Kuala Lumpur, October 27, 2009—IFC,
a member of the World Bank Group, and the Global Reporting Initiative today
launched a practitioner’s guide to help organizations worldwide create
opportunities for women, adopt best practices in sustainability reporting,
and improve companies’ bottom lines.
Unveiled at the CSR Asia Summit 2009
in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, Embedding Gender in Sustainability Reporting
demonstrates the value of creating business opportunities for women,
provides guidance on improving gender management through sustainability
reporting, and helps improve the quality and scope of gender reporting.
Greg Radford, IFC Director for Environment
and Social Development, said “At IFC we are committed to better integrating
gender issues in our work and as this guide shows. Rewards from measuring
gender practices and taking action accordingly can come in all shapes,
from better staff morale to increased productivity. It can result in greater
recognition in the marketplace, more support from local communities, increase
in sales, better access to export markets, and attraction of new investments.”
The publication complements the GRI’s
innovative Sustainability Reporting Framework, the most widely used and
recognized global framework for nonfinancial reporting. The GRI framework
links elements of effective sustainability management systems with indicators
that can drive continuous improvement of company performance.
Ernst R. Ligteringen, GRI’s Chief Executive,
said, “We are delighted to be able to provide companies with practical,
hands-on guidance on how to measure and disclose their performance on gender,
enabling them to embed gender issues within their reporting on corporate
economic, environmental, and social performance.”
A range of stakeholders were involved
in the production of this report, many of whom read and prepare sustainability
reports. Their feedback was collected during a series of international
consultation workshops with business, civil society, investors, and labor
representatives. A diverse, high-level advisory group also was established
to support the development of this publication, with the governments of
Germany, Iceland, and Switzerland acting as lead sponsors.
To learn more about IFC’s gender program,
visit http://www.ifc.org/gender.
About IFC
IFC, a member of the World Bank Group, creates opportunity for people to
escape poverty and improve their lives. We foster sustainable economic
growth in developing countries by supporting private sector development,
mobilizing private capital, and providing advisory and risk mitigation
services to businesses and governments. Our new investments totaled $14.5
billion in fiscal 2009, helping channel capital into developing countries
during the financial crisis. For more information, visit www.ifc.org.
About the Global Reporting Initiative
The Global Reporting Initiative has
pioneered the development of the world’s most widely used sustainability
reporting framework and is committed to its continuous improvement and
application worldwide. This framework sets out the principles and indicators
that organizations can use to measure and report their economic, environmental,
and social performance. For more information, visit www.globalreporting.org.