WOMEN ON BOARDS ZIMBABWE (WoBZ)

About Women on Boards Zimbabwe

Women on Boards Zimbabwe was launched as an Institute of Directors Zimbabwe product on the 26^th of August 2016. This initiation was meant to promote and advance in supporting gender diversity on boards, to create better boards.

Vision

Promoting board diversity and excellence

Mission

To provide a network and platform for women to learn and share in preparation of board placements

Objectives of WoBZ

• To promote increased gender and diversity on boards.
• To provide special courses aimed at preparing aspiring women for board appointment.
• To provide special courses and networking platforms for women already serving.
• on boards aimed at strengthening their competencies and confidence in discharging their board role.
• Leveraging on our director placement service, to draw attention to members on the loDZ, WoBZ database to board vacancies.
• To host special networking events for WoBZ members.
• To offer structured mentorship and coaching programmes.

Background to the formation of Women on Boards Zimbabwe

The Constitution of Zimbabwe Amendment (No 20) Act, 2013 pronounces itself clearly in that, Section L7 provides that the state must promote full gender balance in the Zimbabwean society, promote full participation of women in all spheres, on the basis of equality with men. It set a target of at least 50 percent membership in all institutions and agencies of government at every level.

The loDZ believes that private and public companies and other non-governmental organisations should take a leaf from the provisions of the Constitution and work towards increasing numbers of women, especially in executive and board positions. It is important to note that in other jurisdictions such as Australia where they celebrated the 10th anniversary of WoB Australia in 2017 and in UK, the women on boards initiative is bearing fruit such as increasing women in executive and board roles and therefore promoting gender balance and board diversity.

Why Women on Boards?

Studies by reputable global firms such McKinsey Consultancy have shown that gender and diversity in leadership have become important factors for success. ln Europe, the number of women in executive positions is increasing. Women bring different and complementary perspectives and different leadership styles. There is a positive correlation between the proportion of women in executive committees/boards and progressive corporate performance. The hard facts are that there are currently far fewer women on boards of most companies.

From studies referred to above, this has implications on corporate performance. Furthermore, this has the effect of restricting the pool from which to recruit directors. Zimbabwe is currently lagging far behind other countries on gender and diversity on boards with implications on corporate performance. It therefore made perfect sense for the loDZ to come up with initiatives to address this undesirable solution.

Progress on Women on Boards initiative

To date of the requested names on our database women have constituted about 37,5 percent of those considered. lt is our desire to have this number increased especially as most organisations are beginning to consider board diversity and excellence.

Join the Women on Boards Zimbabwe(WoBZ)

WOMEN ON BOARDS ZIMBABWE TRAININGS: