 and welcome to this very important discussion that's taking place today here with your news in partnership with the World Economic Forum. Many thanks to the World Economic Forum for allowing your news to be part of this conversation, which is all about making sure gender parity is at the heart of the COVID-19 recovery. Now time is tight in this discussion, but I imagine the women here joining us on this panel will be speaking from personal experience in some respects. And they've seen how the pandemic has increased their workload from many of women I've spoken to seems to be disproportionate in terms of their men, male counterparts. There's been my case anyway. But as we look to the economic recovery, what we need to know is how can we make women a part of this and push further in terms of gender parity? Because we know that when we look at the statistics they have tumbled and women are doing worse than they were before. And there is no doubt the pandemic has been an accelerator in terms of that negative impact. And in fact, Oxfam published a very important study today, which the World Economic Forum shared, which really comes to the very heart, the challenges we're facing. And it reveals that we could face the greatest rise in inequality since records began. And the pandemic increasing economic inequality in almost every country at once. And I think in many respects that just underlines the fact that the conversation we're having today about gender parity of changes to happen, it has to start happening now. We don't wait. Anyway, I'm absolutely delighted. We've got a fantastic panel to discuss this. It's an all-female panel, which is brilliant. Let me begin by introducing them. We are joined by Elisabeth Moreno, who is the minister delegate for gender equality, diversity and equal opportunities in France. Give us a wave, Elisabeth, so we can see where you are. Fantastic as well to be joined by Anne Lind, who's the minister of foreign affairs of Sweden. We also are joined by Martin Ferland, who is the CEO of Mercer in the United States. Now, I know that Martin may not be with us now. I have a bit of difficulty seeing my screen because it is quite far away from me. But she will be joining us throughout the discussion. And she will be joining us as soon as she can come with us. And we are also joined, which is fantastic, by Laura Lizwood, who is the secretary general of the Council of Women World Leaders, and is joining us from the United States. So this is a very important discussion. And I suggest we get stuck in just to explain to you how it is going to work. It's a conversation that's split in two parts. This first part here is public. And then we'll move into a private discussion with World Economic Forum participants. So there'll be a brief pause in about 30 minutes from now. I would like to begin, though, I think if we just try and take a look at the actual context we're facing now because it's been nearly a year that we've been embroiled in the pandemic. Things have changed incredibly fast. And I was saying just at the beginning that in many respects women have been at the brunt of this pandemic for a number of reasons. I will begin by discussing and asking Elizabeth Moreno and Lynn about the situation not only in terms of domestic abuse on the rise. We've seen this around the world during the pandemic and lockdowns, but also in terms of equality, because women have been at the forefront when it's come to job losses. So if I may begin with you, Elizabeth, to this double-barreled question, can we just look at the situation in France and if you want to expand across Europe too in terms of the situation of domestic abuse? Can you hear me? Isabel, can you hear me well? I can hear you. Wonderful. Good morning. Good afternoon, everybody. It's my pleasure attending this forum. And I want to start, thank you, Web, for organizing this very important panel, because, you know, as you said, Isabel, the situation of women across the world has been absolutely terrifying in the past year or so. I'm not saying women only have been impacted, but I want to say that, you know, if I take concrete example, we've seen an unprecedented increase in domestic violence during these lockdowns. And many women have terribly suffered from mental charge when they were forced to not only take care of their kids during the lockdown, but also to become a kind of teacher and as well as working at the same time. And I know this situation in France. We have seen an increase of gender violence of 42 percent, you know, 42 percent of violence against women. And we know that women have been in the forefront of all the situations because they have the most vulnerable jobs and so on and so forth. So we know that this pandemic in one hand has put a cruel light on the situation of women on a personal level, but also on a professional level. So I think it's important before giving you some insight on how we supported the labor market in France and so on and so forth, to remember that nothing can be done if the very basic needs, such as security, are not managed properly. So thank you for giving me the opportunity to speak about that. We have put many actions in place, actually, to support women during this time, making sure that they had a possibility to reach to associations or NGOs, to reach to the policemen when needed, to reach to the people who could support their difficult times. And I have to say that thanks to the very interesting work we have done with the associations, they have been very well supported. We are seeing the violence decreasing despite the pandemic is not well under control yet. But it seems that the contribution of the states, plus the associations, plus the companies that are putting their means at the service of these women that are suffering these violence is helping us a lot. And hopefully we will continue to do so. Okay, many thanks for bringing us that, Madame Moreno. And what about then in terms, you mentioned briefly in terms of the workplace, before I bring Anne-Lynne, can you just give us a quick vision of what is happening in terms of work in France for women during this pandemic? We've seen business