 Hello and welcome to this session on placing gender parity at the heart of the recovery from this virus that has devastated so many parts of our economies, our lives and also sadly taken away too many lives. I'm Meenal Rabi. I'm the Editor-in-Chief of the National here in Abulabi and I'm delighted to be moderating this discussion today. It is an important discussion on many levels. Firstly, women have been particularly impacted by COVID-19. Statistics show that while women make up 39% of the global workforce, they've accounted for 54% of total job losses according to McKinsey. Informal workers have experienced a 60% full of income in the first month of the pandemic and according to the ILO, 740 million women are in informal employment and most likely are the most vulnerable. The numbers and the figures are staggering and we're here today to discuss what can be done to mitigate against all of these developments. Everything from the fear of more women and girls getting pushed into extreme poverty to how workplace practices can be improved, but also what are some of the learnings we've taken during COVID-19? There are some silver linings. What have we learned from that? What policy measures have happened that we can actually take up on? We are delighted that there is a global audience watching us through the World Economic Forum and also on the nationals platforms. This conversation will be on the record and recorded for the next 30 minutes and after that we will go into a private discussion with the forum participants and partners. So while we discuss these issues, I would like to make reference to the World Economic Forum's multitude of programs that are targeted the issue of gender parity, including closing the gender gap accelerators. There are 10 countries that have signed up including Egypt and we are delighted that we have a representative from Egypt to discuss closing the gender gap accelerators, but also hardwiring gender parity in the future of work, a key component of the work of the World Economic Forum. So that further ado, I'd like to welcome the speakers on this panel. We have with us her Excellency Rani Al-Mashat, Minister of International Cooperation of Egypt, Kevin Sneider, a global managing partner from McKinsey and Company, from Zili Malambo in Luka, Under Secretary General and Executive Director of United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and Empowerment of Women, which of course all of us know UN Women, and Michael Nadorf, Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer of Centine in the USA. Kevin, I'd like to start with you please because I know McKinsey has been tracking the issue of gender parity for years, but of course it's also monitoring the impact of COVID-19 across societies and workforces. So I want to ask you, how much of a setback are we actually facing for women in the workforce and their participation in the labor force, and how do we tackle it? It's a very serious setback, dramatic setback, because we're really now at a crossroads. After decades of progress, and let's be clear, the progress has been slow, but nevertheless it has been any generally positive direction. We now see very significant impact on multiple dimensions, and let me just bring that to life, and you've already done that with some of the statistics, but there are a couple that I think really dramatized just how significant this moment is. 80% of the 1.1 million who dropped into, out of the US workforce in September were women. 80% of the 1.1 million who dropped out of US workforce in that month alone. In India, women are two and a half times more likely than men to be negatively impacted in terms of their economic well-being. Women's jobs are 20% more at risk simply because of the sectors that have been hardest hit in this moment, think accommodation, hospitality, and so on, retail. Female poverty rates are up 9%. That's versus decades of progress. That's a huge setback. Up to a quarter of women are thinking of stepping out of the roles in which they are in today in the developed economies. So there are multiple measures in which you look at this and you think, this is dramatic. And it's why, as we talk about what's needing to be done, we really need to pull all levers. Starting with the recognition that the number one thing we often have heard and we found in our most recent analysis of what is it people are looking for in order to make progress in gender parity, the number one thing we often hear is flexibility. Well, in this moment, there is that opportunity, but it hinges on, for example, digital inclusion, making sure women have access to digital tools and they are disproportionately negatively impacted there. It means social means. For example, unpaid work. Women take on by far the greatest burden of unpaid work. Think childcare. What are we going to do to make that addressed and possible to be redressed as a source of obstacle? I could keep going. This is a dramatic moment. We are undoubtedly at a crossroads. When you speak about flexibility, that's a very important point because some of that is depending on particular companies or particular sectors. But how can we actually get that flexibility to be part of policy measures? And here I want to bring you, Rania, into the conversation because can you give us examples of success where policy measures have allowed women to have better circumstances in the workforce, and particularly when it comes to the issues of flexibility? Thank you, Mina. And very happy to be joining Davos colleagues virtually this year. Gender issues are extremely important. And for countries which have endorsed SDGs, SDG number five, which is gender equality, is a key one. And in the past before COVID, there has been so much statistics put out that shows that women's participation in the economy is macro critical. So it's no longer just a number, but it's actually an increase in GDP and an increase in productivity. COVID, of course, came all of a sudden. Many countries and policymakers had to think how not just to protect citizens per se, but also not reneg on many of the very important, I would say, one issues related to different topics, including gender. And I will just give a few examples. Suddenly, the government had to work remotely and a decree was issued where women could actually take leave with the children who are below 12 years old. So this was done in legislation. So policymaking was quite