Business & Money | Tuesday 11 October, 2016 4:23 am |

This month, the 18th Global Women in Leadership (WIL) Economic Forum will provide a setting for 500 global stakeholders to tackle the pervasive issues surrounding gender parity, support female leadership, and pave the way to a more equal and inclusive future.

Organised by multinational business facilitation company Naseba and held under the patronage of the UAE Ministry of Economy for the third consecutive year, the forum has championed economic gender parity for the past seven years. Under the theme “The Future of Everything”, the forum will bring together innovators, disruptors, entrepreneurs, business leaders and leaders of social change, as well as key figures from the public sector at the Ritz-Carlton DIFC in Dubai on October 24th – 25th, 2016.

This year, the forum will feature a lineup of over 65 speakers from around the world, including H.E. Sultan bin Saeed Al Mansouri, Minister of Economy for the UAE; Ketevan Bochorishvili, Vice Minister of Economy and Sustainable Development for Georgia; Elena Kountoura, Alternate Minister for Tourism for Greece; Nadir A. Mohammed, Country Director – GCC Countries at the World Bank; and H.E. Dr. Aisha Bin Bishr, Director General of the Smart Dubai Office.

The barrier-breaking women who will be sharing their stories at the forum include Chetna Sinha, founder and Chairwoman of the Mann Deshi Foundation, which is providing vital microfinance services to women in rural India; Lina Khalifeh, founder and owner of SheFighter, a self-defence club for women that has become a sensation in Jordan; and Monique Marrow, CTO at CISCO and technology evangelist, who is working tirelessly towards a future where “women in tech is not a topic, no longer an exception”.

The forum will also feature diverse contributions from the world’s “future-builders” – talented young people who form the next generation of leaders, including Hayla Ghazal, UN Change Ambassador and YouTuber who focuses on women’s stereotypes through humorous characters in her series.

Additionally, the forum will highlight successful diversity and inclusion efforts by major corporations, including Boston Consulting Group, which will be represented by Partner and Managing Director Leila Hoteit. Hoteit is featured in Game Changers, a book on inspiring female leaders co-authored by Naseba’s CEO Sophie Le Ray, and The Talent Enterprise co-founders David B. Jones and Radhika Punshi.

In her interview for the book, Hoteit clarified that “Today, diversity is no longer just about doing the right thing. Senior business leaders are leveraging diversity as a point of strategic differentiation and as a key driver of growth. After all, with the growing number of female customers, clients need to build a diverse leadership team that can connect with and understand all audiences. Women make up half of the pool of future leaders, so why not tap into this league of top talent? It is important to note that a diverse team can help enhance innovation and retention. Companies, for their part, must better communicate the business case for investing in women and the positive return on investment that can be reaped from such efforts. Investing in women is not solely about establishing quotas; it is about ensuring sustainable growth.”

The notion that investing in female leadership is more than just about meeting quotas is one shared by all of the participants at WIL, including H.E. Sultan bin Saeed Al Mansouri, who commented “Women are vital drivers of the UAE’s vision of building a knowledge-based economy where the talent and skills of both men and women are valued equally. We continue to encourage women to participate not only in platforms like the Global WIL Economic Forum, but in any initiative that supports and recognises their contributions to the national and regional economy.”

Sophie Le Ray, Chief Executive Officer of Naseba, said “The Global WIL Economic Forum is not about diversity and inclusion initiatives, and female hiring quotas – it is about working together to reach a point where those initiatives and quotas are no longer necessary. We are not here to empower women, but rather to celebrate the agency of women in the Middle East, and find ways to expand that agency within the framework of regional culture. It is absolutely essential for the future of the regional economy that the female workforce is given the tools necessary to upskill and develop professionally. Networking is a key aspect of this, but so is the simple notion of showing up to support and learn from each other, which is what many of our delegates continue to do, year after year.”

The Global WIL Economic Forum will also provide the setting for the Global WIL Achievement Awards Ceremony, which honours leading businesswomen, thought leaders, male champions of change and leading organisations for recognising the value of workplace gender parity and diversity.

The platinum sponsors for 2016 Global WIL Economic Forum include AstraZeneca, Roche Diagnostics Middle East and Merck. Other key supporters of the forum include Fedex, EY and BCG (the Boston Consulting Group).