Shaikha Al-Bahar

KUWAIT: Celebrating International Women's Day, NBK participated in the 'Ring the Bell Event,' organized by UN Women and in cooperation with the Supreme Council for Planning and Development (SCPD) and Boursa Kuwait to promote the empowerment of women in various fields. UN Women themed this year's event "Women in leadership: Achieving an equal future in a COVID-19 world, in celebration of the great efforts made by women for recovery from the coronavirus pandemic.

NBK participated in the event, which was held virtually represented by Shaikha Al-Bahar, Deputy Group CEO, and Emad Al-Ablani, GM - Group Human Resources, who shed light on the bank's achievements in promoting gender diversity and inclusion as a cornerstone of the bank's system.

The event discussed ways to consolidate efforts and visions to promote the seven principles of the empowerment of women launched by UN Women and UN Global Compact. In 2021, the focus was on the third and fifth of these principles regarding guaranteeing the health, safety, and well-being of all women and men workers, and implementing enterprise development, supply chain and marketing practices that empower women.

On this occasion, Bahar said: "Commemorating International Women's Day gives us an opportunity to reflect on women's achievements and the progress made in achieving gender equality globally. Moreover, it encourages business leaders to act proactively to accelerate realization of this goal in the coming years."

Bahar pointed out that all organizations and institutions are required to proactively support the principle of equal opportunities in all job roles, and that career progression should be based on key criteria basically skill, experience and competence.

Bahar emphasized that women leaders showed great examples in addressing the coronavirus pandemic and contributed to putting countries on the track of recovery, noting that achieving gender equality in women's leadership and representation is a global prerequisite to create an environment that promotes sustainable development and creates a positive impact on society in the long term.

Bahar added that supporting women to reach their full potential has always been one of NBK's priorities, stemming from the bank's belief in the importance of gender diversity and inclusion as critical factors to sustain its success in the future.

"At NBK, we are proud to be one of the first private sector institutions in the region to endorse UN Women's Empowerment Principles (WEPs), as we were early to adopt a more systematic approach towards gender equality, which contributed to comprehensive adoption of these principles, and also provided us with a framework to work on the overall UN Sustainable Development Goals including gender equality as one of its key pillars," she pointed out.

Bahar noted: "NBK follows a unique approach with regards to guaranteeing equal opportunities, as it ensures equal opportunities for all its employees, with no exception, with the aim to motivate them to innovate. This approach is also clearly manifested in having no salary gap between women and men employees in the bank."

Bahar indicated that gender-diverse workforce gives added value to the bank's business, operating across 4 continents and 15 countries worldwide. We are proud that women employees represent 46% of the workforce, which is a remarkable achievement across the banking sector and the regional labor market.

Moreover, the bank is keen to empower more women through mentoring and offering them career development opportunities. Over the past years, the bank adopted many initiatives that help attract and retain female talents, in addition to helping working parents create a better work-life balance.