New-York, United Nations Headquarters, 6 March 2012. The annual Women’s Empowerment Principles (WEP) event brings together stakeholders in this joint initiative by the United Nations Global Compact and the Unites nations Development Fund for Women.

BNP Paribas head of Group Diversity Elisabeth Karako presented the major actions deployed by BNP Paribas in support of women to representatives of businesses from around the world who signed the CEO Statement of Support and specialists on gender equality issues.

Entitled “Transforming the Leadership Pipeline to Advance Gender Equality and Sustainability”, the round table in which Elisabeth Karako took part provided an opportunity to note that BNP Paribas has identified gender equality as a strategic priority.
This commitment is backed by the engagement of the CEO, stable HR processes to fight discrimination and manger awareness building. The conference was opened by UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon and Michelle Bachelet, former president of Chile.

The UN Secretary General said: “The world is full of distinguished women but women are the least utilized resources”.
President Bachelet added: “Promoting women is not the right thing but the smart thing to do for developing quality in business”.

The WEP, which companies sign on a voluntary basis, offer guidance on how to promote gender equality, training and professional development. The WEP provided a forum for exchanges of the best practices among signatory companies.