Promote the comprehensive business case including financial and non-financial performance

• Support ambitious corporate target setting through facilitated performance analysis and capacity building;

• Promote the comprehensive business case for women’s full participation and leadership in business, including financial and non-financial performance;

• Support companies in creating more gender-inclusive businesses aligned with the Women’s Empowerment Principles;

• Connect business to UN partners and other experts that can further support business action to advance SDG5;

• Foster policy and stakeholder dialogue at the country level to address barriers to women’s representation and leadership in business;

• Showcase and promote women’s business leadership driving corporate sustainability and progress on the Global Goals.

Connect business to UN partners and other experts

• Establish company-wide goals and targets for gender equality and women’s empowerment and measure progress through clear performance indicators.

• Make managers at all levels accountable for results against these goals and targets through their performance reviews.
  Engage and consult internal and external stakeholders in the development of company policies, programmes and implementation plans.

• Ensure that existing policies are gender-sensitive – identifying factors that impact women and men differently – and that corporate culture advances equality and inclusion.

• Review the requirements for board membership, and other governance bodies and committees, to ensure gender equality.

Foster policy and dialogue at the country level

• Confidently set ambitious and realistic corporate targets for gender equality demonstrating commitment and action to your employees, investors and other stakeholders

• Understand your current gender equality performance through the facilitated use of the Women’s Empowerment Principles Gender Gap Analysis Tool

• Engage in accelerated learning opportunities specific to your country context

• Build a network of peers, UN partners and experts to support your gender equality strategy and work collectively to tackle persistent barriers to gender equality.

• Showcase women in your company who are driving business success, sustainability and contributions to the SDGs.

Stage 01 Public Relations Purpose

Companies in Stage One are generally in a reactionary mode and do not have comprehensive strategies for developing, implementing and tracking gender equality at all business and operations levels. While there is a desire to promote gender equality and develop some sort of plan for that purpose, the companies have not made a commitment to dedicate the resources needed to ensure its success. Many companies in Stage One participate in and support advocacy group activities for public relations purposes, but they are not working towards producing tangible process deliverables.

Stage 02 Centralised Strategy

Companies in Stage Two generally have a comprehensive plan for gender equality and have appointed a key manager who is accountable for its implementation. The companies have installed tracking and management systems, are conducting recurring spend analyses, and identifying business opportunities and comprehensive sourcing activities. They are also looking for opportunities to elevate diverse firms to preferred business status. However, at this stage of maturity, gender equality is still largely a centralised corporate strategy. It has not yet become an integral part of the company.

Stage 03 Global Culture & Practice

The few companies that have reached this stage have developed, implemented and managed a comprehensive plan and execution strategy, monitored and evaluated progress towards goals, and made adjustments where necessary, all as part of their day-to-day activities and requirements. At this stage, gender equality has become an integral part of the corporate culture and practice.