Interregional Exchange on Business Integrity between Women Working Groups from Indonesia and Argentina

Continuing the exchange of ideas and experience sharing between peers, the Women Entrepreneurs and Professionals Working Group conducted their third meeting in 2018 in Bandung. First on the agenda, Faiza Hasan led the members to identify issues faced by businesswomen in running their business. Moreover, the working group also formulated recommendations for these issues. These issues and recommendations will be submitted for consideration to the next Regional Advocacy Committee meeting before the end of this year. The meeting also facilitated a sharing session with the Indonesian Global Compact Network (IGCN) regarding their work to promote the 10 Principles of Business Ethics. In her presentation Deladwita Suyoso, Programme Manager of the Indonesian Global Compact Network, emphasised the importance of the principles in doing business. Deladwita encouraged the businesswomen to support and respect human rights, work against corruption, eliminate discrimination against labour workers, and promote environmentally friendly technology in running their daily business operations, among others. She also shared a good practice example of promoting the empowerment of women and equality in business and IGCN’s experience in conducting a Women’s Business Forum.

After the break, the audience was put into contact with their peers in Argentina, where the Vice Chair of the Women 20 (W20) Argentina, Juliana Bonetto, also joined the meeting. Juliana informed the audience that W20 has prepared a set of Communiques to G20 that consisted of 15 recommendations aimed at bolstering digital, financial and labour inclusion for women, and promoting their development in rural areas. The communique was delivered to the G20 at the W20 Summit which took place between 1 and 3 October 2018. In the meeting, a plan to connect the working group with Indonesian delegates to the W20 was also made. The members also discussed real case studies from Indonesia, whilst the members of the Women’s Working Group Argentina shared possible solutions to these practical cases related to business integrity. One of the solutions delivered entailed collective action to fight corruption, which was received very well by the audience. It was also agreed to put collective action topics on the agenda for discussion in the next meeting.