In December 2019, the Aga Khan University organised a conference on Gender Equity and Women in Leadership. Hosted with the support of the University’s Provost and Vice-President (Academic), Dr Carl Amrhein, the conference brought together change-makers in the fields of business, development, health, law and publishing to discuss the global challenges to achieving gender equity in the workplace, with a particular focus on Pakistan, and strategies to overcome these and enable more women to reach leadership positions.
Click here to access the conference report.
More than 350 people attended the conference and over 35 organisations were represented. 26 speakers, including Dr Nancy Spector, executive director of the Hedwig van Ameringen Executive Leadership in Academic Medicine (ELAM) program for women, Dr Saad B. Omer, an alumnus of AKU’s Medical College and director at the Yale Institute for Global Health, USA, Ms Roshaneh Zafar, founder and managing director of Kashf Foundation, Pakistan’s first specialised microfinance institution for women micro-entrepreneurs and Ms. Shazia Syed, who was formerly chief executive officer and chairperson of Unilever Pakistan Limited and is currently executive vice president for Unilever's global tea business, joined in person or via video-link.
The conference stimulated a lot of debate, and introspection, and made some bold recommendations for how universities, development organisations, charities and businesses can make their workplaces gender equitable and enable more women to rise to positions of leadership.
Women’s empowerment and gender equality are important principles at AKU and since its founding in 1983, AKU has been promoting the welfare and advancement of women. With campuses and facilities in Pakistan, Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Afghanistan and the United Kingdom, AKU is a truly international university unlike any other in the world, putting it in a unique position to address gender equality in the countries it operates.