ISLAMABAD: Members of Male Champions of Change Pakistan (MMCCP) have expressed their commitment to achieving gender equality and to creating a fair, diverse inclusive world, shaped by empowered women in every industry.
Comprising 15 active Members who lead approximately 55, 000 employees across the nation, the Male Champions of Change Pakistan includes representatives from sectors including hospitality, consumer goods, telecommunications, retail, textile, financial services, information technology, microfinance, logistics, and media.
Members from companies including Swyft Logistics and Interloop committed to increasing women’s employment rate up to 30% by 2025, and to play a bigger role in countering the challenges faced by women within and outside the workplace, said a news release.
Telenor Pakistan’s Irfan Wahab Khan spoke of his company’s leadership through delivering programs designed specifically for women to get back into the workforce after long breaks, increased representation in all job groups, and a fair, desirable working environment.
The Members endorsed their Action Groups for 2022-23. In addition to continuing specific efforts on flexible work, gender-balanced recruitment and a gender-balanced public image, the leaders committed to new priorities.
Convenor of the Male Champions of Change Pakistan Group, Fiza Farhan commented on the occasion, “The Male Champions of Change Pakistan is a testament to the leadership and commitment of male leaders in the country to support women and create progressive workforces through positive change. I am delighted to see the group expand with promising practices emerging from the Coalition’s work that would enable all members to catalyse their journey towards being more diverse & inclusive organizations”
Since its inception, Male Champions of Change Members have embedded programs and targets which facilitate women’s workforce participation and progression in a number of ways across the country.
Speaking about the organisation’s efforts to date, Telenor Pakistan’s CEO, Irfan Wahab Khan said; “We are focused more than ever towards an inclusive culture that helps us draw strengths from our differences, increase creativity and be more productive. Our flagship Naya Aghaz program started with an aim to provide employment to women on a career break, but our ambition now is to prioritise targeted recruitment, development and advancement of women as part of this program. Our renewed and intense diversity agenda is supported through our partnership with GSMA Connected Women to increase the proportion of our women’s customer base from 23% to 30% by 2023. We are ensuring focus towards women’s participation and empowerment through various programs like Open Mind, Khushhal Aangan, Girls Learn Women Earn, Safe Internet and digital learning.”
Speaking about L’Oreal Pakistan’s commitment towards creating an inclusive and progressive workforce, CEO Junaid Murtaza said; “At L’Oreal Pakistan, a conscious effort of improving the inclusion ecosystem is underway, both in structural and behavioural design. Be it through fundamentals like improving our parental leave policy, providing day-care and mental health support, to organisation-wide upskilling and appreciation of DE&I or focusing on the entire spectrum of how we recruit, retain and help our women employees advance to leadership. We remain committed to creating an impact, and our membership of MCC will further help accelerate the progress of like-minded companies to be the change agents in Pakistan.”