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#63 — Salma Houerbi on the UN Target Gender Equality Accelerator
The need for workplace gender equality is global—but business environments and local requirements vary tremendously from one country to another. This means that one-size-fits-all approaches and advice can often fall short. And any program that aims to help employers worldwide move towards fair pay must also be able to offer a highly individualized approach.
This is exactly the kind of program that the United Nations has set out to create. On this week’s coffee talk, program lead Salma Houerbi joins Margrét to talk about the UN Global Compact’s Target Gender Equality Accelerator.
How the UN accelerator program is helping employers worldwide
The accelerator program, says Salma, “supports companies that are members of the UN Global Compact to set ambitious goals when it comes to gender equality.” This goal-setting focuses on two key areas: equal pay for work of equal value and enhancing women’s representation in leadership.
The program enrolls a new cohort every year and accompanies them on a ten-month learning journey. Participants engage in performance analysis, capacity building, and peer-to-peer learning. They each set goals and KPIs that are achievable and salient in their specific business, cultural, and regulatory context, and they develop plans for meeting those goals.
The accelerator program is in its fifth year, and over 2,500 companies have participated so far. Of the companies that have completed the program, over 93% have either set targets or updated existing targets related to equal pay and diversity.
All these goals and targets, Salma explains, are translating into real-world progress. For example, the Spanish division of an eyewear company decided to conduct a customer survey to inform its goal-setting. The response was resounding: over twelve thousand customers wanted gender equality to be a core priority for this company. With the survey as evidence, the program participants were able to convince global management to prioritize and support a renewed focus on equality. Each division in the company then set KPIs for equal pay and diversity and inclusion.
Another success story comes from Indonesia, where the accelerator program helped a microfinance company tackle inequality at its roots. This company operates in a male-dominated business context, and as the participants went through the program, they began reflecting on how men tended to stay quiet in conversations about workplace gender issues. The program then helped these participants develop concrete ideas for engaging men in the dialogue on equality and diversity. This involved establishing conversational spaces for men and later developing a training program to reach teams and offices in rural areas.
The program has benefited employers that already have gender equality policies in place as well as those that are just getting started. And if you’ve been thinking that this program might benefit your organization, you’re in luck: Salma and her colleagues are recruiting for the 2024-2025 cohort. Registration ends May 31.
Listen to Margrét and Salma’s full talk:
Friday Coffee Talk from Planet Fair is a podcast/videocast series co-hosted by PayAnalytics founder Margrét Bjarnadóttir and Henrike Von Platen, founder and CEO of the FPI Fair Pay Innovation Lab in Berlin. It is available through all podcast platforms as well as on YouTube as a videocast.