OICCI holds fifth women empowerment awards

KARACHI: The Overseas Investors Chamber of Commerce and Industry (OICCI) has strived to promote women at the leadership positions through its flagship Women Empowerment Awards for the fifth successive year, a statement said on Tuesday.

Dr Ishrat Hussain, former governor of the State Bank of Pakistan, was the chief guest at the ceremony.

The OICCI consists of more than 200 of the largest foreign investors operating in Pakistan.

OICCI President Ghias Khan, said: “There is a high need for gender inclusive measures to ensure expedited socioeconomic growth. The women labour participation in Pakistan, at 21 per cent, remains the lowest among the regional peers.” He added.

“Bridging the women employment gap will increase employment by up to 19 million and boost Pakistan’s GDP by up to 23 per cent, according to the World Bank estimates.”

Three companies emerged victorious across all the categories and won the top three positions: Procter and Gamble Pakistan won the top position and was declared Champions of the “OICCI Women Empowerment Awards 2022”, whereas, Nestle Pakistan and Unilever Pakistan were declared the first and second runners up, respectively.

An independent jury vetted the performance of the companies from different aspects and awarded the overall best performer and awards for all other categories.

Expanding the scope of the awards beyond the OICCI members, Sima Kamil was declared the first winner of the Iconic Corporate Women Leaders Award, based on the nominations received from the OICCI members.

This was an award introduced this year, to recognise the corporate women leaders who can serve as an inspiration to the younger generation for the bars they have set in the corporate world.

Special category awards were given in seven categories. Standard Chartered Pakistan won the Leadership and Strategy Award, Pakistan Tobacco Company won the award for an Organization’s Vision and Mission, Telenor Pakistan won the Conducive Workplace Environment for Women Award, Engro Corporation won the Women Leaders’ Development Award and the Pakistan Mobile Communications Limited (Jazz) won the Work-Life Balance and Integration Award.

Special recognition awards were awarded to GSK Pakistan for notable growth in women empowerment, while L’Oreal was declared to be the SME Champion.

On this occasion, the OICCI also launched the Diversity and Inclusion Handbook 2022. The handbook covers policies aimed at building inclusive workplaces, which covers workplace flexibility, hybrid working models and policies, enabling the working mothers and parents effectively.

Explaining the purpose of the handbook, OICCI Secretary General M Abdul Aleem said: “It is one of the latest initiatives taken under the banner of the OICCI women with the aim to publish information regarding initiatives and best practices that our member companies have adopted within their workplaces. It is now available for use by interested corporations to begin or further their journey towards equality in their workplaces.”

Chief executive officers, HR executives and corporate professionals from various OICCI member companies and other distinguished guests, were present on the occasion.

Also Read

OICCI presents proposals to facilitate FDI

The proposals aim at promoting ease of doing business and documentation of...