DAVOS, Switzerland – At this year’s World Economic Forum, UNFPA and private sector partners Amref, Bayer, Essity, Ferring and the Mediterranean Shipping Company (MSC) co-hosted an event celebrating ‘Champions for Reproductive Justice in Business’, recognizing organizations that are stepping up to support sexual and reproductive rights in the workplace by adopting metrics to track progress on social issues.
These global organizations, spanning diverse industries from healthcare to shipping and textiles, are leading the charge in building corporate accountability for women’s reproductive health by taking concrete measures to support menopause, menstrual health, maternity leave and prevention of gender-based violence for over 300,000 employees.
Champions for Reproductive Justice in Business:
Global hygiene and health company Essity is committed to advancing menstrual health as a key metric of workplace well-being and gender equality. Their efforts will include fostering stigma-free environments by raising awareness on women’s health, ensuring access to essential menstrual health resources, and promoting initiatives like Courageous Conversations. Essity will also join UNFPA in advocating for systemic change alongside diverse stakeholders at global platforms such as the World Economic Forum, and the United Nations General Assembly.
As a global leader in women’s healthcare, Bayer provides its employees with a wide range of birth control methods as well as therapies for menopause management and gynecological diseases. The company will scale-up its awareness-building activities, and provide support for their staff undergoing menopause, at a global level. As one example, the company currently runs a ‘Bayer Menopause Cafe’, a safe space created for all employees to have discussions on the topic, discuss its impact on their performance at work, and also how it may affect their relationships with their colleagues.
Swiss-based global pharmaceuticals firm Ferring has a strong history of research and innovation in reproductive medicine and maternal health, and has been a UNFPA partner since 2019. The company is committed to strive for industry best practice on women’s health. For example, they offer a minimum of 26 weeks of equal paid parental leave for both birthing and non-birthing parents, and paid time off and financial support to access fertility treatments, surrogacy programmes, adoption, egg freezing, counselling and related services. Ferring commits to reviewing and improving policies for their workforce which impact fertility, antenatal, childbirth and postnatal care.
Amref Health Africa, a leading international health NGO in Africa, is dedicated to implementing comprehensive sexual and gender-based violence prevention policies, as well as advancing sexual and reproductive health and rights across its operations and programmes.
In line with its long-standing company family-based values, MSC Mediterranean Shipping Company (MSC) has recently partnered with UNFPA to raise awareness around prevention of gender-based violence and access to family planning services, with pilot training programmes soon to be initiated.
In an effort to advocate for investments in women’s health, Shahi Exports has collaborated with UNFPA to develop the case study “The Health and Economic Benefits of Investing in a Menstrual Health Programme in the Workplace,” using UNFPA’s return on investment tool, which demonstrates the financial benefits of expanding menstrual health programmes in the workplace.
UNFPA Executive Director, Dr. Natalia Kanem reiterated the organizations’ commitment to continue and enhance collaboration to achieve gender equality, saying, “At UNFPA we are in a unique position to work side-by-side with companies that are the employers, in aggregate, of literally millions of women, to show that there is potential in this win-win approach to ensuring dignity and reproductive rights in the workplace.”
These commitments announced today in Davos mark a significant step towards integrating sexual and reproductive health and rights into workplace policies, setting a new standard for corporate responsibility. As these initiatives are implemented and scaled, they will serve as a blueprint for companies, demonstrating the transformative power investing in women’s reproductive health.
Article first published on https://www.unfpa.org/updates/world-economic-forum-unfpa’s-private-sector-champions-commit-workplace-reproductive-health