#CountHerIn: Celebrating International Women’s Day 2024
It’s International Women’s Day and this year’s UN Women’s theme is Count Her In: Invest in Women. Accelerate Progress.
Based on the priority theme for the United Nations 68th Commission on the Status of Women, #CountHerIn recognises the urgent need to create more pathways to greater economic inclusion and empowerment for women and girls everywhere.
How we #CountHerIn
At the BPP, we believe that investing in women is good business. That is why all our partnerships have a focus on delivering economic and social benefits to women and girls in Asia and the Pacific, in line with the Australian Government’s priority focus on promoting gender equality in its development programs.
The BPP team supports partners to create more opportunities for women to learn, earn and lead within their communities. Last year, BPP partners created 231 new jobs for women, provided 11,435 women with new skills, and elevated 15 women to leadership positions.
We also launched our Gender Equality Checklist, based on a review of global evidence on effective strategies, to help our partners – and businesses generally – to evaluate their existing practices regarding gender equality and provide a set of practical steps to make a positive impact. You can find out more and download your copy here.
To celebrate International Women’s Day, we are showcasing some of the partnerships using innovation and purpose to create a more gender equal world for women and girls across Asia and the Pacific.
Empowering women, sustaining communities: Orlar’s climate-smart farming initiative in Vietnam’s Mekong Delta
Growing success: Jacquie O’Hara, Dr Lyndal Hugo, Madam Ha from SanHa and Trang Nguyen
Vietnam is particularly vulnerable to the effects of climate change, with more than 21.5 million people living in low-lying coastal and delta areas.
Orlar has partnered with Raise Partners, SNV and the Australian Government to test and scale innovative climate-smart farming technology to increase sustainable food production, tackle climate change and create new employment opportunities for the local community in Vietnam’s Mekong Delta.
It understands how investing in women accelerates progress and benefits the wider community: it’s a women-led business with women making up 80% of its workforce, at every level. It has provided stable incomes for local community members from Long An, the majority of whom had their previous household income of 1.5M – 2.25MVND, roughly equal to $90 to- $140AUD per month, uplifted by over 400% on average.
Its impact extends beyond employment. It supports economic growth by engaging local suppliers for materials and equipment, including a significant proportion of low-income SMEs and women-led businesses. The team has also noticed an uplift in entrepreneurial activity among low-income female vendors of food and refreshments.
All while making it easier and cheaper for local communities to access fresh, clean and healthy food!
Find out more about the Orlar partnership here.
Accelerating progress: WE Samoa unlocks skilled employment and growth
Empowering talent
WE Outsourcing is a Samoa-based accounting firm driven by Pacifica values and a vision to grow meaningful employment, in Samoa and across the Pacific islands.
It was established to provide professional accounting services to clients abroad, while generating skilled, inclusive employment for Samoans.
Through the BPP partnership, WE Outsourcing aims to create meaningful, high-value skilled jobs for women and men in Samoa. It supports Samoan graduates to develop their skills processing financial statements, tax returns and reporting documents for clients abroad, to meet increasing demand for accountancy support from firms in New Zealand and Australia.
Since the partnership began, it has trained 26 people, including 15 women, unlocking their talent to accelerate progress and develop Samoa’s workforce.
Find out more here.
