Barbara Rambousek, Director of Gender and Economic Inclusion at the EBRD, spoke with CNBC Africa about why women are so important for company innovation.
Watch Barbara's full interview with CNBC and discover more about her views on boosting gender diversity in the workplace.
Investments from The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) help to close the gender financing gap across the bank's region.
"Data is showing us that women tend to be underrepresented, particularly in profitable sectors, particularly in the types of jobs where salaries are higher, but also in management positions within companies across a very wide range of sectors. At the EBRD we work with our clients across all sectors, but particularly in those sectors where women tend to be underrepresented, in order to increase workforce diversity, to create routes into economic opportunity into jobs, skills, and entrepreneurship for women," says Barbara.
"We generally find that our clients are very receptive to the idea. The private sector has definitely woken up to the fact that women are not equally represented in the workforce but women represent an untapped talent pool. Fundamentally, if you're a company and you want to expand and you want to innovative, and you're only fishing in half the talent pool, you will not be able to do so in the same way as if you fish in the entire talent pool."
The EBRD cares about gender and inclusion
Women working with the EBRD are able to get involved in important diversity initiatives that support further women in the workplace and encourage female entrepreneurs. Through events such as its Gender and Inclusion Regional Conference and its Women in Business programme, the EBRD helps employers to understand the importance of creating an equal and diverse workplace for attracting and retaining talent.
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The EBRD welcomes job applications from nationals of its member countries regardless of racial, ethnic, religious or cultural backgrounds, gender, disability or sexual orientation.
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Disclosure: Where Women Work researches and publishes insightful evidence about how its paid member organizations support women's equality.