Nominations open for the 2021 Women’s Empowerment Principles Awards in the Philippines

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Manila, Philippines – UN Women returns with its annual Women’s Empowerment Principles (WEPs) Awards, which honor companies operating in the Philippines for their achievements in advancing gender equality in business. Organized by the UN Women programme WeEmpowerAsia, the WEPs Awards is now accepting nominations from May 31 to July 31. The WeEmpowerAsia programme, funded by the European Union, promotes women’s participation and leadership in the workplace, marketplace, and community.

Nominees will compete in six categories: Leadership Commitment; Gender-inclusive Workplace; Gender-responsive Marketplace; Community Engagement and Partnerships; Transparency and Reporting; and Youth Leadership for Generation Equality. The latter three categories are new to this year’s awards. Also new are three Champion titles for small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).

“As we now welcome more WEPs signatories than before, we are excited to work with new allies in the private sector,” said UN Women Philippines Programme Manager Ma Rosalyn Mesina. “We found great success with our collaborations with the winner’s pool last year. We look forward to an even more productive 2021 for gender equality!”

“The business case is clear,” according to Boots Garcia, co-chair of the Philippine Business Coalition for Women Empowerment (PBCWE), a partner of UN Women in the Philippines. “Embedding these concepts in corporate sustainability and governance, and business strategies will lead to quantifiable and positive results in attracting and sustaining the best talent in the market, increasing shareholder value, and promoting innovation,” Garcia said at the launch event and info session held online on 25 May.

Diverse participation

WeEmpowerAsia received more than 400 nominations from 17 countries for the inaugural WEPs Awards in 2020.

Katrina Chan, Executive Director of QBO Innovation Hub in the Philippines, which won in the Youth Leadership category last year, said: “The Awards was an amazing opportunity for QBO, a young startup, to network with established organizations that share our vision. Attaining this recognition raises our profile around the efforts to ensure equal gender representation in tech becomes the norm.”

“We wanted to push ourselves to do more and to inspire others to do the same. It makes business sense to empower women on all levels and all fronts,” added Jonah De Lumen-Pernia, Director for Public Affairs, Communications and Sustainability of Coca-Cola Philippines, winner of the Community and Industry Engagement category.

This year’s awards are supported by Investing in Women (IW), an initiative of the Australian Government, together with PBCWE and the Indonesia Business Coalition for Women’s Empowerment (IBCWE). IW aims to create enabling environments for women’s economic empowerment towards a more gender-equal world. The IW-supported PBCWE and IBCWE work with leading companies in the Philippines and Indonesia to introduce gender equality strategies and tools, enabling a more diverse workforce and the associated benefits to companies, employees, and wider society.

 

Save the date

The national WEPs Awards ceremony in the Philippines will be hosted by WeEmpowerAsia on 15 October 2021. All nominees will be eligible for the regional awards to be announced on 18 November 2021.

Nominations for the 2021 WEPs Awards are being accepted until Bangkok midnight on 31 July 2021

Nominate your business now! www.asiapacificwepsawards.org

 

L’Oréal Philippines’ Beauty For a Better Life Celebrates One Year of Changing Lives

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(Metro Manila, 2018) -  Empowering Women to Transform Communities - L’Oréal Philippines’ Beauty For a Better Life celebrates one year of changing lives held the grand awarding ceremony this Tuesday afternoon (April 3) at the Renaissance Conventional Center, Marikina City, with the  beneficiaries after they undergo classroom sessions and salon internships.

L’Oréal’s Beauty For a Better Life completed one full year of training for three batches of beneficiaries. Placing beauty at the heart of re-building identities and lives, and created to ignite long-term social impact, many of those who benefit from L’Oréal’s Beauty For a Better Life are women in vulnerable social or economic situations. Since its launch last April 2017, 62 beneficiaries from the Philippines has been given an opportunity to go into jobs and even own businesses in the field of hairdressing.

Carmel Valencia, L’Oréal Philippines Corporate Communication Manager

"We believe in the power of beauty to change lives, and Beauty For a Better Life expands the definition of beauty by using it a way to provide skills and livelihood opportunities to those most in need. A renewed sense of self-confidence, dignity and motivation are fundamental changes that we see in our graduates and it is our hope and vision that Beauty For a Better Life empowers these women to gain a better quality of life through increased access to livelihood opportunities, and thereby becoming socially and economically empowered to also serve as beacons of hope for their own families and communities”, shares Carmel Valencia, L’Oréal Philippines Corporate Communication Manager.

Reynaldo Laguda,  Executive Director, Philippine Business for Social Progress (PBSP)

Led by the L’Oréal Foundation, Beauty For a Better Life is deployed in 27 countries globally and is one of the Foundation’s key programs to empower women in situations of social and economic instability by training them for careers in the beauty sector. For its first run, L’Oréal Philippines, along with its partner organization Philippine Business for Social Progress (PBSP), decided to focus on training women within one barangay to allow for growth within the community and co-empowerment among themselves.

The program was first brought to Brgy. Sto. Niño in Marikina as one of the priority areas for unemployment.

To date, 62 individuals have completed the program, 22 of which come from the third batch graduating this April 2018. Each batch of beneficiaries underwent daily classroom sessions in the Barangay Hall for three months wherein they were taught different hairdressing skills such as blowdrying, hair coloring, hair cutting, and application of hair treatments – under the tutelage of L’Oréal Philippines trainers. They were also exposed to a one-week internship in L’Oréal’s partner salons across Metro Manila to expose them to actual hairdressing jobs and potentially further their career options.

Beauty For a Better Life beneficiaries as they undergo classroom sessions and salon internships

April 3 signals a new chapter for the program as it celebrates all the beneficiaries from Brgy. Sto. Niño including the latest set of graduates and also gives way for the turning over of the program to a new barangay in Marikina.

“It is truly heartwarming to see the hope that the program has brought about to the lives of the women (and men) of Brgy. Sto. Niño. For the next cycle of Beauty For a Better Life, we are hoping that we will also open opportunities to individuals from Brgy. Dela Peña and continue our advocacy of changing lives through beauty,” concludes Ms. Valencia. 

The first batch of beneficiaries from Brgy. Dela Peña will begin training under the program on April 

4.