important in formulating that. Second, trying to provide training for digital skills for women to be able to equip to the changing circumstances. In our case, we were one of the very first countries to have gender sensitive policies post COVID. And by the UNDP in doing assessment for countries, Egypt was singled out as the number one in West Asia and the Middle East with 21 gender sensitive policies. These policies are related to women's security, violence, childcare, etc. And of course, everyone realized in that, you know, the unpaid work became even more obvious and more visible with COVID, particularly with education being from home and so forth and everything being digital. So I think that in our case, we have not given a blind eye to the gender issues. We've tried to internalize and endogenize the new realities into what the government is formulating to basically tackle and mitigate impact of COVID. And as you mentioned in your introductory remarks, Mina, Egypt joined the World Economic Forum to launch the gender gap, closing the gender gap accelerator. We are the first country in Africa and the Middle East. And this is a public private platform. And so in the spirit of stakeholder capitalism and having all parties engaged in trying to push forward the agenda on sustainable development goals, including SDG number five, we're very happy and proud that we initiated this. And the idea is that policy making do its role, private sector be part of creating these policies so that they are basically creating more impact across the society with women participation being quite prominent in this. Thank you so much, Rania. Equally, it's going to take the public sector and the private sector, of course, to tackle this issue. Fonsili, if I can please move to you and ask you about examples of public policy or incentives that you've seen as successful, but also how to address the concern about more women sliding into extreme poverty. Again, that number of 47 million more women and girls possibly sliding into poverty due to COVID-19. Fonsili, the floor is yours. Thank you very much. Well, I have to say it's not easy at this point to say successful because, you know, we haven't been experiencing the initiatives that the governments have taken for a time that is long enough for us to know that it is successful. But let me say it is alleviating the extreme pressures that the women were feeling. One good example is Senegal. Women who grow rice and would otherwise sell into the market as the results of lockdown and all of the routes that they were using for supplying were disrupted. Government was buying all of the rice that the women were producing and using it to support feeding schemes. They have now gone into a formal relationship with government where women will, which is ideal for us, women will be supplying governments, which is also trying to reduce the import of rice into Senegal because they can grow more rice within the country. But also, you know, we have been talking about women who are informal jobs, you know, starting with the health workers, ensuring that as a result of what we have experienced in the pandemic, we have advised governments about the importance of making the conditions of service for women are much better that in situations where many women were saying that they are doing casual jobs, their contracts are not secured, and we know that health workers are so important. There is no denying we all have seen that. We have been advising that governments formalize, use this time to formalize the types of contractual arrangements that they have with women beyond the health sector. In tourism also, where women tend to be casuals, waitresses, et cetera, when they have to claim, it's much more difficult because of their precarious contracts. So we are urging governments as they give stimulus, we are urging development banks as they give support to us to make sure that they ask that women are also supported and they are put into formal contracts. Thank you. Thank you so much. The issue of casual workers from the economy is quite important. As you said, health workers, and with that, Michael, I'd like to turn you on the role of businesses in improving the situation for women, particularly those working in the health care sector, but also the importance of equitable access to health care benefits. What are your learnings and what would be your advice? I may be a little atypical in this regard. We start at the top. I have two members of the board of directors that are very senior experience women. One was a vice chairman of Deloitte and one was the first four star general in the Air Force. And so from the top down, everybody understands that you can achieve it if you're a woman in this company. We've also said we don't have programs to hire women specifically because we want everybody in this company to know that somebody's in the job because they're the best person for the job. And we support gender parity and we moved 66,000 people home in three days when COVID hit and ensure they had the support in the systems and things necessary. We still have three, four thousand doing essential. We've also hired about 7000 people virtually since COVID hit a year ago. And that's kind of atypical of where things are at. But I think one of the things I'd like to point out is that we're very proud of that 75% of our workforce are women, that 64% are supervisors and above and 55% are director level and above. We also have 54% of our interns, 52% of our people of color. And in the UK, for example, even internationally, the heads of our UK and Spanish operations, the presidents are women. So I always tell people kind of tongue-in-cheek that as a Caucasian male, I'm the minority in this company. And I think that's, but everybody's there because they've been the right person. I think that's kind of important. But you want to be intentional in helping people understand that that could happen. And as we work through COVID, we're also recognizing that if children at home, and they're not going to be able to come back to work as fast as they might otherwise, some of them. So we take that in consideration as we start to bring the workforce back. And we're planning that those individuals will come back probably in September, because that's when their children hopefully will be back in school. And there are good indications that that could happen. So it's a, we have a robust