Accueil \ Previous editions \ 2007 - Meeting on Diversity \ Program

Program

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TUESDAY 23 OCTOBER

9.00 : Registration

10.00 : Presentation of the International Meeting on Diversity and Equal Opportunities in the workplace. - Auditorium

This session will be the opportunity to welcome all participants and introduce the themes and workshops of the three days

· Introduction by Philippe Vasseur

· World Forum Journalist Awards

- Valérie BORDE (Canada)
- Savad RAHMAN (India)
- Patrick MAYOYO (Kenya)

· Presentation by Brian Nosek, : "Implicit" association test

Lunch

14.00 > 18.00 Plenary Session n°1 - A socially and environmentally responsible economy opened to the diversity of cultures and origins

In a heterogeneous world, the diversity of cultures, religions, and ethnic groups is a key issue. This is the most sensitive side of diversity, which unfortunately lies at the origin of many tensions and conflicts. Shirin EBADI, a Nobel Peace Prize winner will bring to us her enlightening testimonial as supporter of human rights on this issue.
How can businesses work to iron out these differences in treatment between populations and give the same chance to their employees whatever their culture, religion or whatever the colour of their skin? Laws banning any form of discrimination exist throughout the world. However, the economic world is made in such a way that it relies on the decisions of its stakeholders, and spontaneous forms of discrimination cannot be regulated by the law only. The active commitment of businesses is a critical factor for the evolution of mentalities and development of an economy that better respects people.

Moderator : Philippe VASSEUR, President of the Alliances network.

Shirin EBADI (Iran)– Nobel Peace Prize 2003. A lawyer and Human Rights activist, she was the first female judge in Iran. She represents a reformed Islam in harmony with human rights.

Debate (30 mn)

Testimonial of a winner of the Responsible Economy World Forum Journalist award

15h15 Coffee Break

15h45 Round Table :

Sophia ECONOMACOS (Greece) - President of the Chamber of Commerce of Athens, and President of EUROCHAMBRES women network, created in 2002.

Lassaâd El BEJI (Tunisia) - President of the International Association of Craft and small and Medium-sized Enterprises (IACME),.

Deon ROSSOUW (South Africa) - President of the International Society of Business, Ethics and Economics, Professor Deon ROSSOUW is also Head of the Philosophy department at the University of Pretoria.

Fernando FRANCISCA, (Brazil) :CSR Programme's CEO of Petrobras, being the eighth most respected company in the world according to the Reputation Institute.

Debate
Question from the ISA Students to the panel

18.00 : End of Plenary session N°1

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WEDNESDAY 24 OCTOBER

09.00 > 10.30 : workshops

Workshop N°1 : HOW CAN THE EXPECTATIONS OF THE YOUNG ON EQUAL OPPORTUNITY BE MET? - Auditorium

Young people aged 15 to 25 account for 1.2 billion people, i.e. 18 % of the world population. The young belonging to this age bracket are at a critical moment in their lives with the transition to the world of work, as it is now the time to take directions and make crucial choices.
However, just to mention one figure, in France, for example, 62 % students in the "grandes écoles" are the children of senior executives and professionals, against barely 5 % who are workers’ children.
How can we give the same opportunities to all young adults facing the future, whatever social conditions inherited from their parents? How can we rise up to the challenge of equal opportunities - do the young people believe in this, is this a reality in the country where they live? Why and how can we promote diversity at work? The workshop is in line with this desire from the Forum to question and listen to the future players of responsible economy. It encourages interactivity, testimonials from young people and the debate around productions made by certain high school or higher education students. Of course, the public we expect mainly is constituted of young people, but not only. In fact, we are all concerned by this question - "how can we provide clear answers
to the concrete problems with which the young of today are faced?"

Workshop N°2 : HOW CAN THE HANDICAP BE SEEN AS A FACTOR OF ECONOMIC PERFORMANCE? – Quebec Room

The issue of disabled persons reaches highly different levels depending on countries.
Assessing the situation of disabled people throughout the world via figures has to be the starting point before talking about the historical approach focused on the inclusion of disabled people and the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNO, 2006). Then, it will be particularly interesting to rely on a number of examples to show:
• How organisations provide appropriate facilities for disabled employees to enable them to use all their skills.
• That being affected by a handicap is not incompatible with corporate performance.

