Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) celebrated International Women’s Day with an elaborate Gong Ceremony at the Exchange, in collaboration with UN Women, International Finance Corporation (IFC), Pakistan Institute of Corporate Governance (PICG) and Women on Board (WOB). The celebration of International Women’s Day 2023 was convened under the auspices of International Finance Corporation (IFC), Sustainable Stock Exchanges (SSE) Initiative, UN Women, and World Federation of Exchanges (WFE). The theme for this year’s event was ‘DigitALL-Innovation & Technology for Gender Equality’.
Distinguished women leaders and professionals from the tech sector, as well as eminent women entrepreneurs, innovators, and women corporate leaders participated in the celebration. This year’s celebrations included ringing the bell, panel discussions and speeches by distinguished women leaders in the tech, corporate & entrepreneurial sector and by men advocating gender equality & inclusivity. PSX joined more than 110 exchanges all over the world to mark this important day this year.
In her welcome address, the Chairperson of PSX, Dr. Shamshad Akhtar, stated, “This year the International Women’s Day theme of ‘DigitAll – Innovation & Technology for Gender Equality’ is pertinent and timely. Post-pandemic, developing countries were reviving and adjusting their course of development drawing lessons from the pandemic. Subsequent unfolding political developments, macro-economic instability, devastating floods and the demand & supply disruption together have hit the country with unprecedented high inflation. Not only has there been a reversal in progress in poverty reduction, but growing layoffs due to industrial and agriculture disruption have impacted our fellow women disproportionately. In such a scenario, Pakistan faces a gender emergency. It calls for recognising urgency of enhancing women empowerment and inclusion. International evidence confirms that women empowerment and inclusion is critical and that the power of digitisation, STEM and financial services is critical in uplifting women.”
She further stated, “We need a turnaround by fast-tracking efforts to address gender disparity. More importantly, four frontiers are significant to address gender parity and inclusivity, among others. One is to bridge the digital divide, second is to address gaps in STEM with regard to women inclusivity in the same, third to target the right blend of financing for innovation, and fourth, tapping PSX’s platform, among others, to enhance women’s business and investment experience. It is clear that digital technology presents an opportunity to narrow gender gaps by enhancing access to finance, economic and social services and information. Through digital technology we can work towards consigning gender inequality to history. Digital inclusion of women can help narrow gender gaps if backed by appropriate digital solutions and enhance women’s literacy and access to digital technology and internet access”.
Naz Khan, Principal Country Officer, Pakistan & Afghanistan, International Finance Corporation, added, “There is a substantial opportunity cost that companies face when they fail to capitalise on the skills and expertise of their women employees. IFC is therefore focused on working with stock exchanges to improve gender diversity amongst listed companies, while also encouraging them to add more women to their boards and in senior leadership positions.”
Ms. Farzin Khan, Co-Founder of Women on Board Initiative, added, “Like the previous years, WOB was pleased to utilise the event for the launch of its annual survey on the status of women representation on the corporate boards which has shown that the overall women representation in PSX listed Boards is closer than ever to the relative ratios in India and Bangladesh. A little push can see us surpassing this ratio as regional champions of gender diversity on corporate boards”.
Amongst the proceedings at the event, UN Women hosted a panel discussion on the subject of ‘Development of an ESG reporting framework: leveraging international frameworks in the tech sector to increase standardised reporting’. The panelists invited discussed about the importance of ESG in corporates and organisations, in particular in tech industry. The discussion was aptly summed up by Saad Rajput, the panel moderator representing UN Women, whereby he stated that ESG is not only the right way forward for responsible business practices leveraging on inclusivity and sustainability, but also the desirable path forward for growth and expansion of businesses.
PICG, on its part, would like to mark the women’s day by announcing a 30% discount for women for the DTP program. On this occasion, PICG also wants to announce start of a research led development program for women in leadership.
