Gender equality, diversity, and inclusion in innovation: Roundtable summary report
In Gender equality, diversity, and inclusion: Roundtable summary report, The Institute for Competitiveness and Prosperity presents the challenges of incorporating gender equality, diversity, and inclusion into clusters in Canada, particularly into the five Superclusters, as well as a number of recommendations.
The Institute, in partnership with the WE EMPOWER Programme of UN Women, hosted a roundtable on January 25, 2019 with 30 leaders from a variety of backgrounds. As the roundtable followed Chatham House Rules, individual respondents are not identified but their insights are incorporated into this White Paper (attached).
The challenges identified include:
- There will be a learning curve for the superclusters to introduce and implement policies that advance gender equality, diversity, and inclusion;
- Capability gap – There are not many who have the experience, knowledge resources to implement such policies especially for small businesses;
- Accountability – There is not enough accountability in the implementation of diversity and inclusion policies.
Recommendations to remediate the challenges include:
- Commit to the Women’s Empowerment Principles;
- Apply for Gender diversity certification;
- Stronger accountability measures;
- Create advisory councils;
- Develop sectoral initiatives;
- Collaboration and partnership;
- Commit to international labour standards.
For more information on the WE EMPOWER Programme and the Women’s Economic Principles, please visit www.empowerwomen.org.
The article was published in March 2019 on The Institute for Competitiveness and Prosperity website here.
Copyright © March 2019 The Institute for Competitiveness & Prosperity