after business closed and it does appear that women are the ones at the forefront. Yeah, absolutely. So you know, France has the vast majority of countries supplied its economy with an unprecedented financial support to businesses with a special focus on small and medium sized companies. And we have also put in place for all workers a very protective short time work scheme when it is not possible for instance to telework or because the activity has been fully suspended. We have increased the financial assistance to deprived families and granted extra solidarity based AIDS. And to boost the hiring of young people, you know, we know that the young generation is considered to be sacrificed in these pandemic times. And we wanted to make sure that young people could find a job and we have granted exceptional loans to employers so they can hire apprentices almost for free. You know, those special measures of course support women as we can see that women are severely affected by the crisis from an economic standpoint and they face more precarious conditions for teleworking. I load data because you mentioned some data and I think it's important to keep a close eye to the data what can't be measured cannot be improved. We all know that and I load data showed interestingly that women are not necessarily more affected by job losses, but rather by a decrease of the overall total of workers hours. And in the medical and medical care sector, for instance, where women are in vast majority, the French government has granted additional financial premiums as a sign of the recognition of their hard work and their commitment. And finally, we will pay great attention on the respect of gender parity in the implementation of our national recovery plan. It is extremely important that women are not left behind in these times of pandemics. There is no better time to involve women in the labour market. This is why we want to make sure that companies which benefit from the recovery plan will respect their commitment in terms of reaching full gender parity. Okay, thanks so much, Elizabeth. And we can really see the commitment that you are throwing into this very important issue. In fact, I'd like to now to bring in Minister of Foreign Affairs and Linda because I'd like to basically ask you the same question. If we look at the context in Sweden, I know Sweden is recognized as one of the most progressive countries in the world when it comes to gender parity, but how hard has the pandemic been on women? If we can first focus on the situation in terms of domestic abuse and then let's move out and look at the broader picture in terms of the work environment? Well, it is very clear. And I think that even if some people were hesitant in the beginning, if here really were a gender perspective, I think that no one doubts anymore that there is a gender perspective in the pandemic and especially the response to the pandemic. We know that the violence against women and girls has increased dramatically in many countries. And we know also that the economic downturn has a specific impact on women. And that is of course because women has a position in the labor market that is less secure. You have precarious work. You are often in the informal sector. They also bear most of the responsibility for the unpaid care work. And Elisabeth mentioned both the care of elderly who cannot go out because of lockdowns and also the homeschooling, which is done a lot by the women. So all of these things are a serious threat to gender equality. And I would even go so far as to say that we have a recession for women and girls. And I've been working for many years also in another ministry for justice with crisis response. And it's very often that in crisis, the gender perspective is unfortunately often the first thing to be disregarded. We have therefore from the very beginning of the pandemic tried to get a gender perspective in the crisis response and in the rebuilding efforts, not the least. We have done this in the UN, the IFI, the EU bilaterally. And I can say as one example that is close to World Economic Forum. I have been part of the global action group for the principles of the activities to get out of the pandemic and how to react to it. And we have been ministers, academics, CIOs, and there were principles proposed that we discussed. But I saw immediately there was no proposal for a principle to promote gender equality as the response. So I proposed that and hope it was very good. Nobody was arguing against me. So now that's in the official result from the World Economic Forum, the global action group on COVID-19 response. I would also say that we have from the Swedish government strongly supported United Nation. And we have actually a network of women, foreign ministers. We are not so many. I am right now in Brussels. We are 27 countries and only four of us are women, foreign ministers. But globally, we have a women, foreign ministers network. We met virtually to try to see how can we get the response to be gender sensitive and taking all those arguments that we have now heard by me and Elizabeth has said. And we wrote an article together, together also with you and women's head, Pumptile. And then Spain took an initiative after our meetings and articles to try to get United Nation resolution on gender response and gender sensitivity in the response for COVID. And actually, just recently, we managed to get the United Nation declaration on using also gender issues in the response to COVID-19. So I think that's quite an achievement because from the beginning, this was gone from the discussion. I think also it's important to when we have our action plans, for example, EU has just recently adopted a new gender action plans for 2021 to 2025 to use that as an instrument for the EU COVID-19 response so that we have both nationally and globally in our different global organization, we put this in the forefront. And we need to be persistent in this because it's always gone. And I will come back then to social and reproductive health and rights because I think that's an area that has had to step backwards in the response. And I think we need to fight for