ICC chooses to challenge on International Women’s Day

In recognition of this year’s #ChooseToChallenge theme, ICC employees and staff from around the world are raising their hand to call out gender inequality and celebrate women’s achievements.

Shinta Widjaja Kamdani, ICC Executive Board member and CEO of Sintesa Group, joined World Trade Organization (WTO) Director-General Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala to discuss the importance of ensuring women equitable access to vaccines and trade finance as part of the WTO’s event on Women in Leadership: Achieving an equal future in a COVID-19 world.

International Women’s Day also marks the 9th anniversary of ICC’s staff-driven initiative World Business Women (WBW), which aims to bring the benefits of gender diversity and balance to the organisation. WBW also drove the implementation of ICC’s gender diversity on panels pledge. Meanwhile, the ICC International Court of Arbitration achieved gender parity among its members in 2019 and announced record statistics for appointing women arbitrators in 2019.

ICC recently partnered with UPS, Tralac, and West Blue Consulting to provide women entrepreneurs in Africa with the resources to digitise their operations. The partnership will offer capacity building programmes and tools, including co-developed trade and information portals called “e-Trade Hubs,” to help women entrepreneurs scale-up and digitise their businesses. Valentina Mintah, ICC Executive Board member and CEO of West Coast Consulting co-authored an opinion piece calling for policymakers and business leaders to provide women entrepreneurs in Africa with the digital tools to succeed.