(MENAFN- Jordan News Agency) The young Entrepreneurs Association (YEA), in partnership with the Economic Integration of Women in the MENA Region Program (EconoWin) implemented by the German Development Cooperation (GIZ), on Wednesday, launched a Gender Diversity Competition for the private sector.
The event took place at Sheraton Amman hotel, under the patronage of Minister of Labour, Nidal Qatamin, and in the presence of a number of Jordanian businessmen and businesswomen.
The initiative invites large companies with over 150 employees to participate in the competition in order to gain a two-year financial and consulting support to assist the companies in implementing their gender-diversity-centered projects. These projects should help the winner companies systemize gender diversity management in their organizations in order to attract, retain and advance women in the workforce. This would soon create a positive impact on the company effectiveness and performance, and ultimately have the same effect on national economy.
In the launch event, Chairman of the Board of YEA, Lina Hundaileh, welcomed the attendees and touched on the realities of the women workforce both globally and locally. She also underlined that YEA is in its role trying to establish a core that would expand into a broader women-friendly work environment in Jordan.
The GIZ Country Director Michaela Baur explained in her speech that this Competition is one of the initiatives lead by the larger EconoWin program that aims at investing in women employment at a regional level in order to enhance the profitability and productivity of businesses.
The initiative is being implemented in four Arab countries: Jordan, Egypt, Morocco and Tunisia.
Baur drew the attention to the fact that an increasing number of companies globally experience that a gender diverse workforce is a key competitive advantage. Gender Diversity means an improved corporate performance through better business solutions and customer relations and it leads to higher employee satisfaction and less turnover costs.
Furthermore, Baur added the Gender Diversity Management (GDM) approach has many benefits that directly affect business growth; such as strengthening team performance through enhanced communication, access to markets through understanding women's buying choices, securing talent pipeline by not missing out on half the population's talent, and increased productivity due to higher employee satisfaction.
Moreover, studies of both local and international businesses indicate that increased gender diversity is correlated to increased profits.
On his part, YEA co-founder, Laith Al Qasem, reviewed economic indications provided in international reports in regard to the positive effect of women's participation in companies' leadership positions on business revenues.
According to the 'Gender Diversity in Jordan' report issued by the International Finance Corporation (IFC), companies with higher women participation in leadership positions display higher revenues than others.
For instance, the average Return on Assets (ROA) of publicly listed companies with at least one woman in the boardroom was 3.03 in 2012, i.e. almost three folds that of companies with no female representation, where average ROA was 0.99. As for women's participation in labor force, it is 13.2% in Jordan, which is rather low compared to MENA's overall female participation of 32.6%. This puts Jordan behind many countries such as Yemen, Saudi Arabia and Lebanon.
A professional debate took place among a panel of outstanding Jordanian business representatives.
GM of Al Etihad Bank, Nadia Al Saeed, outlined her bank's pioneering experience where a relatively high level of women's participation is achieved (45% of the labor power).
She also referred to the challenges facing those who opt to realize gender diversity in Jordan.
On the other hand, Amman Chamber of Commerce (JCC) board member and chairman of the board of directors at the National Microfinance Bank (NMB), Reem Badran, ,pointed to the Bank's direction to granting loans to women with a view to helping them improve their economic and living conditions.
Worth mentioning is the fact that women lending mounted, as up to September 2015, to 88% of total loans, and the payback ratio is 99%.
Finally, EconoWin program responsible in Jordan, Nour Moghrabi, elaborated on the competition application process as well as the expectations from the implemented projects and the granted companies. The competition application remains open until November 30, 2015. For further information one may contact YEA which offers services to companies in filling their applications or visit the YEA website www.yeajordan.com .
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