UN Women Pakistan and Nishat Mills Limited (Apparel Division) join forces to promote gender equality and safer workplaces for women
Date:
[Press release]
Lahore, Pakistan — UN Women and the Apparel Division of Nishat Mills Limited have agreed to strengthen their cooperation and promote gender equality in the workplace through capacity building initiatives on harassment and redressal mechanisms as well as gender-responsive policies and procurement, among others.
The agreement was signed today in Lahore by Sharmeela Rassool, country representative of UN Women Pakistan, and Wajeeha Khalid, business head, Nishat Mills Ltd (Apparel Division). Nishat Mills is also a signatory of the global Women’s Empowerment Principles (WEPs), a set of guidelines for businesses to safeguard and promote women’s rights and empowerment in the workplace.
Rassool 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,” she said at the signing ceremony. “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.”
Khalid added that “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.”
The private sector is increasingly being recognized not only as a driver of economic growth, but also as a promoter of sustainable social development. 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 WEPs, 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.
For media inquiries:
Anam Abbas
Communications Officer, UN Women Pakistan | Email: anam.abbas@unwomen.org
About Us:
UN Women is the United Nations entity 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.
Nishat Apparel is the value additive portfolio of Nishat Mills Limited established in 2007. It is a state of art garment manufacturing facility both for men and women. The Division has the capacity to produce 14.40 million garments per annum.