Moderator : Flávio DE OLIVEIRA (Brazil) Member of the national council for the rights of disabled people in Brazil for two years, President of this council in the state of Minas Gerais, in Belo Horizonte. Teacher of Social and Environmental Responsibility at the University of Minas Gerais. Member of the expert team of the ETHOS Institute.

João RIBAS, as coordinator of the programme focused on Persons with Disabilities at Serasa, a major financial information and analysis firm located in Brazil, describe in this workshop some practices which were successfully implemented within his company.

Workshop N°3 : HOW CAN THE MEN-WOMEN BALANCE BE IMPLEMENTED ON A DAY TO DAY BASIS?

Obviously, the corporate world is aware of this issue, but it is important that we influence our decision makers with a real "business case" on the topic.
As an example, the Government of Luxemburg set up a Ministry of Equal Opportunities. This Ministry initiated ten years ago "positive actions", with undeniable confidence and recognised efficiency. Christian Scharff’s lecture will focus on how a bank in the market first assessed its own position on the issue of equal opportunities, how it built a "business case", and how it later followed the "positive actions" suggested by the government of Luxemburg by conducting a whole variety of operations adopting a truly holistic approach to this issue.
In 2004, these actions were rewarded by the Government of Luxemburg, which gave to Dexia Luxemburg the "Fémina" award for its efforts to promote equal opportunities.
The lecture is based on practical measures, examples and anecdotes. Its purpose is to suggest "ideas", prompt discussions and debates between us.

Moderator : Christian SCHARFF (Luxemburg) Member of Dexia International executive committee in charge of human resources in Luxemburg, Christian SCHARFF was elected “Human Resources
Manager of the year 2005”. He became President of the Societal Movement Institute in Luxemburg on April 20th, 2007.

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11.00 : PLENARY SESSION N°2 : Diversity and equal opportunity: a new field in social negotiation

Social and environmental responsibility is to be shared, not granted. In each business, employees are to be fully involved in this process. We can rely on this observation to actively adopt a dynamic of discussion or even of negotiations between partners.
It is doubly relevant to listen to trade unions on these issues - first, in order to apprehend the role of trade unions on these issues of diversity. How should we negotiate agreements on diversity?
Guy RYDER, as Secretary General of the International Trade Union Confederation will give us his own vision and may therefore compare it to that of business managers.
Then, it is relevant because trade unions should themselves look at who they are and examine the issue of diversity in an introspective way.
For the economy to fi nd its direction, all its stakeholders should become personally involved.

Moderator : Luc VAN LIEDEKERKE (Belgium), President of the European Business Ethics Network (EBEN). He is a Corporate Ethics Professor and co-director of the Centrum voor Economie en Ethiek, at the Catholic University of Leuven and UAMS.

Guy RYDER (Great Britain) General Secretary of the International Trade Union Confederation, British trade unionist, he is today the General Secretary of the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC), which represents 168 million workers within 154 countries.

Round Table :

Michael HARADOM (Brésil) Président directeur général de Fersol - Michael HARADOM is President-Director of Fersol, a Brazilian chemical industry founded in 1975 and specializing in chemistry production of generics for agriculture, veterinary and public health. The company also invests in clean technologies.

Sergio MAURO DE SOUZA FILHO SANTOS (Brésil) Directeur - Institut Ethos -This Brazilian engeneer is Planning and Institutional Development Manager of the Ethos Institute, a leading CSR organization in Brazil and a global reference on the theme.

Debate

13.00 : End of the Plenary Session N°2

Déjeuner libre

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14h30 : PLENARY SESSION N°3 - Identifying, evaluating and developing good practices in the company – Auditorium

What criteria can we rely upon to assess the attitude of an organisation towards diversity? And how can we assert that a practice is "good" or "bad"? These questions may be apprehended differently if we make an extensive benchmarking of practices and leave a board of international experts determine their reasonable character. This is one of the purposes of this World Forum on Responsible Economy. This session will provide the opportunity to focus on tools used to assess CSR and especially diversity in businesses (social rating) and differences in legislations between countries. What should we think of quotas, of positive discrimination? What directions can
provide food for thought for the future? Should we have the right to set up statistics on the ethnic origins of employees?
Here, the point is to study the implications of diversity for any organisation aiming at reflecting society in a faithful way.

Moderator : Dr Annette KLEINFELD (Germany) One of the most important specialist of ethical questions in Germany, consultant and member of the European Business Ethics Network (EBEN) management committee.

