Briefly tell us about yourself...
My name is Simon Shayo. I work for AngloGold Ashanti here in Tanzania as Vice President of
Sustainability. In our case, sustainability includes all our stakeholders’ relations - but also other non-operational franchises, including health, safety and environment, as well as training and development.My hands-on involvement is mainly in stakeholder relations and sustainable investment. I have colleagues working directly as well with other areas like PR, environment and the like as managers. I have been working here for about six years, however I also worked here previously in another role for four years and left the company to diversify my understanding of discipline and I came back at the end of 2013.
How has it been like as a leader all these years?
As a leader, it is always a journey of learning and development - but also enjoyable because of the type of the company I work for, which has clearly set the standards, procedures and policies in your work and also open mindedness on how we do things. So I can say I am proud to be one of the leaders in this company.
How do you define ‘women empowerment?’
It is a decisive process of one recognizing that from time and time again women have been left out of most of the opportunities presented by the various institutions from family, training institutions, companies, organization etc.
A decisive action of ensuring there are programs in place and policies to uplift the welfare of women and ensure there is more a meaningful participation in decision making, ownership of properties and access to resources like health and education that women are allowed to without fear or intimidation to compete and access the opportunities that men have been allowed by history to do
At GGM, do you have any policy in place that aims at creating gender balance at the work place?
Yes, we do. Gender empowerment is strongly emphasized from core values to policies and even work procedures. Out of our six core values three of them are very closely related to gender empowerment.
One of our core values is diversity, treating each other with respect and dignity regardless of age, gender, colour, race etc. Another value is commitment to deliver our actions and ensure the work space ensures equal opportunities for everyone.
We have a recruitment policy this is an equal opportunity policy that encourages us to look at the qualities that a candidate has to offer and rarely look at gender. We have gone beyond disadvantaged categories and improved our policies to more affirmative actions for both women and people living with disabilities.
That is conveyed in training, from day one when one is employed by the company and is included in the values, policies and procedures to the way of life of the company and the things that the company doesn’t tolerate such as any form of sexual or gender discrimination or abuse.
There are times we were forced to part ways with some of our colleagues only because they couldn’t live up to the expectations of the company. We are also the signatories of international agreements and protocols that directly support gender empowerment.
What are the success stories recorded so far?
Starting with the mother company, I do appreciate the fact that the mining industry has come a long way - although it was, and still is, viewed by some as a men’s business. As a company we have moved a great deal in the right direction.
The Chairperson of the Board of the mother company is a lady; our Interim CEO is a lady, and two of the five top executives are ladies.
In middle management, we have lots of women. Some countries are a bit of more advanced in terms of gender empowerment particularly.
In efforts to create more room for women in top positions, we have designed programmes that empower women to enable them to take up higher positions.
For the past four years, we have been sending our lady-works to the Female Future Programme implemented by the Association of Tanzania Employers (Ate) - and four of them graduated this year. We are also part of the Chairman’s Young Leader Programme for both male and female employees. But we give priority to female employees. We also have a programme by ESAMI for our employees and which we encourage female employees to join.
You said women are not given the same opportunities as men. Why is that so?
I would say the problem is much more institutionalized, and we need joint cooperation to address this challenge. At the family level, we need to see how young boys and girls are being brought up to make it easier for them to tackle different challenges as they grow up.
From the government and other institutions, there is little appreciation of women - despite the fact that the more women there are in these positions, the greater the impact they would have on the institution.
Recognizing and rewarding the companies which are doing well in promoting gender equality is also another way of pushing forward the women empowerment agenda. In summary: we still need the female empowerment agenda mainstreamed in all institutions from the point of recruitment; in the training programmes offered by the companies;, and in promotions. We must ensure that staff at the same level are paid equally - and that women in child bearing times aren’t discriminated against.
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