ILO, FEI Launch Two New Initiatives to Anchor Gender Responsibilities

Nada Mustafa

Within the framework of the key role played by the ILO and the FEI in supporting Egypt's full-fledged policy directives to anchor gender responsiveness and promote women empowerment through employability and gender equality, the two organizations launched today the “Guidance Note on Gender-responsive Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR)” and “Booklet on Gender-responsive CSR Initiatives in Egypt: Transitioning from Concepts to Good Practices".

The launch event witnessed the participation of Dr. Khaled Abdel Azim, Executive Director of the FEI, Mr. Eric Oechslin, Director of the ILO Decent Work Team for North Africa and Country Director for Egypt and Eritrea, and H.E. Mr. Pekka Kosonen, Ambassador of Finland to Egypt.

The publications launch was followed by two panel’s discussion, as aligned with the subject of the publications and bringing together the eight companies in the publications, to present their success stories focusing on gender-responsive CSR’s best practices.

It is noteworthy that these two publications provide success stories from eight multinational companies (CIB, Axa, L’Oréal, AstraZeneca, Giza Systems, Marib, PepsiCo, and Jade) on how to dedicate CSR initiatives to promote gender equality and social good at large. They aim to provide Egyptian companies with the necessary steps to adopt and implement internal gender-responsive policies and cascade this into its external CSR activities from a practical and theoretical perspectives.

The “Guidance Note on Gender-responsive Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR)” and “Booklet on Gender-responsive CSR Initiatives in Egypt: Transitioning from Concepts to Good Practices" was conducted within the framework of the ILO “Promoting Gender-Responsive Workplaces in Egypt Project” financed by the Ministry for Foreign Trade and Development Cooperation of Netherlands, and the “Decent Work for Women, in Egypt, Tunisia, and Morocco Project” financed by the Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Finland, in partnership with the Corporate Social Responsibility Unit of the FEI.