Unilever Bangladesh Limited (UBL) in partnership with UN Women Bangladesh hosted the launch of a joint celebration of International Women's Day 2019 at Radisson Blu Dhaka Water Garden yesterday morning. With the objective to spark a movement for unlocking opportunities to achieve gender equality and promoting women empowerment across sectors, the ceremony marked the inauguration of four events leading up to March 8, said a press release.

The event brought together the senior management from 11 organisations – Berger Paints Bangladesh Limited, Brac, Citibank N.A. Bangladesh, Grameenphone, GSK Bangladesh, HSBC Bangladesh, Marico Bangladesh Limited, Microsoft Bangladesh, Nestle Bangladesh Limited, Robi Axiata Limited and Standard Chartered Bank Bangladesh, and Vice Chancellors, Deans and Directors from five universities – North South University, Brac University, Independent University Bangladesh, Islamic University of Technology and Jahangirnagar University along with partners and donors from the development sector such as Brac and Terres Des Hommes.

The event commenced with opening remarks from Kedar Lele, CEO and managing director of UBL, and Shoko Ishikawa, country representative of UN Women in Bangladesh, followed by a keynote address from Paul Polman, Unilever CEO.

In his keynote speech, Polman called for an urgent need to “unlearn the mental barriers preventing us from achieving our full potential.” He placed great importance on making sure that a business' entire value chain is gender balanced.

The ceremony concluded with the CEOs of the participating organisations and the esteemed academicians of the participating education institutions signing the pledge - “I commit to be an advocate for change and accelerate gender equality for my organisation/institution and for Bangladesh”.