that too. Thank you. Thank you so much, Minister. There has certainly been a step back and it's really of concern. In some respects, those people who can act probably with a bit more agility and more rapidity are those industry leaders who haven't all necessarily taken on the issues of diversity and inclusion at the heart of their mandates. But I know that someone is very important and that is Martin Ferland who is CEO of Mercer in the United States now. I don't think we can see her but we can definitely hear her, I gather. So Martin, can you just tell us what the situation is like in Mercer and what have you seen really during the pandemic in terms of female workers? Not hearing Martin there for the moment. We'll try and come back to her. I'll check with the if there are issues with her connection. Well, in that case, Laura Lizwood, if I could come to you, you've been listening in on our conversation and it would have been interesting to hear from Martin with this business perspective because for you, this has to be a multi-stakeholder response in terms to ensure that gender parity really is part of this new impetus, if it impetus there be, in terms of a global economic recovery and that women have to be at the heart of that. Tell us why. Well, first, Isabel, thank you for moderating and thanks to the World Economic Forum for continuing to identify and raise these gender issues, which they have been doing now for a number of years and continue to provide this kind of convening power that the Forum has. So just to put that there, the multi-stakeholder approach is essential, obviously, because each of the particular sectors, the government sector has a certain sphere of influence. The private sector has that resources and then the civil society has these grassroots ability to touch people. So to the extent that that's a basic ground rule that we have to have this multi-stakeholder approach. And I think as we look at it, and it's already been identified so well by the ministers, is this notion of the fragility of the games, basically the pandemic and the financial impact of it has exposed that which we already knew. We already knew there were issues of domestic violence. We already knew that women were disproportionately in the lower paying jobs. We already knew that women were not as high up in the corporate world as they could be or should be. So I think it's important to just put a put a pin in that and say, you know, we've already known all of these things. It's just that the pandemic has exposed it in a way that we haven't had before. So this notion of having to be ever vigilant to the potential for the law. Continue and bring Laura back in a second. Would you like me to continue, Isabel? Go ahead, continue. We hear you again. Oh, okay. I think, you know, part of the important thing is to recognize that we can have specific issues like the domestic violence crisis that we're seeing that has been identified. We can look at the care issues and what are all the programmatic elements that we can deal with with care. But I think overarching. We need to first and foremost understand that the importance of the diversity and inclusion and the seat of the table that we've already heard from the ministers, because I have heard that many organizations saying, well, we have so many important issues that diversity really isn't something that we can focus on right now. Well, that's just the opposite of the truth, because in a crisis time, you need the most creative ideas and the most differing experiences and perspective, which is obviously what diversity provides. So that's the irony of it. So particularly corporations need to be ever vigilant that they don't slip in their focus around diversity. And as Minister Lynn mentioned, there's a number of overarching directives. The UN has their women's empowerment principles. The World Economic Forum has its principles, the sustainable development goals. So we have the bones that are needed. But what we don't have necessarily is the will to do these things. You see organizations, for example, Banco San Dendere in Argentina, they're funding loans for financial literacy for women. Citibank has created a hundred million dollar fund for underserved minorities. You're seeing these various programs and we can identify many of them. But we have to fall back and make sure that we understand the value of the diversity. And I am particularly quite honestly, maybe because I'm just getting old, I'm beginning to believe that things like the quotas are essential to make sure that women have a seat at the table, whether that's in the parliaments, whether that's in the boards of directors, whether that's in management, because that's where much of the power lies. But that's not where women are. So we have to figure out how to ensure in this multi-stakeholder way that women have the power points. Okay, Laura, I'll just interrupt you there because we only have nine minutes left on this open part of the discussion and there's so much to raise. But you've raised some really, really interesting points there, which I'm going to now bring up. And I gather we do have Martin Ferland with us now. I thought what was very interesting from what Laura was saying was that diversity has slipped back and people are not putting this at the forefront of their agenda. A lot of business leaders aren't. Is that something you're seeing and what is Mercer doing in terms of to redress this? And what have you seen really company-wide? Yes, and good afternoon and good morning, everyone. My apologies for joining so late. It's very bad morning to have laptop issues. Indeed, there's lots of willingness out there, Zabel, I would say. For example, 81% of companies say in their surveys that they are focused on diversity and inclusion. But yet again, only 41% of them do track the flow of talent in, out, promotion, et cetera. So it's difficult to see if your actions are really making progress if you're not tracking your metrics. On the same side, we look at companies again in the 80s percent saying that they want to have equality and equity. But yet again, only 42% of corporations have formal pay-equity process