(IDEX Online) - The program is part of De Beers Group's three-year partnership with UN Women, which includes a US$3 million investment to advance women and girls in De Beers Group's diamond producing countries, announced in September last year.
In addition to the capacity-building program for women micro-entrepreneurs in southern Africa, De Beers Group is providing scholarships to young women and girls in Canada to pursue studies in STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics). To date, eight university scholarships have been awarded, with the aim of a further 19 multi-year scholarships by 2020. De Beers Group also sponsored a summer science camp at the University of Waterloo for 13 and 14 year old girls from indigenous communities near the company's Gahcho Ku?(C) mine, which included visits to Google's HQ and the Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics.
As a UN Women HeForShe Thematic Champion, De Beers Group has also committed to achieving parity in the appointment of women and men into senior leadership roles in its own organization, as well as ensuring the company's brands are a positive force for gender equality through all its marketing campaigns.
Over the past 12 months, De Beers Group doubled its appointment rate of women into senior positions, with 51 percent of new senior hires being women. A set of new inclusive marketing guidelines has also been developed, and highly successful campaigns have been run by De Beers Group's consumer brands Forevermark and De Beers Jewellers, featuring real and remarkable women.
De Beers Group CEO Bruce Cleaver (pictured above) said: "We are proud of the progress we've made over the past year and have been extremely encouraged by the shared enthusiasm for our goals across De Beers Group and the wider diamond industry. We are still early on our journey and are determined to stand with women and girls in the pursuit of true gender equality."
Bruce Cleaver will today join other CEOs and world leaders at UN Women's HeForShe Impact Summit during the UN General Assembly to discuss the approaches their businesses and countries are taking to achieve gender equality. The HeForShe Emerging Solutions for Gender Equality Report will be released at the summit, sharing close to 100 emerging solutions on how to achieve gender equality.
HeForShe is a UN Women solidarity movement for gender equality. UN Women is the United Nations entity for gender equality and the empowerment of women, with the goal of accelerating the achievement of 'Planet 50-50 by 2030' - UN Women's vision for a gender equal world.