ISLAMABAD, Pakistan: Australian High Commissioner to Pakistan Margaret Adamson Monday welcomed Australian gender equality advocate Elizabeth Broderick to Pakistan on a visit to engage business leaders on promoting gender equality in the workplace.
Elizabeth Broderick, a former Australian Sex Discrimination Commissioner (2007-15), is the global Co-Chair of UN Global Compact Women’s Empowerment Principles, special adviser to Under-Secretary UN Women on private sector engagement and founder of the ‘Male Champions of Change’ initiative, working with influential male leaders to become advocates for gender equality.
High Commissioner Adamson said that gender equality and women’s empowerment to play their rightful, equal role in economic development and society as a whole was a core element of Australia’s foreign policy and underpinned the Australian government’s development partnerships with Pakistan and globally.
“Australia’s aid investments in Pakistan are designed to ensure that women benefit from all our economic growth-related programs. I am hopeful that Broderick’s visit and her engagement with private sector leaders will encourage the development of strategies and policies to maximise the participation of women throughout Pakistan’s economy,” Adamson added.
Elizabeth Broderick will visit Islamabad, Lahore and Karachi to share experience and to discuss the business case for gender equality, building on initiatives already gaining traction among the business community in Pakistan, including the UN Women Empowerment Principles.
She will also meet with women members of the national and provincial assemblies, government officials and representatives of UN agencies and the World Bank to lead discussions on accelerating economic growth and innovation in Pakistan by harnessing the talent and potential of its women.
She welcomed the opportunity to meet with Pakistan’s private sector leaders and prominent women representatives.
The Economist listed Broderick as one of the World’s Top 50 diversity figures in public life in 2015.