Nicole NOTAT (France) Chairwoman and CEO of VIGEO - First woman to be head of a Trade Union Confederation in France – the CFDT from 1992 to 2002, Nicole NOTAT is today CEO of the Vigeo group, the first European social responsibility rating agency that she created in 2002.

Philippe CARLI (France) Chairman of Siemens Group France

Werner DE PRINS (France) Chairman of the Board of Directors of Bayer Pharma SAS and Schering SAS. Coordinator of Bayer HealthCare France.

Debate

Testimonial of Valérie BORDE (Canada), as the winner of the Responsible Economy World Forum Journalist award

16.00 – Coffee Break 20 mn

Flavio DE OLIVEIRA (Brazil) - General Director of the disabled people department of the Minas Gerais government, he is also a member of the expert team of the ETHOS Institute which encourages and helps companies to manage their business in a socially responsible way.

Brian NOSEK (United States) - Assistant professor in the Department of Psychology at the University of Virginia. Part of the Project Implicit, a multi-university collaboration of research and education about implicit cognition.

Debate

18h00 : End of the Plenary Session N°3

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THURSDAY 25 OCTOBER

9.00 – 10.30 : Workshops

Workshop N°4: HOW CAN AN AGREEMENT ON DIVERSITY BE NEGOTIATED WITH SOCIAL PARTNERS? – Descamps Room - CCI

A social responsibility approach may only continue in the long run if it is shared by all stakeholders. Some major businesses have actively become involved into this process by experimenting new forms of dialogue with union representatives, in particular via an international framework agreement.
Researches have been conducted on "social dialogue and societal responsibility of organisations" and today, it appears that:
• CSR provides the opportunity of reforming social dialogue in terms of content and practices.
• Social dialogue provides the opportunity of making of CSR a long-term process to support the corporate approach and involve all employees.
This workshop provides the opportunity of listening to testimonials from organisations which signed agreements on equality/diversity or agreements on equality between men and women as well as representatives of various union confederations on these issues.

Moderator : François FATOUX (France), general secretary of the Observatoire sur la Responsabilité Sociétale des Entreprises (ORSE). This organisation collects French ethical funds from large companies, professional and social organisations, NGOs and the various trade unions.
With Bruce ROCH (France), Head of the innovation and Diversity department of Adecco, and Martine VALLA (France), Responsible for the policy against discrimination, Regional Committee of the CGT Trade Union Rhône-Alpes

Workshop N°5 : HOW CAN WOMEN’S VALUES BE IDENTIFIED AND USED IN COMPANY? Quebec Room

Of all major changes currently experienced by economic players, such as the integration of sustainable development into the management system or societal responsibility endorsed by businesses, there is one that is implicitly suggested by many others - the new balance between so-called masculine values and so-called feminine values. Imperceptibly, these latter values increasingly percolate through many areas in our society.
Could the masculine and feminine in businesses be anything different than the men and women who constitute them?
The workshop will aim at tackling the following questions among others:
• Masculine values and Feminine values in businesses and in society.
• Is there any specifi cally feminine management mode? And is it accessible to women only?
• Sustainable development, CSR, and balanced masculine/feminine management.
With testimonial from two company managers: Benoît PROOT and Michel DE KEMMETER, the author of "La valeur du temps".

Moderator : Vincent Commenne, economist, former responsible for TRIODOS, an ethical bank in French-speaking Belgium for 5 years. Coordinator of the European Network for Responsible Consumption, composed of individuals and 60 organisations committed to Sustainable Development, Fair Trade, Social Justice and Ethical Funding.

Workshop N°6 : HOW CAN DIVERSITY BE MANAGED IN THE COMPANY ON A DAY TO DAY BASIS? - Auditorium

CEOs and HR directors sometimes identified elsewhere efficient good practices and yet, these did not bring the expected progress in their companies.
A few corporations have implemented other methods and obtained good results, at the global level. What obstacles did they overcome? With what method?
How did they:
• Define a diversity policy that worked on a daily basis?
• Integrate international profiles in their management teams?
• Encourage women career progression, including in engineering positions in oil drilling?
• Improve everyone’s work life balance?
• And last, reduce the impact of stereotypes?

