The United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (UN Women) and Nishat Mills Limited (Apparel Division) signed an agreement to strengthen their cooperation and promote gender equality in the workplace through capacity building initiatives on harassment and redressal mechanisms and gender responsive policies and procurement, among others.
The agreement was signed today during a signing ceremony in Lahore by Sharmeela Rassool, Country Representative, UN Women Pakistan and Wajeeha Khalid – Business Head, Nishat Mills Ltd (Apparel Division). Nishat Mills Limited (Apparel Division), is also the signatory of global Women’s Empowerment Principles (WEPs).
Speaking at the signing ceremony, Sharmeela Rassool, Country Representative, UN Women Pakistan applauded the efforts of Nishat Mills Limited in taking the lead from the private sector in taking on the agenda of gender equality and women’s empowerment. “We strongly believe that through partnerships like these can make a difference in promoting safer workplaces. The economic empowerment of women simply cannot be achieved without the engagement of the private sector. We are committed to provide Nishat Mills Ltd (Apparel Division) with our technical expertise to advance the agenda of gender equality and women empowerment while at the same time learning from their expertise to further improve our programmatic interventions.”
“Nishat Apparel makes diligent efforts to work towards creating a work environment that is based on merit, inclusion and diversity, and is strongly committed to Women Empowerment Principles. WEPs can further refine our approaches towards treating women equally, providing them key leadership positions, involving them in decision making, and developing them professionally. We target to continue working to change the economic outlook for women along our entire supply chain. These initiatives also show our commitment towards United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, particularly SDG 5, Gender Equality”, said Wajeeha Khalid – Business Head, Nishat Mills Ltd (Apparel Division).
The Global Goals and the WEPs promote cross-sector collaboration and long-standing partnerships between the public sector, private sector and civil society to expedite gender equality and women’s empowerment in the workplace, marketplace and community.
Leveraging the Women Empowerment Principles, the pillars for the private sector’s impact on inclusive economic growth can be placed in four broad categories: workplace practices, procurement practices, investment and financing practices, and advocacy and community practices.