The Council was launched on October 30, 2019.

ME Inclusion and Diversity Council is the largest CEO-driven business commitment to promote inclusion and diversity within the workplace. As leaders in the Middle East, signatories have a critical role in ensuring that diversity and inclusion is core in the workplace and that organizations are representative of the communities they serve.

Yes. As part of signing on to the Pledge, CEOs and individuals are agreeing to commit to all the elements within the Pledge.

ME I&D Council was collectively formed and is led by a steering committee of CEOs and leaders from PwC, Citi Group, Dow, LinkedIn, Omnicommedia Group and Pfizer.

• Each of the signatories is responsible for maintaining workspaces that support open conversations on complex, difficult, and sometimes controversial topics related to inclusion and diversity.
• Each of the signatories has agreed to create inclusion and diversity plans and share successful practices across the council.
• Each of the signatories is required to roll out and/or expand on unconscious bias education in their respective business, and;
• Each of the signatories is encouraged to appoint one member of their C-suite team to be accountable for gender inclusion and diversity and implement mechanisms that would allow for tracking progress and advancements on related agenda.

ME I&D Council brings together the largest assembly of business leaders across different industries, openly pledging to driving inclusion and diversity initiatives as well as sharing best practices and lessons learned with the collective business community.

No. We are committed to promoting inclusion of all employees and ensuring that they feel supported in the workplace regardless of race, ethnicity, origin, gender, age, religion, sexual orientation, intellectual and physical ability, or any other aspect of diversity. We recognize that inclusion and diversity efforts can be complex and that we need to address these topics in a holistic manner to better involve and support all our employees, communities and stakeholders.

As part of the pledge, signatories have committed to dedicate time, effort, and resources to drive inclusion and diversity initiatives within their businesses and as part of this assembly to the benefit of our communities.

CEOs are essentially committing to 4 actions; 

• Having one member of our senior executive team who is responsible and accountable for gender diversity and inclusion;
• Creating diversity and inclusion plans and sharing best and unsuccessful practices with the Council;
• Setting up mechanisms to track progress on a collective and unattributed basis; and
• Rolling out and/or expanding on bias education in a form that best suits our culture and business.

We recognize the diversity of the region and that organizations will have different starting points – each organization should therefore set its own targets and implement the right strategy for their organization moving forward. Companies who have already implemented some or all of the pledge commitments can leverage this opportunity to coach and mentor other organizations, as well as engage in larger related initiatives.

Each company is expected to set up mechanisms and foster platforms, workshops, and forums with their people and organizations as they see fit. In addition, companies can leverage our website meidcouncil.com to learn how other companies are doing this.

• Success, to us, will be articulated by the number of private sector organizations that choose to publicly commit to driving and progressing their I&D agenda within their operation in the Middle East, and collectively address the challenges and the opportunities that come with that.
• Success will be further measured by the reach and impact this hub creates, by the knowledge sharing across the signatories, as well as by the number of companies and individuals who visit our website for more information on inclusion and diversity.