Australian envoy welcomes steps for women progress

KARACHI: The Australian High Commissioner to Pakistan, Margaret Adamson, has welcomed positive steps to accelerate women’s progress in Pakistan.

A statement here on Thursday said that she visited CIRCLE Pakistan during her visit to Karachi and interior Sindh.

The CIRCLE team, led by CEO Sadaffe Abid, briefed the high commissioner on CIRCLE’s work for women’s economic empowerment in Pakistan and their engagement with key stakeholders in public, private and non-profit sector to champion and support women’s economic empowerment.

In noting that many challenges remain to be overcome, whether in Australia, Pakistan or globally, the high commissioner welcomed the positive steps underway to accelerate women’s progress in Pakistan.

“CIRCLE Pakistan is providing an important platform for raising awareness and collaboration among the influential civil society stakeholders, including senior business executives, in support of gender equality”, High Commissioner Adamson said.

CIRCLE Pakistan, founded by Sadaffe Abid, former COO and CEO of Kashf Foundation, is a social enterprise focused on women’s economic empowerment and employment through innovative entrepreneurship and leadership labs, advocacy campaigns and research.

CIRCLE is based on the belief that investing in women is the smartest economic venture of today and that when women develop, the communities prosper and economies grow.

Sadaffe Abid shared, “Women are Pakistan’s most underutilised asset. CIRCLE has created a platform for women to grow, receive mentorship and celebrate each other’s success with the aim to spur economic progress and innovation in Pakistan.”

The leading CEOs who are collaborating with us have demonstrated a strong commitment to make progress on gender diversity and inclusion.

During her visit, High Commissioner Adamson signed the ElevatePak pledge, calling for inclusion of women on panels, conferences and conversations to increase visibility of women leaders and ensure sustainable solutions for Pakistan’s progress.

She joined the CEOs of Gul Ahmed’s Ideas, Mitsubishi Corps, Telenor, Aman Foundation, Abacus Consulting, TRG, Coca Cola, Bayer and several others in committing to women’s empowerment and advancement in the economy.

Elevate works towards UN Global goal 5: Achieve Gender Equality and goal 8: Decent Work and Economic Growth; it has a mission of promoting women’s inclusion in the economy through increasing women on boards, women entrepreneurs in supply chains and in conferences and panels.