Women Empowerment and development

Last 28th February 2011, the Secretariat of the UNWTO Affiliate Members was invited along with other major companies such as Amadeus, NH Hotels and Fundación Banesto to the conference “ Spanish Companies’ commitment with equality: opportunities in the tourism industry”, also attended by representatives from the UNWTO and UN Women as Project Managers of the “ Women Empowerment in the tourism industry” program, which was the main focus of this conference.

This conference was of great value for the UN Women organization since it was the first event that took place in Spain after the worldwide launch of the UN Women organization, which started its journey back in January 1st 2011 under the leadership and direction of Michelle Bachelet former President of Chile.

The meeting was chaired by Inés Alberdi, UN Women Organization Director and Marcio Favilla Executive Director of the WTO, and its moderation was carried out by Elena Fangs Economist Expert in genre and UNWTO CSR. Javier Blanco, Director of the UNWTO Affiliate Members, acted as the Affiliate Members representative.

According to Elena Cartoña “ It is necessary a cultural and social change, breaking the poverty cycle through women empowerment” as an example she referred to the Davos Economic Index, a document that provides information regarding women’s empowerment levels in a given society. Ms Cartoña also added “ A new legislation is not enough, we need more since the potential for growth of a country’s GDI with a situation of equal opportunities is clearly higher and therefore an attractive competitive factor that can encourage further actions and political changes

She based her statement on the Eurostat document “Report on the 2008 workforce”, specifically on the section dedicated to Business Women at Management level.

Inés Aberdi highlighted a few important facts such as "The principles of empowerment are a guide to work, underwritten by top-level companies, and are adapted to the principles of each company in relation to their procedures." This has been demonstrated and signed now by major companies such as BBK, Endesa, ICO, BBVA, Legálitas or Microsoft among others.

Then Antonie de Jong, Chief Executive of Women UN Institutional Relations, started a round of invitations and her speech "United Nations partnership with business leaders worldwide. Importance of the Spanish company”

Right after, Javier Blanco, Director of the UNWTO Affiliate Members, through his presentation: “Platma a tool and an opportunity for the development of a responsible tourism and equal opportunities in the tourism industry” referred to the importance of PLATMA as a communications tool and a way to spread the women empowerment program in tourism. Javier offered the UNWTO Affiliate Members community as a way to showcase both the principles and the project for the empowerment of women through tourism, helping to convey to private sector companies that are linked to the WTO important news, events and activities designed for this program, this way PLATMA becomes a clear support for their development in business.

The final act was lead by Marina Diotallevi, Head of Ethics, Social and Gender area WTO, presenting the project “ Women Empowerment in the tourism sector”

The debate focused on the new program of UN WTO and Women, exclusive for businesses, called "Empowerment of women in tourism," based on "Principles of Women's Empowerment ", A guide to seven voluntary principles designed to help the private sector to focus on key elements for promoting equal opportunities in the workplace.

One of the questions that created a lot of interest was the one related to How companies’ attitudes are key to achieving significant progress in this area? Highlighting that equal opportunities are important not only in the less developed countries but in all countries.

Marta Martín, CSR manager NH Hotels, said it was very difficult to internally promote women because the majority of them declined promotions, especially those with a low / mid – low academic level.

Angélica Mkok and Carmen Martín del Burgo, both from Amadeus, declared that in their head office in Madrid from a total of 9,000 employees, 52% are women. This is a clear indicator of Amadeus corporate commitment to its CSR policy, something they have been actively working on for the last years.

To conclude the conference, Paloma Delibes, Assistant Manager Fundación Banesto, commented on the work this foundation is doing to help secure funding for new projects in Africa, most of which are requested by women, and all the actions they take to strengthen relations with local partners in order to help them integrate and support new entrepreneurs.