BNP Paribas is pursuing its work to support the HeForShe programme

BNP Paribas has fully incorporated the 17 UN Sustainable Development Goals into its roadmap and these social and environmental issues are in line with BNP Paribas’ CSR strategy.

In this context, for several years now the Group has been implementing a range of initiatives dedicated to the fifth goal – gender equality.

The Group particularly contributes through the HeForShe programme and its commitments to promoting gender equality.

The HeForShe initiative is a global solidarity and awareness campaign in favour of gender equality, launched by UN Women and uniting businesses, countries and universities.

It is also the first women’s movement spearheaded by men, as it calls on men and boys to take affirmative action in combating discrimination against women and girls.

In 2018, Jean-Laurent Bonnafé “Thematic Champion” within HeForShe, alongside around 40 other champions (company directors, heads of state and university chancellors) committed to publicly promoting and taking concrete action to foster gender equality. 

As part of its partnership with the HeForShe movement, BNP Paribas committed, by 2020, to advancing gender diversity in traditionally predominantly male or female professions in the banking sector.

Why are there so few men in HR and so few women in market finance? What is it that holds back men from applying for HR positions and women for finance positions? What barriers exist and how can they be overcome?

For both candidate and recruiter, these questions were the starting point for our Nudge initiative.

Understandably, we all have stereotypes and biases, whether conscious or unconscious. They continually influence our choices and behaviours and can, in this case, pose hurdles to diversity in recruitment. Nudge is a soft and compulsion-free incitement to adopt virtuous and positive behaviour towards the individual, the community and the planet. It involves creating an architecture of choice through “nudges”, encouraging a behavioural change by removing the hurdles identified. The solutions devised are then tested to validate their effectiveness.

The Group is committed more broadly to gender equality. In December 2019, the Executive Committee of BNP Paribas signed the #JamaisSansElles charter, making a commitment to stop participating in events with more than three speakers without a woman included (debates, expert panels, round tables, etc.). BNP Paribas is the first company on the CAC40 to join this movement.

BNP Paribas’ commitment to HeForShe aims to promote gender equality more broadly. The Group is therefore supporting the UN Women AgriFed programme in Senegal. 

This agriculture project to foster resilience to climate change aims to instil independence, by 2021, in 15,000 women in the rice industry, as they do not have the same access as men to resources, land and financing, and are among the main victims of climate change.

The BNP Paribas Group and its subsidiary BICIS in Senegal actively participate in the programme by supporting these female entrepreneurs. AgriFed aims to support land reform to ensure better access and secure land assigned to female farmers; to strengthen agricultural productivity and resilience; to finance through lines of credit; and to help cooperatives, networks and associations that champion the work of female farmers.