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More than just philanthropy – also good business
More than 300 private sector representatives were gathered this week in Cairo to explore how the UN Sustainable Development Goals can be used in Egypt to ensure that the companies are ready for the future. Because sustainability is no longer just philanthropy, but also good business.

“We have gathered ministers, ambassadors and business people for a two-day conference in Cairo to increase the awareness of the UN Sustainable Development Goals for the private sector in the Middle East and North Africa. We want to give business professionals tangible and readily implementable tools to use that will both benefit businesses and society as a whole,” says Eng. Ahmed Kamal, Executive director of Environmental Compliance Office and Sustainable Development the Federation of Egyptian Industries.

The UN Sustainable Development is a framework agreed among 193 countries and it addresses the main global challenges that societies face across the globe. There are 17 goals covering everything from poverty and hunger to economic growth and decent jobs. The private sector plays a central role in reaching these goals.

Among the speakers at the conference that took place at the Nile Ritz-Carlton were HE Dr. Yasmine Fouad, Minister of Environment, HE Tomas Christensen, Danish Ambassador to Egypt , Mr. Richard Dictus, UN Resident Coordinator in Egypt , Dr. Ahmed Kamaly, Deputy Minister for Planning affairs

At the conference, 12 selected companies were awarded the SDG Award from the Federation of Egyptian Industries for being some of the leading companies within sustainable development. The conference also saw the launch of the umbrella initiative SDGrowth that aims to work with Egyptian companies to strategically use the global goals as a business driver.

The Federation of Egyptian Industries Department of Environmental Compliance office and Sustainable Development (FEI ECO), jointly with the regional programme “EconoWin – Economic Integration of Women in the MENA region” implemented by Gesellschaft fuer Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) and funded by the Federal Ministry of Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) held the 2nd Gender Diversity Management (GDM) workshop on 29. November in Cairo. The professional management of gender diversity promotes job and career opportunities for both: women and men.

The workshop focused on “Corporate Strategy, Culture and Recruitment”. As first ‘Best Practice’ Sekems’ Holding HR Director Meret Morris talked about gender diversity as a part of SEKEM’s corporate strategy. She highlighted Sekem’s efforts to increase the number of female employees in senior and middle management positions achieving 33% of female employees at senior level in 2016 from 11% in 2015. The significant change can be attributed to their recruitment process being free of gender bias and their additional efforts to reach out to the female talent. Participants of the workshop were especially keen to discuss how Sekem does overcome the socio-cultural challenges given in the region. A successful approach is the screening of ANA HUNNA films which foster the dialogue about the topic women & work and their engagement in the work force.

The second part of the workshop focused on gender sensitive recruitment and employer branding. Considering the fact that only 26% of the Egyptian labour force are women despite achieving gender parity on all education levels, leaves great potential untapped. Recent studies have shown that mixed-gender working teams were up to 42% more successful than teams divided by gender. The participants were able to fully benefit of workshops through open brain storming sessions and role plays, applying the different concepts previously discussed.

Eng. Ahmed Kamal, Executive Director of FEI-Eco, stressed that it is important for Egypt as a developing country that all talents, women and men, need to participate to achieve the Egypt’s ambitious plan and thrive jointly for economic success. Currently FEI –Eco is implementing a series of activities with EconoWin such as the gender diversity training for HR managers, a conference on the topic of gender diversity to further disseminate the topic in 2017 and a possible study about GDM in the industrial sector. FEI strongly believes in GDM.  Asked about reasons for companies to professional its management of gender diversity, Ahmed Kamal replied “definitely an increase of productivity and also, the fact that a diverse workforce creates more ideas”.With the launch of the FEI gender diversity network, “we are optimistic that GDM will have a great impact in our labour force”, Ahmed Kamel stated.

 

Sometimes crises have positives.. They stimulate challenge and confrontation. This is exactly what The Environmental Compliance Office at The Federation of Egyptian Industries, has done. The office held a meeting so as to provide a wide range of business opportunities for the private sector to be active in the field of taking advantage of a neglected treasure named “solid wastes”.

Do you still have a video device, cassette or satellite receiver in your home? Do you have a useless mobile, old recorder or a television that should be exchanged with a new one? I wonder what is the fate of these old electronics that may carry toxic gases and dangerous wastes?.. Then, what is the fate of the tons of garbage stacked in the streets, although they include a wealth of plastic, paper, glass and metal wastes.

How can we turn these harmful wastes into popular business with specialized projects? These topics were discussed during the meeting held in The Environmental Compliance Office and Sustainable Development, last November 2013, to make use of solid wastes. The idea is bold and opens a wide door of hope to establish very profitable projects, with rates ranging from 25% to 50% of waste treasures.

Engineer Ahmed Kamal, the Executive Director of The Environmental Compliance Office, confirmed that Egypt has a national wealth estimated in billion. He added: “We have to think together how to make use of it in order to achieve an environmental and economic profit.

Mr. Kamal also said: “The idea is easy and successful, but it needs encouragement so that the private sector can join and benefit from it, since it is more capable in managing these wastes with successful and flexible methods rather than the government.

 

The most prominent model here is recycling electronic wastes, a problem that encounters us quickly because of the large number of such wastes in our homes. So how can we encourage the society to get rid of them for useful purposes? This was discussed during the meeting and there were presentations of very successful projects, among which were producing methanol from organic waste and fuel tablets from rice straw and preparing them for exportation since European countries rush on importing them for cheap heating purposes.

Furthermore, there are other projects that can be established by the sponsorship of The Environmental Compliance Office without high cost to make excellent revenues for the owners, in addition that they will provide job opportunities for countless number of ambitious youth.

Here the hope shines for the people, instead of yelling over the events and waiting for relief without concrete positive actions.

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