Side Event Panel: Women as Drivers for Fair and Ethical Business

Conference of the State Parties – Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt
15 December 2021
3:30 - 5:00pm in Room CR2

Welcome:

• Ms. Shinta Kamdani, CEO of Sintesa Group and Chair B20 Indonesia

Speakers:

• Ms. Irene Olkeriil, President & ChairLady, Palau Chamber of Commerce (PCOC)
• Dr. Soipetch Resanond, Vice-Chair of the Federation of Business Professional Women of Thailand
• Ms. Linda Ofori-Kwafo, Executive Director of the Ghana Integrity Initiative
• Ms. Erika Diaz, Head of Law, Intellectual Property & Compliance, Covestro Mexico

Moderators:

• Mr. Brook Horowitz, Business Integrity Advisor, UNDP FairBiz, and CEO, IBLF Global
• Ms. Katja Bechtel, Lead, World Economic Forum Partnering Against Corruption Initiative (PACI)

Session format: Hybrid. Moderators physically present at the CoSP venue, panelists online

Audience (TBC): We expect a small round-table audience at CoSP, and through the webcast online, a global presence of 100- 200 people including:

• Policy makers (governance, anti-corruption, SME development, gender and diversity)
• Business leaders (compliance and supply chain managers)
• Incubators (SME and women support networks)
• Early-stage investors (ESG, impact investors, venture capitalists, gender-lens investors)

The Panel:

Supported by the Alliance for Integrity's Sounding Board on Gender and Integrity and convened by the World Economic Forum/PACI, UNDP's FairBiz project, UNDP Pacific Office in Fiji and Alliance for Integrity, this session will present innovative approaches to how women, rebuilding their business after the pandemic, can act as a catalyst for the promotion of ethical business practices in their markets. 

Women business executives from multinationals, SMEs, business associations and government agencies will exchange their experience working with and supporting women-led enterprises in Ghana, Palau, Mexico and Thailand in how to do business with integrity. 

The session will act as an invaluable learning tool for policy makers, business leaders, incubators, and early-stage investors in developing countries, inspiring further opportunities for supporting women-led enterprises around the world.  

Coming on the eve of a new G20 year hosted by Indonesia, this panel will help provide inputs for the "gender agenda" to the B20 Integrity and Compliance Task Force and the G20 Anti-Corruption Working Group.

Panel Background: 

In developing countries, women in business find it hard to enjoy equal rights and opportunities. Frequently excluded from leadership positions, they often encounter unconscious bias, sexism, and discrimination. At the extreme end of this, sexual extortion, harassment, and modern slavery practices still persist.  

At the same time, women are affected differently by corruption than men and approaches to prevent corruption tend to have a greater impact if they take into account the specific perspectives of men and women. There is evidence that systems with a higher level of good governance and gender equity tend to be more transparent than those with a lower level. Promoting women can therefore help to prevent corruption.  

The connections between gender and business integrity are beginning to be recognised and acted upon.  While there is still a strong need for more empirical data, there are already many concrete examples of how empowered women in the economy are beginning to have an impact on corruption.  

Encouraged by policies and practical implementation such as training programmes, public-private policy dialogues, social networks and other initiatives, women are showing that they are no longer the victims of unfair and discriminatory practices but the enablers and drivers of fair and sustainable business.

Session Organisation and Dynamics:

The panel will be highly interactive, allowing this diverse group of practitioners with experience of marrying the topics of gender and anti-corruption, to share ideas and best practices in a lively exchange. We will not be using PowerPoint slides. 

After a short welcome introduction from the Chair of the Integrity and Compliance Task Force of B20 Indonesia, and a short poll (on Mentimeter or equivalent) to judge the key interests of the audience, the discussion will begin. 

From the outset of the discussion, the audience will be invited to contribute to the discussion through questions in the chat, but also by pinning their ideas onto a whiteboard (Jamboard or Mural). 

The moderators will ask speakers to elaborate on four key questions:

1. What have they been working on in the nexus of gender and anti-corruption?
2. What are the achievements and areas of innovation that have already made a difference?
3. Where are the barriers and constraints to progress? How can they be overcome?
4. What do women entrepreneurs and facilitators like our panelists need in order to scale up their efforts and have real impact in society? From governments? From business and investors? From business associations and networks?

Questions will be taken through the chat or Q&A function. One of the moderators will keep an eye on the Jamboard and periodically highlight ideas that are being expressed through this platform. A second poll could be taken towards the end of the session. 

At the end, the moderators will summarise the experience and ideas expressed by the panellists and audience and issue a challenge to the B20 ICTF and G20 ACWG. Following the event, the moderators will publish a joint press release, op-ed piece or blog highlighting the learnings from the session and reiterating the challenge to governments and business.