and remediation every year as they go through their year-end compensation. So there's a lot of willingness. Not all programs actually are working effectively. And therefore, I think we need more rigor in applying the metrics, having the accountability and utilizing really techniques that make a difference at the end of the day. Thank you very much, because that's very interesting, isn't it? And if I may call on Elizabeth and Anne once again, because rigor and accountability are very important. We do hear a lot of willingness. People do say the right things when it comes to gender parity, but actions sometimes seem to be slow in coming. Can you both pinpoint for me the main actions you are taking and the results you have seen in your countries in terms of gender parity, and particularly when we look at it in this context of the pandemic? And at this time, I'll start with you, Minister Anlind. Well, thank you very much. Yes, we have a feminist government since 1994. We have had gender parity in the government. And since 2014, we have a feminist foreign policy that actually is making a big difference for women and girls around the world. We also have a feminist trade policy. And now we have a lot of countries that has followed these examples. So both France and Spain and Canada and Mexico now also has a feminist foreign policy. And we have actually several now meetings on how this is going to be even more sharp in the different things. I want to come back also to what we do when it comes to COVID in the sexual and reproductive health and rights, because I'm very worried that in many, many countries they have taken away the possibility for women's sexual and productive health and rights in the name of COVID, both to give information, the issue of abortion, and so on. So we have support to counteract the pandemic negative impact on sexual and reproductive health and rights with about 15 million dollars and also 13 million dollars to counteract gender-based violence, because we see it in many countries and it's needed. And also to women's shelter organization, because unfortunately the women's shelter organization has got a rise with women who has been locked in with their partners. So now they have been more exposed, of course, to violence. So they have also got more. So I think I stopped there to get the time for Elizabeth as well to speak. Yeah, it's interesting because what you're saying when we look at this regression, it's happening here in Europe as well. There's a number of countries that come to mind when we think about abortion rights being taken away from women. So Elizabeth Moreno, can you just speak to us about the concrete actions your government has taken that you have pushed for and the difference you are seeing? Yes, indeed. Thank you, Isabel. And I want to mention that even I know we are short in time, but I want to mention how beautiful the example of Sweden is for feminism diplomacy. You know, I'm lucky because in France, our president Emmanuel Macron has decided to consider the gender, priority, gender equality as a great cause, which means that in our country in the past three years, I mean, many things have had been done in the past. And in the past three years, we have done a lot in terms of sexual freedom for women, you know, like access to abortion during lockdown has been extended, indeed, because with the lockdown, it was difficult to have access to doctors. We have made a very important information campaign. So every woman in the country has access to the right information at the right moment. And they do not feel alone in these particularly sensitive times. And we have also put in place some women's housing or shelter solutions to support the most vulnerable women. And, you know, coming from the, I mean, I have been myself a former CEO. And I know that much more needs to be done by companies. And I'm happy to see Mercer participating with us here because I think, you know, there is no way we can tackle this issue of gender inequality if government associations or NGOs and private companies do not work together. You know, there is no way we can truly address these difficulties if people do not feel by themselves in their own sector that they have a contribution to bring to the table. And on the 25th of November, last 25th of November, I have had a very interesting meeting with 50 large companies where CEOs have made the commitment to enter into this game of women violence, bring their contribution, whether it is financial, whether it is support in terms of information, in terms of information, supporting women in their understanding of all the systems that are playing so they can use it in the proper manner. So I truly believe that the success or are the best way for us to tackle this gender inequality is not to leave it only on the hands of women, but to consider that not only men do have their pay their parts to play, but also a kind of coalition between the countries that do share their value the same values and the companies, private companies, as well as NGOs. That's to me the right recipe to combat this gender equality, particularly now it is time to bring this change. Okay, so it's very interesting, Elizabeth Moreno, now in 15 seconds I think we're going to flip into our private debates where participants will take part. But what I've really taken away from here is one that action has to take place now, and that there's a sense that this has to be a coalition as you said, Elizabeth, but really a multi-stakeholder approach when it comes to dealing with this very important issue of gender parity. So I think with that, if I understand correctly, we will be moving into the second part of the session in one minute. But I really want to thank you for taking part in this discussion, because the issues that are being raised now have to be taken on board now. Because otherwise, as Laura mentioned, if you put this at the bottom of the list, then it's not going to be dealt with for years. And we're going to see the gender parity gap get even wider. And I think it was 257 years before women caught up with men according to World Economic Forum. So that would likely be extended.