The 11th Accenture Gender Mainstreaming Awards, held in Accra saw Ghana’s leading total beverage business, Guinness Ghana, emerging as West Africa’s gender mainstreaming champion for 2023.
The listed company was also adjudged winner in the Women Empowerment in the Workplace and Women Empowerment in the Community categories.
The awards are in recognition of the company’s continued commitment to its Inclusion and Diversity commitments under its 10-year ESG action plan to help create a more inclusive and sustainable world dubbed: Society 2030: Spirit of Progress. The plan focuses on creating the most inclusive and diverse culture across its business. Guinness Ghana works with its partners and communities to help shape a more tolerant and equal society.
Corporate Relations Director of Guinness Ghana, Sylvia Owusu-Ankomah, speaking on the recognition notes, “This is a recognition of Guinness Ghana’s leadership in gender diversity as part of our Inclusion and Diversity focus. We are proud of the strides we have made to accelerate gender equality within our business. Our commitment to ensuring a safe and inclusive world is a mission we continually seek to drive among across our entire business – with our employees, our suppliers, our brands, and within the communities in which we operate. We have a clear equal opportunities recruitment policy, allowing us to hire the best talent, while ensuring a diverse slate of candidates throughout recruitment stages. We believe our industry should do more to attract women, particularly in areas where women have historically been under-represented, including science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) and commercial roles”.
“This award is a marker for us to continue to push the limits. We want to achieve impact at scale: we don’t have all the answers, but we will work together with others to share our learnings and learn from them.”
The Gender Mainstreaming Awards Africa is an award scheme that seeks to encourage private sector buy-in to achieving more meaningful representation of women in business.
Guinness Ghana’s awards reflect a positive year of impact following the institution of a STEM project since 2022 which has admitted more than 35 female students during the period. The programme is helping to develop a sustainable pool of female talent across the supply function in Ghana, and as of June 2023, 14 of the recruits are full time employees. Separately, Guinness Ghana’s Achimota canning line is run by an all-female team, a team that was previously all-male.
The business has also instituted an industry-leading family leave policy, which gives all new mothers a minimum of 26 weeks’ fully paid maternity and new fathers a minimum standard of four weeks’ paternity leave. There is also the Menopause Guidelines, which offers strengthened support and flexibility to employees going through menopause and helps all employees to build their understanding around it. In addition, flexible working and well-being philosophies are enshrined in our ways of working in a bid to remove barriers and promote a diverse and inclusive work environment.
