming women’s board readiness and leadership success in the MENA’, exploring models for transforming women’s board readiness and leadership success in the region.
Moderated by the Pearl Initiative’s Executive Director Ranya Saadawi and with welcome remarks from AIWF Board Member Raghda Kurdi and an opening keynote from Dr Mohamed Farid Saleh, Executive Chairman of the Egypt Financial Regulatory Authority, this event brought together leaders from the private sector, international development organisations, and higher education for a high-level D&I discussion on steps that stakeholders can take to create innovative programmes, partnerships, and initiatives to support women’s readiness and leadership on boards; mainstream a powerful shift in corporate culture towards true gender parity; and encourage state and corporate policy change.
Initiatives that were explored included Egypt’s Women on Boards Observatory, the ILO’s new AllOnBoard initiative to promote women’s representation on boards as well as other interventions on decent work for women, and the 30% Club MENA. The roundtable also welcomed senior speakers from AIWF Global Partners PepsiCo and PwC, and from Grant Thornton UAE, all sharing tried and tested private sector strategies and best practices for promoting gender parity on executive boards and in the MENA workforce towards the realisation of SDG 5.
Invitations to attend the session were extended to government policymakers and representatives of labour ministries, think tanks and research institutes, business leaders, women’s business councils, D&I leaders, higher education, and NGOs, all steering their companies and institutions towards gender parity and equality on boards and in business leadership, in both the MENA region and internationally.
Roundtable Speakers included:
Reem Aslan, Decent Work for Women Programme, International Labour Organization / AllOnBoard
Hisham Farouk, Grant Thornton UAE / 30% Club MENA
Dr Ghada Howaidy, American University in Cairo School of Business / Women on Boards Observatory
Wael Ismail, PepsiCo
Fianna Jurdant, OECD Middle East and Africa Division
Marie-Estelle Rey, OECD Corporate Governance Division
Norma Taki, PwC Middle East
An event report with outcomes and key recommendations will be published here shortly.