Panel participants :
• Sylviane BALUSTRE D’ERNEVILLE, global diversity & inclusion Manager, L’Oréal, France,
• Pierre BISMUTH, Counsellor of the President of Schlumberger, Chair of the European Commission Women in Science and Technology Group, United States and France,
• Juliet BOURKE, Partner, Aequus, Australia,

Moderator : Nathalie Malige (France) - CEO of Diverseo, an international diversity management consulting and training firm to advise businesses to develop and leverage their diversity to create a competitive advantage. Nathalie started her career in marketing at Procter & Gamble then called Diageo. A few years later, she moved on to strategy and change management at McKinsey and ATKearney.

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11.00 : PLENARY SESSION N°4 - Place and role of women at all levels of responsability in the world economy - Auditorium

The issue of equal work opportunities between men and women reaches highly different levels depending on countries. In certain regions of the world, it is practically settled, whereas in others, inequalities are striking. In Europe for example, there are legislative systems. However, in practical terms, women are paid 20 % less than men though they have similar qualifications and responsibilities, in particular in the private sector. Statistics therefore show that the well-known "glass ceiling" still is a fact.
How can we reach equality based on competence in practice? And how can we take into account the specific constraints of the feminine condition (maternity, breast feeding) within the organisation?
Today, corporate performance includes, in addition to an absolutely necessary profitability, the impacts of business on people, whether men or women.

Moderator: Taran PATEL (India) Professor ESC Rennes School of Business, she is the program Manager of the MSc in Managing Diversity. Head of Center for Responsible Business.

Cheryl WOMACK (United States) - Chairperson of Leading Women Entrepreneurs of the World – one of the most important feminine business network, the members of which employ over 540 000 people around the world.

Nicolas de MALEZIEUX (Switzerland) - co-manager of the Amazon fund has selected 30 European companies for their man-woman equality policy as well as their stock market performance.

Hélène RATTE (France)- Human Resources manager EMEA (Europe, Middle East, Africa) of Deloitte, a world leader in Audit from 2000 to 2006, today responsible for the “Women in the workforce” programme.

Prem K THOMAS (India)- chief Human Resources Manager of Blue Dart Aviation Ltd, leader in the domestic air express market in India.

Debate

Testimonial of a winner of the Responsible Economy World Forum Journalist award

13.00 : End of the Plenary session N°4

Lunch

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14.30 : PLENARY SESSION N°5 - Equal opportunities and territories: the conditions for a fairer economic development - Auditorium

The issue of diversity is not just a personal question. It is also raised collectively, between the various countries and regions in the world. In fact, it has to be noted that opportunities offered to us at least partly depend on where we were born. Obviously, this problem goes beyond the sphere of activity of businesses, but such businesses are not absent from this problem and discriminations to be noted every day are highly correlated with this global lack of balance. How can we create conditions conducive to development in all the countries of the globe? And what contributions can the corporate world provide, to invest into its environment near and far and so reduce such discrepancies? If the economy is not considered an end in itself but rather a way to create wealth in the long run, thereby ensuring progress and the improvement of the human condition, then, it will be fully relevant.

Moderator: Geert DEMUJINCK (France/Belgium), Director of the Research Centre in Economic Ethics at the Catholic University of Lille, he also teaches at the University of Louvain-La-Neuve (Belgium) and the EDHEC Business School
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Françoise FONING (Cameroon,) - Manager of several companies. African Manager of the Year Oscar in 2004. President of the World Association of Women Entrepreneurs (FCEM).

Arije AL AMAD (Jordan) - Director of the Microfund for Women, that had granted 86,000 loans to 33,000 women throughout Jordan. One of the three women selected from around the world as a "Voice of Hope in a Time of Global Challenge" in 2003.

SHAN Huang (Chine) - International Editor and International Relations Commentator of the Caijing Magazine, known for its independence, considered by the "Wall Street Journal" as "the leading financial publication in China"

Debate

15.40 : Coffee Break

16.00 : Corporate testimonies

To close these International Meetings on diversity and equal opportunity in the workplace, two business managers who are particularly involved in CSR in the region will give their testimonials.

Arnaud MULLIEZ (France)
Vice-President of the company in 2002 and President since 2003. President of the Pole on the competitiveness of industries and trade since 2006.

Lucien LESAFFRE (France)
Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Lesaffre group, he progressed within the group through his full career, exercising successive responsibilities covering several fields in all 5 continents. He is also an external trade advisor for France.

17h00 : Synthesis and closing ceremony