LocationsUNDP continues to implement the Gender Equality Seal Program towards empowering the women in business life.
Ms. Ebru Özdemir, President of the Executive Board of Limak Holding, the first company to implement the Gender Equality Seal Program in Turkey and Ms. Ebru Dildar Edin, Deputy Director General of Garanti BBVA Bank which implements Gender Equality Credit Agreement for the first time in Turkey, mentioned the significance of gender equality on Bloomberg HT TV.
Ms. Ebru Özdemir: “Our purpose is to insert the gender equality concept into the organizations' DNA.”
Underlining that Limak is the first company to implement the Gender Equality Seal Program in Turkey, Ms. Özdemir expressed that their purpose is to implement the gender equality concept into the organizations' DNA. Stating that investing in this area is as much important as the other fields of investment, Ms. Özdemir continued: “Gender equality is one of our primary fields of investment both as Limak Holding and the Limak Foundation. Instead of calling it corporate social responsibility, I would like to name our efforts towards this field as social investment. Because when we invest on gender equality, we indeed invest in our future, in our country’s future.”
Ms. Özdemir said, “We cannot use the impact and the added value that women can create in different sectors enough. Hence, as Limak, we try to promote the activities we perform together with Garanti BBVA in every platform and try to raise awareness towards the responsibilities that companies can undertake. It is important for everyone to reach a better level according to their own criteria and that these efforts are financially supported. We started to implement this together with Limak Investment, and now we are implementing it in the other companies within the organization as well.”
Ms. Ebru Dildar Edin mentioned the details on their Gender Equality Credit Agreement, which is implemented for the first time in Turkey. Ms. Edin expressed that they started this initiative in 2019 with a wind power plant by signing a 44 million dollars credit agreement. In the scope of the agreement, it is essential for companies to fulfill the 47 criteria set to take the organizations one step further towards the efforts to empower women and strengthen gender equality within the organization. Ms. Edin added that the companies which implement the “UNDP Gender Equality Seal Program” do have the possibility to receive the credit.”
What is Gender Equality Seal?
The “Gender Equality Seal for the Private Sector”, which was initiated by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in Latin America in 2009, certified by many companies including major brands such as General Electric, IBM, Walmark, and implemented through national programs in 16 countries, is a tool for mainstreaming. Applied in the format of a certificate program, this tool aims to implement a gender equality perspective in all implementation plans and programming processes in a company. For this purpose, it supports companies to implement a practical set of applications consisting of certain stages. After the achievement of global standards developed through multi-sectoral cooperation and shaped based on international norms, the companies which successfully complete the certificate program are awarded with the Equality Seal.
