Aegean Exporters' Unions Coordinator President Jak Eskinazi congratulated all women on March 8, International Women's Day, saying that women should take an active part in social and economic development in order to ensure sustainable development.
Eskinazi also announced that in the third phase of the EIB Export-Up Mentoring Program, they are in preparation for a project for women who work for export in the earthquake region together with the Southeastern Anatolian Exporters' Associations.
Aegean Exporters' Unions Coordinator President Jak Eskinazi, who is of the opinion that EIB plays a leading role in ensuring gender equality in Turkey, said, “Our women are at the forefront of Turkey's exports, education, health, animal rights, children's rights, liberation, development, in short, at every stage. must. This is Turkey's biggest shortcoming. If we are not at the level we desire at many points in Turkey, it is because women remain in the background. Aegean Exporters' Association is one of the institutions with the highest female workforce representation in Turkey. One of every two employees in our union is a woman. Compared to the previous period, our female representation in the Boards of Directors increased by 100 percent in this period. We are one of the institutions with the highest female representation in the Board of Directors. All of our Board members take active roles in NGOs related to women's rights.” said.
Aegean women exporters have the biggest representation in TIM Women's Council.
Eskinazi said, “Our female Vice Presidents work in our three Exporters' Associations, namely ferrous and non-ferrous metals, tobacco and ready-to-wear. Deniz Ataç, the first woman President of the Exporters' Associations in Turkey, was the President of our Aegean Olive Olive Oil Exporters' Association between 2004-2006. She is the Chairman of the Board of Directors of TEMA Foundation today. I believe that there will be female Union Presidents within the body of the EIB in the coming period. We established the Young Exporters Council in 2020 for young people and women to focus on exports and to carry out studies. Almost half of the Young Exporters Council belongs to our female exporters. The biggest representation in TIM Women's Council, that is, one out of every three exporters, consists of our Aegean women exporters.” she spoke.
EIB works for gender equality
Jak Eskinazi listed the activities of Aegean Exporters' Associations on behalf of gender equality as follows:
“We signed in 2019; In line with the principles of the UN Global Compact, the world's largest sustainability initiative; we keep the social justice, social responsibility, gender equality and environment topics alive both in our corporate culture and with our projects. We are the first member of the UN Global Compact Exporters' Association. We also signed the Women's Empowerment Principles (WEPs), a joint initiative of UN Women and UN Global Compact, a year ago.”
Women leaders are more prone to digitalization and sustainability
Eskinazi said, “As we are the first Exporters' Associations to sign the Global Compact, we are also the first Association to set up a mentoring program for women and youth. With our EIB Export-Up Mentoring Program, we continue to stand by our women and young entrepreneurs for sustainable export. Research shows that the new generation of leaders, especially young women or family businesses with female managers, are more prone to digitalization and sustainability, and are more knowledgeable about digitalization and sustainability.
Solidarity chain for women in the earthquake zone from EIB
Jak Eskinazi added that 26 out of a total of 19 beneficiaries in the two terms of the EIB Export-Up Mentoring Program were women entrepreneurs.
“9 of our women entrepreneurs are in the agricultural sectors, 7 of them are in the textile, 1 leather, 1 plastic and 1 chemical sector. And all of our women entrepreneurs have activities in many areas, including digitalization and sustainability. In the third phase of our EIB Export-Up Mentoring Program, we are in the process of starting a solidarity chain for our women who work for export in the earthquake zone together with the Southeastern Anatolian Exporters' Associations. We will continue the new modules of the Export-Up Mentoring program in line with the positive discrimination between men and women.”