Bikroy.com Signs UN Women’s WEPs

Bikroy.com, the Largest Marketplace in Bangladesh announced that it has now joined the global list of Women’s Empowerment Principles (WEPs) signatories, following up the online company’s commitment to the HeForShe movement, a UN Women-initiated solidarity campaign for gender equality.

The Women’s Empowerment Principles (WEPs), a collaboration between UN Women and the UN Global Compact, were launched in March of 2010 as a means for the private sector, civil society and Government to explore the application of the Principles in various contexts. This set of Principles for business, offers guidance on how to empower women in the workplace, marketplace and community. Today Bikroy.com joins UN Women’s WEPs along with other international organizations such as the International Finance Corporation, BNP Paribas, Symantec, and Veritas.

The 7 principles are:
1. Establish high-level corporate leadership for gender equality
2. Treat all women and men fairly at work – respect and support human rights and nondiscrimination
3. Ensure the health, safety and well-being of all women and men workers
4. Promote education, training and professional development for women
5. Implement enterprise development, supply chain and marketing practices that empower women
6. Promote equality through community initiatives and advocacy
7. Measure and publicly report on progress to achieve gender equality

Bikroy.com has almost reached their HeForShe commitment fora 60/40 male/female employee ratio, increasing the percentage of female employees from 26% to 33% since joining the campaign. Other goals, such as transportation for women working late and mandatory gender sensitivity training have already been implemented. The partnership with UN Women has benefited and the working environment of Bikroy.com greatly, increasing workplace diversity and efficiency.

“Being a part of the global movement for gender equality with UN Women has brought together varied perspectives, produced a more holistic analysis of the issues a company faces and has also successfully stimulated greater effort, leading to improved decision making. I hope that other organizations in Bangladesh will be inspired by our actions and take a leading role for gender equality,”said Rehenuma Islam, Human Resources Manager at Bikroy.com.

UN WomenRepresentative in Bangladesh, Christine Hunter commented: “We are glad to have Bikroy.com in our list of WEP signatories and are equally delighted to know that they are making a sincere effort to implement its gender equality policy. We believe that empowering women to participate across all sectors of the economy is essential to building a strong future for Bangladesh.Through the implementation of WEP, we can establish more inclusive and just societies; achieve internationally-set goals for development, sustainability, and human rights; improve quality of life for women, men, families and communities; and propel businesses’ operations and goals.”