Gender equality, responsible business conduct and human rights due diligence

This one-week course supported practitioners responsible for, or with a demonstrated strong interest in, policies and programs related to responsible business conduct and gender equality/women’s economic empowerment.

Through a series of lectures and participatory exercises, participants explored international guidance and frameworks supporting gender equality, learned from good practices, and examined practical tools and approaches to advance gender equality and women’s economic empowerment through responsible business conduct and human rights due diligence.

OBJECTIVES

By the end of the training, participants were able to:
• Understand the normative frameworks and international guidance supporting gender equality and women’s economic empowerment (WEE).
• Analyze international corporate social responsibility instruments and frameworks through the lens of international labour standards.
• Recognize the different yet complementary roles of governments, employers’ and workers’ organizations, as well as enterprises, in creating more inclusive and equitable workplaces where both women and men could thrive at all levels.
• Advise on governmental policies, strategies, and actions to promote gender equality and WEE.
• Identify how and in which ways responsible business practices, including through human rights due diligence, could accelerate progress in closing gender gaps in the workplace and support women’s entrepreneurship.

CONTENT

Participants gained a deeper understanding and had the chance to interact with peers and specialists from the ILO and other international organizations on:
• How normative instruments and initiatives at different levels aimed to advance gender equality and women’s economic empowerment (WEE) and how they could guide business operations. These included international labour standards and international frameworks such as the ILO MNE Declaration, the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, and the UN Global Compact.
• Actions governments could take to create an enabling environment through regulatory frameworks and policies for gender equality in the world of work.
• Best practices in human rights due diligence by companies from different geographical, sectoral, and operational contexts.
• How responsible business conduct could advance gender equality and which practical tools and approaches supported enterprises in fostering work-life balance, pay equity, women’s leadership, and preventing and eliminating violence and harassment in the workplace, among others.
• Ways to best support women in business and management as well as promote women’s entrepreneurship.