MANILA, PHILIPPINES — Procter & Gamble announced new commitments aimed toward advancing Equality & Inclusion across the Asia Pacific, the Middle East, and Africa at its fourth annual #WeSeeEqual summit for the region. The event saw participation from distinguished advocates and personalities from the private and public sectors who came together to discuss the challenges that society faces on equality and inclusion, and how different stakeholders can accelerate progress in the new normal.
Built on the theme, ‘#Unlearn and #Unleash’, the summit saw P&G commit to several actions needed to advance progress towards creating an equal and inclusive world. P&G President for the Asia Pacific, Middle East, and Africa, Magesvaran Suranjan, announced the following commitments:
- P&G will spend a cumulative total of $300 million US dollars by deliberately working with women-owned and women-led businesses across the Asia Pacific, Middle East, and Africa region, from the year 2021 to 2025.
- Last year, P&G committed to spending a cumulative total of $200 million US dollars by deliberately working with women-owned and women-led businesses across the region, from the year 2021 to 2025. With already more than $100 million US dollars invested through this initiative in the first year across the AMA region, the company is now elevating this commitment to $300 million US dollars by 2025.
- P&G will achieve equal representation of female directors behind the camera for the company’s brand advertisements in the Asia Pacific, Middle East, and Africa, by 2024.
- In the AMA region, P&G has made strong progress, increasing the representation of female directors from 16% in 2019 to 35% today. The company will achieve the 50-50 goal by 2024 through a comprehensive set of actions to build, fuel, and connect a pipeline of diverse female talent in advertising, media, and content.
- P&G will improve the accessibility of its brand advertising, including social media content and websites, by making it accessible to people with sight and hearing impairments by 2024.
- The company will do this for all new brand advertising across the Asia Pacific, the Middle East, and Africa. This initiative will make P&G brands more inclusive and accessible to all members of our community.
- P&G will introduce the ‘P&G ReLaunch program’ – to welcome back talented professionals who took a break from the workforce and are looking to restart their careers in STEM roles, with targeted support and development.
- This program is part of the company’s commitment to strengthening diversity in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) and will focus on people looking to relaunch their careers in IT, Research & Development, and Product Supply. The program will be first launched in India, Egypt, Singapore, Japan, and the Philippines.
Magesvaran Suranjan said, “At P&G, we remain fully committed to creating a world where equal access and opportunity to learn, grow, succeed, and thrive are available to everyone. We believe in the power of our differences and the impact we can make when we come together, united by our shared values and purpose. We are making great progress, yet we know there is more work to be done. So we are announcing bold new commitments and expanding existing actions which will enable us to do more. We will continue to use the voice of our company and our brands in forums such as #WeSeeEqual to drive discussion and actions on the issues that matter.”
The company also shared strong progress on commitments across the Asia Pacific, Middle East, and Africa region made last year as part of the annual #WeSeeEqual summit. In 2021, P&G announced its ‘Share the Care’ parental leave policy, which has introduced greater leave benefits and flexibility for all new parents within the company. P&G has also achieved its commitment to achieving a 50-50 gender balance across its management workforce by 2022 in the AMA region, completing this ahead of schedule. On its commitment to educate more than 30 million girls on puberty and hygiene by 2024, through its brands Always and Whisper’s “Keeping Girls in School” program, the company has already reached more than 15 million girls, achieving the halfway mark in one year.
Held in partnership with UN Women, the fourth annual regional #WeSeeEqual Summit engaged business leaders, government officials, and personalities in candid conversations around strategic actions that can be taken to advance equality and inclusion.
In addition to global and regional P&G leaders, the Summit also saw the participation of influential personalities and global leaders, including:
- Simone Biles, the world’s most decorated gymnast
- Valerie Jarrett, Chief Executive Officer, The Barack Obama Foundation
- Her Excellency Dr. Nawal Al Hosany, UAE’s permanent representative to the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA)
- Anita Bhatia, Assistant Secretary-General and Deputy Executive Director, UN Women
- Alma Har’el, award-winning director, founder of Free the Bid and FREE THE WORK
- Dr. Hsien Hsien Lei, Chief Executive Officer, The American Chamber of Commerce, Singapore
- Scott Beaumont, President, Google – Asia Pacific
- Lillian Barnard, Chief Executive Officer, Microsoft – South Africa
To inspire corporates and society alike, the summit also hosted P&G’s Chief Operating Officer, Shailesh Jejurikar, and the company’s Chief Brand Officer, Marc Pritchard to share their experiences and insights on the importance of leadership to drive equality and redefine inclusion behind the camera.
The #WeSeeEqual program demonstrates P&G’s continued commitment to creating a more equal and inclusive world and is also a winner of the U.S. Secretary of State’s Award for Corporate Excellence for Women’s Empowerment in 2019. In the Philippines, P&G was also recognized by the prestigious UN WEPs Awards as the Gender Inclusive Workplace Champion in 2021. As one of the world’s largest advertisers, P&G and its brands will also continue to leverage their influential voice in media and advertising to drive further awareness, tackle gender bias, spark conversations, and motivate change.
