This year, more than 110 exchanges and counterparty clearing houses (CCPs) around the world, including in Indonesia, support the annual ‘Ring the Bell for Gender Equality’ campaign to raise awareness about the role and opportunities for the private sector to advance gender equality and sustainable development.
For the fourth consecutive year, the Ring the Bell event offered reflections on the UN Women’s theme for International Women’s Day 2023–“DigitALL: Innovation and technology for gender equality”, which recognizes and celebrates the women and girls who are championing the advancement of transformative technology and digital education. In addition, it is also called for concerted action to make the digital world safer, more inclusive and more equitable.
To begin the entire series of the event, some activities were conducted, comprise of:
A. TGE SME Deep Dive: Advancing Women’s Leadership
On Wednesday, 1 Feb 2023, Amartha’s Chief Risk and Sustainability Officer, Aria Widyanto, spoke about empowering women in SMEs during TGE SME Deep Dive’s first online class. Experts discussed how to achieve gender equality through holistic corporate action, male allyship, and equal pay. Attendees learned deeper about the approaches taken by leading companies and their progress towards their targets.
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B. Celebrating International Women’s Day 2023 in the Virtual Webinar
On Thursday, 23 Feb 2023, the world celebrated International Women’s Day, and what better way to celebrate than to connect with fellow women in family-owned businesses. This webinar, titled “Women in Family-Owned Businesses”, provided a unique opportunity for women in family-owned businesses to connect, share their experiences, and discuss strategies for success. This event believed that empowering women in family businesses can help drive economic growth and promote gender equality in the workplace.
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The Ring the Bell for Gender Equality event is organized by Indonesia Stock Exchange(IDX), Indonesia Global Compact Network (IGCN), UN Women International Finance Corporation (IFC) and Indonesia Business Coalition for Women’s Empowerment (IBCWE).
Risa Rustam, President Director, Indonesia Stock Exchange (IDX), stated that, “Through this Ring the Bell for gender Equality 2023, IDX keeps encouraging all stakeholders to increase their practices in gender equality and women empowerment in business and Indonesia capital market. We also hope that companies in the capital market will give broader access to women to participate in optimal technology development.”
Dwi Faiz, Head of Programmes, UN Women Indonesia emphasizes the importance of partnerships with the private sector to advance and promote gender equality in the workplace, marketplace, and communities, “Businesses have an important role to catalyze women’s economic participation and empowerment by ensuring gender-sensitive business practice and culture. We are pleased to see a growing number of companies in Indonesia adopting and implementing Women’s Empowerment Principles while at the same time encouraging other private sector companies to advance gender equality. Combining our collective efforts will help accelerate women’s economic inclusion, hence positively impacting the country’s economic recovery and progress.”
“Transitions towards sustainability and digitalization have the potential to create millions of jobs for women which would help put them on equal footing with men to achieve sustainable inclusive growth,” said Randall Riopelle, IFC Acting Country Manager for Indonesia and Timor-Leste. “There is also a robust economic case for closing gaps in digital inclusion for both companies and economies. Countries have lost out US$1 trillion in GDP due to the exclusion of women from the digital world. In 2020 alone, this loss is estimated to be US$126 billion.”
Josephine Satyono, Executive Director, Indonesia Global Compact Network (IGCN), further added: “We need to realize that innovation & technology, particularly digitalization, could be leveraged strategically as a means to reduce gender inequality. An example of a good tool is Women Empowerment Principles Tool that allows companies to assess their gender equality performance within their operations, and at the same time provides companies with a holistic roadmap to address the challenges women face in the workplace and to promote gender equality across their value chains, in the products and service they offer, in their marketing and in their community engagement.”
Maya Juwita, Executive Director, IBCWE added, a study by BCG shows that companies that reported above-average diversity, including gender, on their management teams also reported innovation revenue that was 19 percentage points higher than that of companies with below-average leadership diversity—45 percent of total revenue versus just 26 percent. “Unfortunately, gender target setting is not yet widely implemented in Indonesian companies. Furthermore, the Census on Women in Executive Leadership Team (ELT) defines gender balance as at least 30% : 70% (of either gender), as implemented by the Indonesian Government through a minimum quota of 30% women in the parliament. Our census on IDX200 companies shows that in 2021, only 15% executive leadership positions are held by women.”
