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CTC, Nestlé Lanka and Unilever Sri Lanka launch WICE

Thursday, 26 June 2014 00:00 -     - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

To promote women as future leaders

  Three of the country’s top multinationals; Ceylon Tobacco Company (CTC), Nestlé Lanka and Unilever Sri Lanka recently launched WICE (Women-Inspire-Connect-Empower) – a collaboration that is the first of its kind in the country – to promote the interests and rights of women as future leaders of their organisations. Over the past few decades, Sri Lanka has made major legal and societal leaps regarding women’s rights, with many improvements in female workforce participation and pay equity. However, new studies show that this development is under threat. Sri Lanka is currently ranked 55th among 136 countries across the world in terms of gender gap, down 16 places from its 2012 position according to the Global Gender Gap Report 2013 released by the World Economic Forum. WICE aims to enhance the professional development of women by providing them with opportunities to engage collectively, and learn from and support each other. The network is structured around two key pillars: ‘Professional Development’ and ‘Support and Engagement’. ‘Professional Development’ focuses on sharing thought leadership, insights and advice on career growth of females. ‘Support and Engagement’ will look at a broader spectrum of success through a balanced work-life approach which will focus on women’s health and well-being, family, networking and connecting with female communities in the wider society and CSR. WICE was launched in March 2013 under the theme ‘Inspiring Change’. The event was sponsored by Dialog Axiata, Amanté and LoveEssence and included a panel discussion on the topic ‘Women as agents of change for success and career advancement’; featuring Standard Chartered Bank CEO Anivaran Ghosh Dastidar, Aitken Spence Group CFO Nilanthi Sivapragasam, World Bank Senior External Affairs Officer Sandya Salgado and Ramani Fernando Salons Founder Ramani Fernando. The panel discussion shed light on many aspects of gender diversity including progress made in Sri Lankan corporates for female empowerment, challenges inhibiting women’s progress and potential initiatives to accelerate women’s advancement. CTC Managing Director and CEO Felicio Ferraz at the launch said, “It is a pleasure to have initiated this project with two prominent companies. With our similar backgrounds, business structures and international exposure, it is indeed a good match. We look forward to sharing best practices and promoting the ideals of this network together.” Unilever Sri Lanka Chairperson Shazia Syed delivered the key note address where she strongly emphasised the importance of loving what you do, believing in yourself, and being unapologetic for who you are. She added, “WICE is an opportunity for lady leaders from three strong multinationals to connect on a meaningful and engaging platform. We are committed to ensuring that WICE will enable professional and personal development of our lady managers, and remain relevant to support their needs to lead organisations towards growth.” Nestlé Lanka PLC Managing Director Ganesan Ampalavar stressed the importance of gender balance for Nestlé: “Gender balance makes perfect business sense. Women comprise the majority of newly educated talent in the world today and I am a firm believer that the complementary thinking of men and women lead to better business decisions. Gender balance therefore makes sure we have the best leaders and the best talent, who can best respond to our business needs.” More recently WICE organised a forum on ‘Women and Mobility’; taking a closer look at some of the key challenges faced by women when required to make themselves internationally mobile to perform senior roles, the solutions available to them and how companies could help women overcome these challenges. The key note speaker for the forum, Embassy of the Kingdom of Netherlands in Sri Lanka Deputy Head of Mission Liane Houban shared her experience as a mobile female and highlighted the importance of individual and family flexibility when using mobility as a platform for professional growth. A panel discussion featuring female leaders from the three companies with experience in being globally mobile discussed their learnings and experiences in taking up overseas assignments and the supporting mechanisms that helped them overcome obstacles. WICE is poised to provide a platform for the growth and development of professional females at Ceylon Tobacco Company PLC, Unilever Sri Lanka and Nestlé Lanka PLC by inspiring, connecting and empowering them to create positive change for themselves and other women in the corporate world. WICE has an exciting line-up of events planned for the rest of 2014 including an event on health and nutrition, a CSR activity supporting underprivileged females and other professional development forums discussing topics which are pertinent to the career progression of women.  
 
 From left: Ramani Fernando Salons Founder Ramani Fernando, Aitken Spence Group CFO Nilanthi Sivapragasam, Moderator Smriti Daniels, Standard Chartered Bank CEO Anirvan Ghosh Dastidar and World Bank Senior External Affairs Officer Sandya Salgado
 
 WICE women at the ‘Women and Mobility’ Forum

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