GBTI on November 30, 2022, endorsed the United Nations Women Empowerment Principles (WEPs) in the presence of Ambassador Rene van Nes, EU Delegation to Guyana, UN Resident Coordinator, Yeşim Oruçkaya and Arianna Beharry of the Ministry of Human Services and Social Security and GBTI Leadership Team at its Corporate Office in Kingston, Georgetown.

CEO James Foster reiterated the bank’s commitment to advancing gender equality in the workplace, marketplace, and community.

“Domestic violence against women is not new; it’s an age-old occurrence. Women have for too long been considered weak, vulnerable and in a position to be exploited. Violence against them has been tolerated. Cultural norms, religious practices, economic and political conditions may set the precedence for initiating and perpetuating domestic violence, but ultimately committing an act of violence is a choice that an individual makes out of a range of options,” the CEO said.

All too often, the victims suffer in silence because they either cannot speak for themselves, or because of social, political, and justice systems that choose not to hear, or do not know how to hear and respond to the victim’s plea for help. Getting victims to come forward is challenging because of the shame they feel, or because they feel they are at fault.

“Thanks to courageous victims who in the face of scrutiny, opposition, and potential rejection that accompanies speaking out, for telling their stories. Because of their courage, the social, political, and judicial awareness about the reality and impact of violence is growing. New laws are being passed and old laws updated, attitudes and responses from support services and communities at large are more in-tune with victim’s needs.

We therefore must not sit idly by.

Following engagements with Imani Duncan- Price and the UN Women’s representative, GBTI is pleased to endorse the UN Women’s Empowerment Principles and support the 16 Days of Activism for Violence Against Women and Girls.

At GBTI, we embrace inclusivity and commit to improving the growth of all team members; this initiative is only one such way of cementing this commitment.

We encourage business leaders to join us and use the principles as guidance for actions that we can all take in the workplace, marketplace, and community to empower women and benefit our companies and societies. We will strive to use sex-disaggregated data in our sustainability reporting to communicate our progress to our own stakeholders.

That being said, GBTI now makes its formal submission to the initiative.”

GBTI is the first commercial bank and the largest organization in Guyana, to date, to sign on to this initiative.

Ambassador van Nes congratulated the bank on its gender equity focus and commended the advancement being taken.

Meanwhile, the UN Resident Coordinator shared her excitement to have an organization of this caliber endorse the WEPs.

Minister Dr Vindhya Persaud was very excited for the bank and sent her congratulation message with Ms Beharry and extended the Ministry’s readiness to partner with the bank in similar initiatives.

The bank is a staunch advocate for all things women, gender equality, entrepreneurship, empowerment, youth development and above all improving the lives of our Guyanese people.

Today’s event stemmed from our International Women’s Day awareness observance at the famous I love Guyana sign, in March this year.

The bank wishes to acknowledge the influence of Women activist, Lyndell Danzie-Black, who was instrumental in the initial stage of this process.