FICCI and UN Women Multi Country Office for India, Bhutan, Maldives and Sri Lanka have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) in New Delhi to strengthen collaboration on advancing gender equality and women's empowerment in the business sector here today.
The strategic partnership between the two organizations will help to achieve the common goal of realizing the rights of women and girls as critical preconditions for effective and sustainable development.
Dr. Rebecca Tavares, Country Representative, UN Women India MCO and Dr. Jyotsna Suri, President FICCI who is also the Chairperson and Managing Director of Bharat Hotels signed the MoU on behalf of their respective organizations.
"FICCI is upbeat about its partnership with UN Women. This MoU will enable us to identify, facilitate and influence business practices that promote gender equality and women empowerment, the two vital components for advancing development and enhancing representation of women across all sectors and levels of economic activity," noted Dr. Jyotsna Suri.
The strategic partnership between FICCI and UN Women is another significant step towards advancing equal opportunities and rights for women in the workplace, marketplace and communities.
As a step forward in this partnership, UN Women will be collaborating with FICCI for the first ever FICCI-FLO Film Festival on women's empowerment along with a Global Symposium on 'Gender in Media' presented by the Geena Davis Institute of Gender Studies in Mumbai in February next year.
Through this partnership UN Women and FICCI will also work towards furthering UN Women's global solidarity movement on Gender Equality, "HeForShe". 'HeForShe' invites men and boys as equal partners in the crafting and implementing of a shared vision of gender equality that will benefit all of humanity.
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UN Women and FICCI will together look at creating HeForShe corporate partners who will have very high reputations for strong ethical practices and equitable gender policies; demonstrate global excellence in their field of business; offer a global reach with a broad information distribution channel that they are prepared to bring to the campaign; and commit their expertise and other corporate resources to end gender inequality.
The MoU will provide a framework to both the organizations, to promote research and advocacy on gender responsive policies in select sectors. It will also ensure capacity building of women professionals enabling them to assume leadership roles in line with the provisions of the recent Companies Act 2013.
This proposed collaboration between UN Women and FICCI, the largest and oldest apex business organization in India will inform policy of India's businesses and industries to design and implement gender responsive practices.