leadership development. We have inclusion programs for women. And I think what's important is have these programs in place and maintain them. And I think if anything, we'd like to be an example that it can be done, is being done. And in general, in healthcare, I think particularly it is, if you, when you watch the news, you watch everything, there is a lot more gender parity probably than we're seeing elsewhere. And we're proud of that kind of track record. And we insist on it. And so I mean, it's one on one tutoring, it's free counseling and mental health services, behavioral health services for people when they do have issues, it's enhanced caregiving, paid time off, when they have to, we understand those kinds of things. Extended emergency sick leave. These are the kinds of things I think we have to do. And we're continuing off of childcare. We have a child development center. So it's more than just childcare. So I think those things have helped us attract the women we want, retain them. And I think if anything, I'd like to say, we'd like to say it can be done. That's an important message, actually, but it can be done. But there are very specific measures that allow it to happen. Thank you, Michael, for giving us those examples. Kevin, I want to turn back to you because we're talking about gender parity as we come into hopefully a recovery soon once we see some traction emerging from this pandemic. But there's a lot of demand on companies, on governments, of what to focus on with the reset, with the recovery, be it the climate change, be it economic growth, et cetera. So how do you ensure gender parity doesn't get lost amongst all of these demands? Well, I think you listened to what Michael said. And you remind yourself that there is plenty of evidence and we've helped contribute to that that shows that companies that actually are more diverse in general, but let's take gender as a flagship part of that diversity, tend to outperform those that are not. And we've got statistics that show that they're 25% more likely to outperform. So it's worth reminding ourselves that, in general, diversity does connect with performance. And when you remind yourself of that, plus the reality that if we look across the labor force and think about what's needed to respond to the challenges that we've got now, it's good business to make the investment in parity and not to somehow or other think it's optional. It's not optional. I think going beyond that, it is also, of course, the case that a lot of companies, as Michael has illustrated, have been investing over time in this topic because they know it makes sense to do so. The notion that now is the right moment to pull back and prioritize other things, I think it's just plain wrong. And so there is just this necessity that it ties to performance. Remember that. And then look at what we're actually talking about. What we're talking about is how do you retain people you've had because the retention is going to be the big issue. I mentioned that we had surveys showing that about a quarter of senior American women in the labor force were considering downshifting or stepping out. That is an enormous cost to a business. Think about the investment that's been made in training and developing people. To lose that talent is almost unthinkable from an economic point of view, let alone, as I've said, I think just the common sense view of what it takes to perform. And you add to that that some of the things that need to be done in general will help all employees gender regardless. So for example, greater forms of social levers, funding and provision of health of childcare, as Michael talks about, family friendly policies, rethinking how performance reviews are done. That's just good business too. So I utterly reject the notion that somehow or other there's a trade off here. This is inherent to how this recovery is going to be successful. It's good business and it makes sense. And we should not take this moment with some other thing that we're trading off a green recovery for a gender parity recovery or for just a plain economic recovery. This is all connected. We need to move forward in all fronts and put all levers accordingly. Thank you, Kevin. I mean, it's your point about we shouldn't step back is also what Rania, you were referencing in your initial remarks that there has been some movement forward that we have to make sure we don't regress. But I want to come to you, Rania, to build up on the points that you made earlier about measures and legislation that was actually taken to allow mothers of those who are under 12. Do you think that there are further steps in terms of actually legislating that can be seen in the immediate future? Of course, on the long term, we know what's needed been in the immediate future as as the world tackles the pandemic. Well, you know, Kevin mentioned something very important, and that's evidence based policies. And when countries have the political commitment and the political will, investing time and, you know, collecting that data so that your policies are well targeted, whether they are related to health issues, whether they're related to making sure that daycare centers are available where needed, making sure that you are providing a dialogue with the private sector because you want them to be also the employer of choice, because everyone wants to move forward with their GDP. And I think McKinsey had a very important statistic that if we move towards parity, GDP globally goes up by $13 trillion, and that is a big number. And given where we are today globally, you know, that extra addition to GDP and to productivity is quite important. A few policies which are, you know, in the forefront, financial inclusion for women is very, very important, making sure that digital skills are available for women is quite important. Also, when we take a look at some of the loans, entrepreneurship, you know, pushing entrepreneurships that are led and startups led by women, the small and medium enterprises led by women, providing technical assistance capacity building. So all of these are policies that the government pushes. And as I mentioned, having the private sector with us, the civil society with us, because given the widespread networks of civil society to reach to the different governors, it's also quite important. So as I mentioned, it's not government only, government always provides the infrastructure required