The event will focus on findings from recent research conducted by the Gender Section on the position of women in leadership across the Commonwealth.
The Commonwealth Secretariat is making a significant practical contribution to increasing the number of women in leadership positions across the public and private sectors in line with the UN Post 2015 Development Goals.
Women’s leadership is inextricably linked to economic and social progress in every country. The financial benefits of board diversity are becoming more widely known and accepted and the Commonwealth is advocating a target for female composition of 30%.
This event, held in partnership with UN Women and International Labour Organisation (ILO), will be focused on findings from recent research, conducted by the Gender Section, on the position of women in leadership across the Commonwealth in civil service, state owned enterprises and private sector corporate boards.
The event will validate the findings and discuss recommendations and strategies to increase women in leadership and the outcomes will be carried forward to the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) Women’s Forum.
Objectives include:
- Bringing together for the first time, a combination of various stakeholders from the private sector, public sector and civil society to agree on strategies for the required changes that will increase women in leadership at the official and corporate levels.
- Sharing the research results and recommendations with key stakeholders
- Collectively developing an Action Plan to move forward the recommendations.
- Incorporating the discussions in a policy document that will feed into the CHOGM Women’s Forum and form part of the CHOGM mandate to ensure members are accountable.
