IBCWE Committed to Take an Active Role in the One Global Women Empowerment (OGWE)

Indonesia Business Coalition for Women Empowerment (IBCWE) iscommitted to taking an active role in the One Global Women Empowerment platform. Maya Juwita, Executive Director of IBCWE and the Policy Manager of B20 Indonesia Women in Business Action Council said, IBCWE will provide knowledge sharing to promote women leadership in the business sector and technical support to ensure gender equality applied in the workforce setting.

“By doing so, we aim to achieve our commitment to promote women’s economic empowerment by supporting business to optimize its role in progressing workplace gender equality,” said Maya. This pledge is part of the IBCWE program in supporting workplace gender equality especially women leadership.

Zelda Lupsita, Program Manager of IBCWE added that promoting women into leadership is one of IBCWE’s focuses as part of fostering workplace gender equality. IBCWE designed several programs, such as Women Talent Network, Census for Women Leadership in the Executive Leadership Team in IDX200, Sponsorship Program, and Male Fellow Campaign, to support more women into leadership positions.

“Numerous studies have shown that having gender diversity in the leadership team has a positive impact on a company’s performance yet we still don’t see women as top leaders as much as men. In IBCWE, we designed our programs, such as GEARS to assess whether companies’ policies and practices are gender inclusive, Census for Women Leadership in the Executive Leadership Team in IDX200, Sponsorship Program, and Male Fellow Campaign, to support more women into leadership positions,” said Zelda.

Previously, B20 Indonesia Women in Business Action Council (B20 WiBAC), one of the task forces of the B20 Indonesia Presidency, held a B20-G20 dialogue forum with the theme Advancing Women in the Global Economy through the One Global Women Empowerment on Tuesday (08/23/2022). The dialogue aims to communicate the final B20 WiBAC Policy & Action Recommendation document and launch the blueprint for the One Global Women Empowerment (OGWE) platform to promote inclusive, resilient, and sustainable global economic growth through empowering women.

“Today, we present the work results of the B20 Women in Business Action Council, which is fronted by 150+ members of top business executives from various countries and industries. Following the Presidential directive, in addition to the final document of Policy Recommendations and Actions, we also announced the concrete results of the B20 WiBAC through the launch of the One Global Women Empowerment platform blueprint, to encourage women’s empowerment in the business world” said Ira Noviarti as Chair of B20 Women in Business Council who is also the President Director of PT Unilever Indonesia Tbk.

As a concrete step to support the realization of the Policy and Action recommendations, B20 WiBAC launched the One Global Women Empowerment (OGWE) platform to bridge the potential and challenges. The platform is designed to bring together parties who need and can assist in empowering women workers and entrepreneurs everywhere. It is hoped that the existence of OGWE can encourage the acceleration of women’s involvement, which will impact global economic growth.

Further about the OGWE, Ira said, “We believe that there are many women in the business world who want to advance, and there are many industry players and various institutions who want to contribute to the advancement of women. It is necessary to have a forum to bring the two parties together in a structured and conducive environment to obtain the optimum results. One Global Women Empowerment or OGWE will play this crucial role.”

“It is a proud moment for the Indonesian presidency to be able to produce concrete steps such as the OGWE blueprint from the B20 WiBAC. These actions will encourage the acceleration of women’s involvement in the business world on a global scale,” added Shinta Kamdani, Chair of B20 Indonesia.

As an accelerator that equips women entrepreneurs and workers, B20 WiBAC has set five key goals as OGWE pillars:

1. Digital Capability, access to digital capabilities and infrastructure for Women in Business

2. Knowledge Sharing, access to cross-border information studies, resources, and best practices sharing in advancing women in business

3. Funding & Investment, access to cross-border financing/funding/investments for women in business and women empowerment initiatives

4. Technical Support, access to coaching, business mentoring, training, legal support, and other technical assistance for women in business

5. Supportive Policy, accelerate the availability of government policy and regulatory actions to alleviate key issues on women empowerment.

In its implementation, OGWE will be run by a secretariat that is also technology-based in providing services called 5C – Crowdsource, Crowdfund, Curate, Clarify, and Communication – to all stakeholders involved.“Through OGWE, B20 WiBAC seeks to encourage more women to lead, participate, and have access to better business and economic opportunities, increase entrepreneurial skills, and improve digital skills. We invite all elements from business actors and all other stakeholders to collaborate in supporting domestic economic growth and on a global scale through women empowerment. The better this cross-stakeholder collaboration is, the better the results of our efforts in bridging the various gaps towards equal gender participation in the world economy will be,” close Ira.

26 September 2022 | Fellicca P. Madiadipura