Hong Kong and Singapore, Asia’s heavyweights, must lead the way in empowering women and promoting equality: UN director
- UN Women’s regional leader, Mohammad Naciri, is calling on Hong Kong and its private sector to be more proactive
- He will be ‘ringing the bell’ for gender equality at the Hong Kong stock exchange on Friday to mark International Women’s Day
“For a city like Hong Kong, it’s much easier to attract more international businesses if they are leading the change that we want to see in the world: an equal friendly city, a more socially just city, a city that promotes human rights in general,” Naciri told the South China Morning Post during his visit to Hong Kong. “And the more you find that, the more attractive it is for businesses to come.”
Naciri was recently appointed to lead the UN Women in Asia-Pacific. Prior to that, he served as director for the Arab states region. During his visit to Hong Kong, Naciri met business leaders to discuss concrete steps towards gender parity.
The World Economic Forum’s latest Global Gender Gap report predicted that, at the current pace, it will take 108 years to achieve overall gender parity and 202 years to achieve full equality in the workplace.
“How can we accelerate? Simple,” Naciri said. “We need to bring everyone on board.”
According to Naciri, feminists have traditionally partnered with governments and civil society but the private sector must also be engaged.
“We want to reach gender equality very soon … and we cannot do that with the traditional partners alone,” he said. “The partner that has been missing is the private and corporate sector, the businesses … We are here to open that page with the businesses in Hong Kong, which are not just for Hong Kong – they are for the world.”