The Dubai Business Women Council (DBWC), the official representative organisation for professional business women and female entrepreneurs working in Dubai, has announced its partnership with the United Nations Global Compact UAE Local Network (UNGC).
The partnership will support the UN Women Empowerment Principles in relation to gender balance as part of the UNGC UAE Local Network’s commitment to the UN Sustainable Development Goals.
It will build on the 15 years of innovative work DBWC has carried out to support professional women in Dubai via strategic education, training and development opportunities across its creative and collaborative network.
As an influential platform for enhancing positive change towards the acceptance of women in business, DBWC will assume the local arm of UNGC’s global advocacy programme, which supports anti-corruption, human rights, labour standards and environmental practices within a national context.
“Joining forces with the United Nations Global Compact UAE Local Network represents an historic milestone for Dubai Business Women Council and underlines the instrumental role the Council has played in spearheading the UAE’s national agenda to ensure women’s rights are at the forefront of national progress,” said HE Dr Raja Al Gurg, President of DBWC. “With DBWC actively promoting UNGC’s principles of equal opportunity, inclusion and non-discrimination in respect of employment and occupation, this partnership will serve as a key contributor in the UAE Vision 2021 objective of seeing the Emirates rank as one of the world’s top 25 countries for gender balance.”
Under the guidance of His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice-President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, significant progress has been made towards the participation of Gulf women in society through initiatives such as the UAE Gender Balance Council formed earlier this year, and currently chaired for the first time in its history by a woman.
Other notable advancements include women making up 17.5% of the UAE’s Federal National Council, the two-to-one, female-male ratio of the UAE’s public sector workforce in the UAE - where the average global rate is at 48% - and the existence of 20,000 female entrepreneurs in the UAE, which equates to 10% of all Emirati entrepreneurs.
“Efforts to promote the full participation of women in economic development requires support from stakeholders across society, and the UAE is an exemplary embodiment of the UNGC’s mission to make global goals local business,” added Mahmoud El-Burai, UNGC Local Network Representative and CEO of the Dubai Real Estate Institute. “We are confident our collaboration with DBWC will enhance Dubai’s corporate citizenship and further heighten the integration of women empowerment principles into domestic business practices – a core pillar of Global Goal 5 of the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals.”
For more information about the DBWC and how to join as a member, visit www.dbwc.ae.