Uzbekistan: Transforming business practices through gender equality and responsible business conduct
15 May 2024
TASHKENT (ILO News) - Government, workers’ and employers’ representatives came together at the international conference on “Transforming business practices through gender equality and responsible business conduct” to underline the tripartite commitment to advancing the transformative gender equality agenda in Uzbekistan.
The conference was co-organised by the ILO Decent Work Technical Support Team and Country Office for Eastern Europe and Central Asia and the Confederation of Employers of Uzbekistan (CEU), with the participation of the Ministry of Employment and Poverty Reduction, the Federation of Trade Unions (FTUU), international organizations, academia and the private sector, and took place in Tashkent on 15 May 2024.
The conference hosted representatives of private sector from different countries and covered a range of topics including the importance of building a corporate culture of mutual respect to prevent violence and harassment at work, the importance of strengthening gender equality in business based on ADIDAS’s global gender equality strategy, the experience of TBC Bank Georgia in establishing an internal complaint mechanism on violence and harassment at the company level.
The participants also discussed the engagement of private sector in responding gender-based violence through GBVF Respond Fund in South Africa, the ILO’s global agenda on investing in the care economy and responsible business conduct to drive gender equality, and the promotion of gender equality through company-level solutions with the Better Work Programme in Uzbekistan.
The conference concluded with the announcement of a statement by the Confederation of Employers’ statement committing to further work to promote gender equality and safe working environment free of violence and harassment in Uzbekistan.
The international conference was followed by a capacity-building activity on addressing and preventing violence and harassment at work through business practices for private sector representatives from a wide range of sectors in Uzbekistan including railways, gold mining, agriculture, catering, telecommunications, textile, gas, education, as well as employer business member organisations, representing 192,000 workers in total.
