For the ninth consecutive year, IFC partnered with the Colombo Stock Exchange (CSE) and global partners to ‘Ring the Bell for Gender Equality,’ during the International Women’s Day.
Increasing women’s economic participation and achieving gender parity in leadership are two key levers to address broader gender gaps in households, societies and economies.
In Sri Lanka, IFC’s research has highlighted that the top 30 CSE-listed companies with higher gender diversity perform better financially, including return on equity, return on total assets, and price to earnings ratio.
“Investing in women has evolved from being the right thing to do to being the smart thing to do. Studies show that an organization’s success increases by as much as 34 percent if you have a more diverse team. Corporate need to understand the value of diversity and the wealth of results that can be generated from it,” said Dilshan Wirasekara, Chairman of the CSE.
“I am proud to say that the CSE has excellent gender representation in our workforce, with over 47% of women in our staff cadre. We see that representation translating into a strong presence of women on a leadership level, comprising 445.”
In an encouraging move, 13 Sri Lankan companies pledged last year to boost female representation at the board level and in management to a minimum of 20 percent by 2025. These businesses are taking intentional measures to strengthen their female talent pipeline and embed gender-inclusive policies that withstand economic uncertainties and contribute to long-term sustainability.
“Addressing barriers to women’s advancement in boards and leadership positions require collective, coordinated, and bold action by both private and public sector to accelerate progress towards gender parity, ignite renewed growth and greater resilience,” said Alejandro Alvarez de la Campa, IFC Country Manager for Sri Lanka and Maldives.
“We know that integrating women into business operations can increase companies’ profitability and contribute significantly to shared prosperity.”
This year’s International Women’s Day theme of Investing in Women, Accelerating Progress is a clear call to action. Stock exchanges can help improve transparency and disclosure of gender-related data, promote access to finance, and encourage women to invest in public markets.
Exchanges can also help develop new products, such as sustainability-linked bonds with gender criteria, and adopt gender equality listing criteria.
“Women’s contributions will be instrumental in reviving our economy. Women being the dominant earners of foreign exchange in our country, contributing significantly to sectors such as apparel, tea, and remittances, their equal representation in corporate leadership are long overdue,” said Ayodhya Iddawela Perera, Managing Director of Sampath Bank.
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