At the Ring the Bell for Gender Equality, the implementation of Women’s Empowerment Principles (WEPs) was also promoted. As of February 2023, 177 companies have signed the WEPs and are working to implement them internally and influence other companies to also make a commitment to gender equality and women’s empowerment in the workplace, marketplace and community.
Series of Capacity Building of The Ring The Bell for Target Genter Equality 2023.
The ceremony was followed by a series of capacity building delivered by Indonesia Business Coalition for Women Empowerment (IBCWE), UN WOMEN, Indonesia Global Compact Network (IGCN) and International Finance Corporation (IFC).
- Series 1 on Wednesday, 8 Mar 2023 at 09:30 – 12:00 WIB with topic of Gender Bias Awareness and speaker from Syafirah Hardani and Wita Krisanti, Indonesia Business Coalition for Women Empowerment (IBCWE)
- Series 2 on Tuesday, 14 Mar 2023 At 13:30 – 15:30 WIB disucssing about Introduction: Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment Principles: How to Implement in Business Sectors with speaker from Poppy Ismalina, PhD, Senior Policy Analyst in Women’s Economic Empowerment, UN Women
- Series 3 on Thursday, 30 Mar 2023 at 09:30 – 12:00 WIB with topic Self Assessment: Where are We in the Implementation of Women’s Empowerment Principles? and speaker from Deladwita Suyoso, Program Manager Development, Indonesia Global Compact Network (IGCN).
Read More About The Series 3 - Series 4 on Thursday, 8 Jun 2023 at 09:30 – 11:30 WIB dicussing about Governance Practices in Overseeing Gender Based Violence and Harassment Risks, Speaker: Anar Aliyev, IFC ESG Operations Officer
About the Partner Organizations:
Indonesia Stock Exchange (IDX)
IDX is the only stock exchange in Indonesia with more than 800 listed companies and a total market capitalization of around US$ 600 billion. IDX is a non-profit organization whose main function is to create a fair, orderly, and efficient capital market in Indonesia. IDX promotes a sustainable capital market through various initiatives and works closely with all stakeholders to provide transparency and investor protection.
To learn more, visit www.idx.co.id.
Indonesia Global Compact Network (IGCN)
IGCN – is a local network of the UN Global Compact, that supports Indonesian companies and organizations in enabling them to contribute towards the SDGs and achieve business excellence through mainstreaming the Ten Principles of the UN Global Compact, programs, and tools while providing access to partnerships with a wide range of stakeholders – to share best practices and emerging solutions. We also seek to position Indonesian businesses and organizations as a benchmark and a primary agent in driving a sustainable world.
To learn more, visit www.indonesiagcn.org and www.bisnisdanham.id
International Finance Corporation (IFC)
IFC—a member of the World Bank Group—is the largest global development institution focused on the private sector in emerging markets. We work in more than 100 countries, using our capital, expertise, and influence to create markets and opportunities in developing countries. In fiscal year 2022, IFC committed a record $32.8 billion to private companies and financial institutions in developing countries, leveraging the power of the private sector to end extreme poverty and boost shared prosperity as economies grapple with the impacts of global compounding crises.
For more information, visit www.ifc.org.
United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (UN Women)
UN Women is the UN organization dedicated to gender equality and the empowerment of women. A global champion for women and girls, UN Women was established to accelerate progress on meeting their needs worldwide. UN Women supports UN Member States as they set global standards for achieving gender equality and works with governments and civil society to design laws, policies, programmes and services needed to ensure that the standards are effectively implemented and truly benefit women and girls worldwide. It works globally to make the vision of the Sustainable Development Goals a reality for women and girls and stands behind women’s equal participation in all aspects of life. UN Women engages the private sector through the Women’s Empowerment Principles – a global framework and engagement platform to advance gender equality and women’s empowerment in the workplace, marketplace, and community. In line with its Strategic Plan (2022-2025), UN Women focuses on four strategic priority areas: governance and participation in public life; women’s economic empowerment; ending violence against women and girls; and women, peace and security, humanitarian action and disaster risk reduction. UN Women also coordinates and promotes the UN system’s work in advancing gender equality.
Learn more at: www.unwomen.org and www.weps.org
Indonesia Business Coalition for Women’s Empowerment (IBCWE)
IBCWE is a coalition of companies committed to promoting women’s economic empowerment and gender equality. Our mission is to support businesses to optimize their role in improving women’s economic empowerment and gender equality. IBCWE was formed with the support of the Australian Government through the Investing in Women program.
