Sri Lanka Version III

Sri Lanka

Working amid political and economic crises in its homeland, Global Compact Network Sri Lanka has shined a light on gender equality and has plenty to show for its efforts. The small island nation is now home to an array of accomplishments making a big difference in the lives of families and communities.

The steps to progress began with the nine companies - small, medium and large - that participated in the Local Network's first round of the Target Gender Equality initiative in 2020/2021.

Following its participation in TGE, John Keells Holdings PLC, a diversified conglomerate with 70 companies across seven industry sectors, extended its parental leave to 100 days for mothers and fathers. This was significant in a country where maternity leave is mandated but companies bear the full cost of maternity leave pay. Women are often discouraged from continuing to work after having children, and few workplaces have child care facilities. The country has no laws requiring paternity leave.

Among other TGE participants, Technology engineering giant Virtusa, set up regional D&I councils to define localized pathways to meet its global targets, and clothing manufacturer MAS Holdings set a target for a 50% gender balance at all management levels by 2025. HealthRecon Connect scaled up its performance appraisal system, created a plan for systemic change using the Gender Gap Analysis Tool of the Women's Empowerment Principles, a joint platform of the Global Compact and UN Women, and joined the Compact as well.

This progress comes in a country where culture, traditions and stereotypes have stymied women's advancement in the business and political sphere. Only about 5% of the national parliament members are women, and the first woman to serve as CEO of a major conglomerate was appointed just two years ago.

"We are the first country in the world to have a female prime minister," said Janani Wijetunge, Local Network manager. "We proudly talk about that statistic, but the progress we have built on it is very, very little."

The world's first female prime minister was Sirimavo Bandaranaike, elected in what was then Ceylon in 1960.

Today, Sri Lankan company Diesel & Motor Engineering Plc (DIMO) illustrates how far the private sector can reach to achieve gender equality.

The conglomerate, which operates in more than 15 business sectors, was founded eight decades ago and is headquartered in Sri Lanka with more than 1,800 employees. Its biggest business are automobile after-sales, agriculture and retail. Women's workforce participation at DIMO in 2022 is just 10%, an increase from 8% in 2011.

With such gender inequality, DIMO leadership decided the company could not keep perpetuating stereotypes and ignore half of the population and its customer base.

At the heart of DIMO's strategy is the concept of culture change, whereby the company isn't only changing its workforce composition by hiring more women in HR or legal roles but aiming at core and non-conventional functions such as mechanics and engineering.

It offers free automotive vocational training, in conjunction with Mercedes Benz Daimler, that includes all-female classes.

One of the graduates is Thilini Gunasekara, 27, a mechanical technician who diagnoses and repairs vehicles. It is her first job since graduating. She is the only woman on her work team, although soon she will be getting female trainees to work with her.

"Some people, they say 'she can't do this,' but after seeing the result, they see that 'she' can do the work," Gunasekara said. "There's no difference between the male and female doing this job."

Sayuri Sumithrarachchi, 34, an electrical engineer who manages construction projects at DIMO, said she is frequently the only woman at building sites where she is often treated dismissively, ignored or mistaken for a low-level employee.

"The thing about non-conventional jobs is that they're hard," she said. "You have to have the grit, the courage to push through.

"Some people tend to think that we're not capable as much as men, so that is there," she added.

As a result of its Target Gender Equality participation, DIMO set the ambitious target of increasing women in decision-making roles to 40% by 2025. So far, the number of women in decision-making roles is 53, or 12.3%, up from 42 women in such roles in 2021.

DIMO recently moved to join the Women's Empowerment Principles, which help guide business on promoting gender equality in the workplace, marketplace and community.

The company also is offering paternity leave as well as parental leave after adoption.

It started an Employee Resource Group, initially based on the IFC's SheWorks initiative. The aim was to bring employees together to develop gender-smart solutions and focus on a revamp of recruitment and retention of women through mentoring and sponsorship and to tackle workplace harassment. It holds mandatory training to tackle unconscious bias, focusing on recruitment and promotions.

An ongoing challenge has been sustaining the Employee Resource Group and its momentum over time. One groundbreaking change in its dynamics and success took place when participation was opened to men, and the group's name changed to "Employee Resource Group" from "Women's Network," allowing all genders to embrace the agenda.

With continuous dialogue and by focusing on unbiasing employees, within one year DIMO was able to increase the representation of women in non-traditional roles such as engineering, mechanics and technicians by 15%. The recruitment of women overall grew to 11% from 7% over two years.

Moving forward, Global Compact Network Sri Lanka in 2020 launched a new Gender & Diversity Working Group, comprised of members of the TGE programme who wanted to move beyond the accelerator's objectives, keep learning and publicly advocate for change. Open to Network Sri Lanka Participants and a Local Network Board Member as an Advisor, the group puts a specific focus in 2022 on Engaging Men as Allies, Sexual Harrassment in the Work Place and Women in STEM. It hosts regular sessions and events, including a recent one on "Women Technopreneurs".

In the second round of the TGE programme, in 2021/2022, the Local Network teamed up with Global Compact Network Bangladesh to expand regionally.

Network Bangladesh previously held a TGE round with 11 companies, one of which was DBL Group, a family-owned apparel and textile business. As a result, DBL teamed up with HSBC to structure bank loans that target gender equality and sustainability. Terms of the loans are linked to the borrower's performance at increasing its percentage of female supervisors and reducing its greenhouse gas emissions reductions.

This year, Global Compact Network Sri Lanka is embarking on a third round of the TGE programme, this time in collaboration with Global Compact Network Malaysia & Brunei and welcoming additional companies from the region. They have opted to not only build on good practices but to give the programme a wider reach by bringing in experts from South Africa, Colombia, Lebanon, India and Germany to share examples and strategies from all over the world.

"We're trying to encourage companies to think beyond their traditional hiring practices and give more people opportunities," said Wijetunge. "What we're trying to encourage is to see beyond gender. Look at their skills, look at their experience and look at what they can contribute."

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