ACCA to Celebrate Women in Finance

ACCA (the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants) will be marking International Women’s Day 2021 by holding a high-profile webinar celebrating ACCA’s women in finance on 08 March 2021.

Featuring an all-women line-up of prominent thought leaders, policymakers, and ACCA’s trailblazing women in finance, the webinar will explore the future of diversity and deliberate on how the accountancy profession in the country can be more inclusive and diverse.

Shireen Mazari, Federal Minister for Human Rights, and Shandana Gulzar Khan, Chairperson, Commonwealth Women Parliamentarians (CWP) are among the speakers who will be sharing their thought leadership on the topic and will offer forward-thinking recommendations.

The event will highlight how accountancy and finance professionals are championing diversity and driving inclusion at their organisations.

‘On International Women’s Day, we are also paying tribute to ACCA member Ethel Purdie, the first female who became a member of a professional body in 1909. She worked tirelessly to achieve balance in the accountancy profession and blazed the trail for women in the profession around the world,’ said ACCA’s head of Pakistan, Sajjeed Aslam, in a statement. ‘ACCA was established specifically to open up the profession to people of all backgrounds, based solely on their ability and ambition.’

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‘Many organisations are now making diversity commitments reaslising that diverse teams tend to perform better, be more profitable, and earn trust from the public who increasingly prefer equitable companies.’

‘As professionals it is important that we know what our organisations should be doing and the personal steps that we should be taking to ensure that we are furthering the diversity and inclusion agenda. Accountancy and finance professionals must be a force for good in the organisations that we work in and for. This webinar will offer us great insights into what needs to be done.’

Other prominent names speaking at the event include Zahida Rafiq FCCA, Chief Compliance Officer, Securities, and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP), Mehwish Iqbal FCCA, Finance Business Partner – High-Value Interventions, Unilever Pakistan, Ayla Majid FCCA, Council Member, ACCA, Fiza Imran FCCA, Chair, Women in Finance Subcommittee, ACCA MNP, Sidra Haq ACCA, Education Manager, ACCA, and Madiha Ahmed FCCA, Manager – Consulting Services, EY Ford Rhodes.

The event will be attended by a large number of finance professionals from leading private and public sector organizations. On the same day, there’s another global conversation planned by ACCA featuring its Chief Executive Helen Brand OBE and the Chief Executive of CA ANZ, Ainslie van Onselen. Both the female leaders will share their journeys to the top highlighting their challenges, successes, and personal experiences.

Following International Women’s Day, ACCA has also announced training for public finance professionals on how they can play a key role in ensuring Gender-Responsive Budgeting (GRB) is designed, implemented, and evaluated effectively.