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On the second anniversary of becoming a HeForShe Thematic Champion and partnering with UN Women, De Beers Group today announced that more than 700 women micro-entrepreneurs in Namibia and South Africa have successfully completed their training. The Accelerating Women Owned Micro-Enterprises (AWOME) programme has also recently launched in Botswana, creating even more opportunities for women micro-entrepreneurs to participate.

Part of De Beers Group’s partnership with UN Women, the AWOME programme is tailored to provide women micro-entrepreneurs with the skills required to grow their businesses. Using a 'train the trainer' approach, local community members were selected and trained in mentoring, networks, business, and life skills. These community members then in turn train women entrepreneurs, enabling the programme to be sustainably embedded in the long term. Additionally, the training enhances abilities across a range of areas including how to access different markets, increase market share, generate income, create more jobs, and support effective decision-making, communication and negotiation skills.

Targeting regions with high levels of unemployment where job opportunities are limited, the aim of the AWOME programme is to create a sustainable support network by building the capacity of locally-based trainers to understand the specific challenges faced by women micro-entrepreneurs in these regions and build peer support networks.

The programme has so far supported a range of micro-entrepreneurs from mechanics, children’s entertainers, farmers, hairdressers and tailors. Following the programme’s success, the Office of the First Lady of Namibia’s One Economy Foundation is deploying the AWOME programme to improve the benefits the Foundation is delivering.

Commenting on the programme’s success so far, Bruce Cleaver, CEO, De Beers Group, said: "We are extremely proud and encouraged by of the progress that we have made alongside our partners at UN Women with our AWOME programme, and we are excited to see the progress accelerate over the next 12 months and beyond.

"It is proven that supporting women and girls to advance their skills and grow their influence in the commercial sector maximises the opportunities for societal development, as women reinvest more of their income back into their communities. The changes we see in individuals as a result of the AWOME programme are amazing in their own right, but the changes in the wider society can be truly profound."

Two-year anniversary of De Beers Group’s partnership with UN Women

Beyond the success of the AWOME programme in southern Africa, De Beers Group has also seen substantial progress in other aspects of its partnership with UN Women.

In Canada, De Beers Group is supporting young women studying STEM subjects (science, technology, engineering and mathematics), sponsoring STEM science camps for girls from indigenous communities around operations in Canada and providing scholarships for women to attend university and study STEM subjects.

De Beers Group has also partnered with UN Women to sponsor the #GetFree tour, which earlier this month travelled around Canadian universities engaging students on the HeForShe movement and the importance of gender equality.

De Beers Group’s partnership with UN Women has also seen the company set a goal of achieving gender parity in its appointment rate at senior levels. The appointment rate of women into senior roles has increased to 38 per cent from 22 per cent at the start of the partnership. The appointment rate has, however, declined from the level achieved in 2018, highlighting the ongoing challenges of meeting the target and the need for a continued focus on transformation in this area. In order to meet the target, De Beers Group has embedded changes to culture and policy through implementing employee networks, establishing reciprocal mentoring programmes and revising recruitment guidelines.

Further to this, De Beers Group has also committed to being a positive force for gender equality through its marketing activities. A new set of inclusive marketing guidelines was launched across the Group in 2019, focused on avoiding the exacerbation of gender stereotypes by portraying both men and women realistically and positively.

Elizabeth Nyamayaro, Senior Advisor to Under-Secretary-General and Executive Director of UN Women, said: "The HeForShe initiative works with global leaders who are committed to leading the path for gender equality and are willing to demonstrate that change is possible on an accelerated timeline. UN Women is proud to partner with De Beers Group as a HeForShe Thematic Champion and the work they are doing in the mining sector - a traditionally male dominated sector - to increase the representation of women at leadership and to embed gender equality into their organisational culture."

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About De Beers Group

Established in 1888, De Beers Group is the world’s leading diamond company with expertise in the exploration, mining and marketing of diamonds. Together with its joint venture partners, De Beers Group employs more than 20,000 people across the diamond pipeline and is the world’s largest diamond producer by value, with mining operations in Botswana, Canada, Namibia and South Africa. Innovation sits at the heart of the De Beers Group strategy as it develops its portfolio of brands, including De Beers Jewellers and Forevermark, and other pioneering solutions, such as recently launched diamond sourcing and traceability initiatives Gemfair and Tracr. De Beers Group employees are committed to ‘Building Forever’, a holistic and integrated approach for creating a better future – one that is fairer, safer, cleaner and healthier; where safety, human rights and ethical integrity continue to be paramount; and where communities thrive and the environment is protected. De Beers Group is a member of the Anglo American plc group. For further information, visit www.debeersgroup.com. 

About HeForShe

Created by UN Women, the United Nations entity for gender equality and the empowerment of women, the HeForShe solidarity movement for gender equality provides a systematic approach and targeted platform where a global audience can engage and become change agents for the achievement of gender equality in our lifetime. HeForShe invites people around the world to stand together as equal partners to craft a shared vision of a gender equal world and implement specific, locally relevant solutions for the good of all of humanity. Take the first step for gender equality at https://www.heforshe.org/en/commit/debeers.