‘Ring the Bell for Gender Equality’

Dr. Asha de Vos, a marine biologist and ocean educator was the chief guest at the ‘Ring the Bell for Gender Equality’ at the Colombo Stock Exchange yesterday. Marking International Women’s Day, IFC, a member of the World Bank Group, partnered with the Colombo Stock Exchange (CSE) for the fourth consecutive year to ring the opening bell for trading. This annual global initiative is aimed at promoting women’s participation in the global economy to catalyze sustainable and inclusive private sector growth.

While the private sector is increasingly recognizing that advancing gender equality means better talent, higher productivity, more customers, and a stronger bottom line, progress remains slow.

IMF’scalculations show that Sri Lanka’s GDP could be 20 percent higher if female workers had the opportunity to participate and contribute to the country’s productivity. This exemplifies a case for business and markets to accelerate the pace of reforms towards gender parity.

“Women are progressively at the helm of some of the world’s most prominent corporates. Female participation in business, political, executive leadership and on corporate boards should be strongly encouraged,” said Ray Abeywardena, Chairman, Colombo Stock Exchange. Empowering women in the workplace can also generate financial returns in the private sector, as IFC’s latest research reviewing the top 30 companies on the CSE highlights.

Global research shows that companies with at least one female director have better share price performance and return on equity, and companies with more than one woman on the board return 3.7 percent a year over those that have none.

In Sri Lanka, a recent research by IFC and CSE indicates that about 8.5 percent of listed company board directors are women – a marginal increasefrom that of 8.14 percent last year.

“As business leaders, entrepreneurs, employees and consumers, women are fundamental to inclusive growth,” said Amena Arif, IFC Country Manager for Sri Lanka and Maldives.“We view the latest statistics on Women on Boards in Sri Lanka as an important catalyst for fresh commitments to diversity at the top and revitalized conversations about harnessing the economic potential of more gender-balanced boards in the country.”

This year’s Ring the Bell event in Colombo marked the release of the aforementioned report “The Case for Gender Diversity Among Sri Lanka’s Business Leadership”, as well as the second edition of the Women on Boards Directory, a crucial repository of 136 women directors on the boards of CSE-listed companies in 2018.

The ‘Women on Boards’ program is part of IFC’s broader efforts to increase women’s private sector participation and leadership by promoting the adoption of corporate governance best practices among Sri Lankan companies.