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The country’s budding female entrepreneurs have been urged to gain inspiration from the heroic deeds and actions of less-privileged, like 14-year Pakistani girl Malala Yousafzai, who was seriously injured by militants for daring to stand up to their extreme viewpoint.
KPMG’s global head of citizenship and diversity, Lord Michael Hastings, gave this example while delivering the keynote address on ‘Businesswomen and Corporate Social Responsibility’ as part of the 3rd Qatar International Businesswomen Forum at St Regis Doha Hotel to an audience including upcoming local women entrepreneurs.
Lord Hastings led the audience in a minute’s silence to recognise the Pakistani teenager’s brave efforts in fighting militants, which he said, is an example worth emulating by aspiring young entrepreneurs.
“She stood up for protecting the rights of commoners, including women, and her stance should be considered significant in one’s quest for equal justice and opportunity,” he said.
Highlighting the importance of corporate social responsibility (CSR), Lord Hasting insisted on the necessity of helping providing educational access to women in underprivileged societies and revealed that recent studies have found that close to one-third of the world’s women population in the 10-14 age group still have no access to basic education, notwithstanding the strides made by many developing countries and societies across the world.
Pointing out that investing in education for women is vital in any society, he said it has not only contributed to the society’s upward mobility but also has succeeded in reducing menaces such as child marriage and infant mortality in several societies.
Calling upon women to be more socially active through their meticulous CSR efforts and campaigns, Lord Hastings disclosed that recent studies undertaken by acclaimed organisations found lack of education has resulted in one-third of the children in a particular region to be forcibly married before turning 14.
Deliberating on the importance of opportunities for equality, Lord Hastings said changes happening in parts of the developing world indicate that better education for women has not only contributed to their growth, but societies to which they belong too have benefited.
The rapid growth in some Asian economies in recent years was attributed to better education of the underprivileged sections there.
According to a recent Asian Development Bank report, more than 240mn people of the region was taken out of poverty on account of better educational access in the region.
The speaker also observed that the studies have also found that in terms of the disparity of wealth, Saudi Arabia has the highest ratio with women possessing only 20% of the wealth, compared to their male counterparts. Japan has the least disparity between the two sexes, he pointed out.
Lord Hasting also pointed out that a multi-national CSR drive in northern Tanzania made remarkable changes in the lifestyle of a large group of people. “A place which had absolutely no literates more than a year ago has now more than two-third of its people receiving access to education and having better access to electricity, water and sewage facilities,” he said, acknowledging the contributions made by teams from 18 countries, including Qatar.
Lord Hastings also said in no uncertain terms that a reputation is built by what one is performing at the moment and not by what one intends to perform tomorrow.
Source: Gulf Times
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