Standard Bank’s commitment to UN Women’s HeForShe movement

Dr. Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, United Nations (UN) Under-Secretary-General and Executive Director of UN Women, met on 30 November 2018 with Standard Bank Group Chief Executive, Sim Tshabalala, to discuss the bank’s commitment to concrete actions towards gender equality.

On behalf of Standard Bank Group, Tshabalala is one of the global “Thematic Champions” in the UN Women’s HeForShe movement. These champions have committed to providing a systematic approach to enable people of all genders to engage and become change agents towards the achievement of gender equality.

Dr. Mlambo-Ngcuka says: “Our involvement with Standard Bank is specifically to support HeForShe in Africa, so that we can engage with banks to take a stand on gender equality. Gender inclusion is taking on a greater priority across our continent and around the world, and now is the time to support the movement”.

Standard Bank Group has already made concrete commitments to improve the representation of women in executive positions from its current 32% to 40% by 2023. Another is to lift the representation of women on the Board from 22% to 33% by 2021.

“We’ve partnered with the UN Women’s HeForShe movement to help contribute to gender equality in the societies in which we operate,” says Tshabalala.

With a footprint across 20 African countries, Standard Bank remains committed to building a diverse workforce and to continuously addressing inequality on all levels.