to have collective action from all stakeholders. But the most important thing is the political commitment and the understanding that in the different projects that we do, the gender component is important. Thank you very much, Rania. Consili, I want to come to you to discuss the societal impact. You know, we're talking about the government measures, what can the public sector and private sector do. But also there's been a huge societal impact. There have been numerous courts coming out where women, as they're having to stay at home more, but also concerns about the rise of domestic violence during lockdowns and so forth. So I'd like to ask you your thoughts on that and also the societal impact of what's happened and how can we mitigate against some of the adverse effects. In the time of crisis, you are able to push forward on issues that you have been trying to push forward over a very long time. During the crisis, we were able to reach out, of course, with the help also of the Secretary General, to about 444 countries and heads of states on the issue of investing and providing more resources to address the issue of violence against women. Ensuring that services that women need when they experience violence are designated as essential services. Because as you know, violence against women is a shadow pandemic. It was there before the health pandemic. It will be there beyond the health pandemic, not unless we make decisive changes as we deal with the pandemic. So what we have requested from governments, not only should they be regarded as essential services, but we are asking governments and will be announcing that as part of our generation equality campaign that the police forces, the legislature, I mean, sorry, the judiciary, all of those officers that dispense justice be regarded as the frontline workers for ending gender-based violence. Because the level of intensity that is required in order for violence against women to be addressed effectively, that intensity has not been reached yet. So we are able to have that conversation right now with different governments about really upping their game. In fact, in two days' time, we are going to be having a conversation with the police forces of countries around the world just on this issue of how they can repurpose their interventions, their action in order for them to be responding much better in the issues of violence against women. If there's time, I would also like to come back on the issue of childcare and unpaid care work. But on violence against women, we certainly are pushing for the policies to be intensified as much as possible, not just to be left to civil society. It's too difficult and too dangerous to be left to the people who don't have the means, the authority and resources. And please go ahead with elaborating on the issues of childcare. It's hugely important, so we'd love to hear your views. Please do go ahead. Well, just a point that I wanted to make, agreeing with what Egypt was saying is the importance of providing the infrastructure that would enable women to stay and to enter the labor force without the burden of having to be the caregivers for children and old people at home. In a study that we did with IFC, we looked at South Africa and Turkey by just providing compulsory childcare that is accessible and affordable. You increase jobs. You enable women to enter the labor force. You enable children to get better engagement for them to prepare because you send them to a facility that is proposed for that matter. So there is a lot of benefit if government invests in this infrastructure that takes away the burden of care from women and makes it something that is provided as a public good. Thank you very much. Yes, this idea of that provision being a public good being for the benefit of all society. Michael, I want to come to you for the final comments before we close this part of our discussion. You spoke about the measures that your company has taken and ensuring that women are fully participating. We have a question from one of the people in the audience who are watching asking, how do we go beyond a checklist of these are gender equality measures and move towards a culture where diversity is the norm? If I may, I just want to make one quick comment on the education side. Just follow up on what was just said. I cannot emphasize enough how important it's been. And it's a child development center, not just a daycare center. I mean, it has a STEM classroom for the children. And the parents love it because they see the child's development. And when they go into the public school section, they're already ahead of the game. So I think doing that and following up was just said that there's nothing more important. Now, looking back at the criteria in the checklist, I think what we think about is, do we have the organizational structure to support it? Now, whether it be people with disabilities, women, male, no, we have committees that work on that. And their focus is to ensure that we're maintaining an environment that understands it. And we have what we call courageous conversations where employees are encouraged to come in and talk to us. And we put board members on it. So they're free to talk and express what their concerns are if they have any. Because we tell people, if we don't know about it, we can't do anything about it. And so we try to maintain on that checklist a very open environment. And then if it sounds like a commercial, it's not. But one Kevin and I, we work with David Nott and his New York team. And even when we do acquisitions, we do a lot of them, they help to ensure that when we're blending the organizations that those principles and that culture is in the new structure. So it's that kind of checklist, I think, that makes a difference to me. Thank you so much, Michael. And that's a great point to make, because on some levels, it is the culture and it is the wider approach. But it's also then the very tangible measure is everything from having the Child Development Center to ensuring legislation is there in particular countries to working with the police forces or the Senegal example is brilliant about women who couldn't go out and sell the rice. Well, actually, the rice was bought from them and gave a general good to the public and those who were consuming that rice. Thank you for your very candid remarks and very tangible pointers and advice for us. Thank you very much.