Within the focus area of diversity, OMAI seeks to achieve positive outcomes for inclusive and gender equal employment; and reducing inequalities, through transformation of work forces and the representation of historically disadvantaged South Africans. We believe that businesses with diverse and inclusive work forces are more resilient, providing for a sustainable society and economy.
While some aspects of gender equality are more challenging to directly address in our professional capacity, we can as professionals drive the empowerment of women in our own business and in our portfolio companies. Across all our investments, OMAI seeks to end all forms of discrimination against women (target 5.1), end all forms of violence against women and girls in our portfolio companies and supply chains (target 5.2) and ensure women’s full and effective participation and equal opportunities for leadership (target 5.5). We require the implementation of best practice gender equality, protection and anti-discrimination policies across the portfolios. We actively track overall female representation in the work force, and representation at management and board levels. For a detailed breakdown of progress see the ESG performance under the Social theme.
In all OMAI’s South African investments, we seek to promote the social, economic and political inclusion of all through tracking the representation of historically disadvantaged South Africans (HDSAs) (target 10.2). We currently track overall HDSA representation in the portfolio company, representation at management level and at board level. To further explore our progress on this please see the tracked data on HDSAs across our portfolios under the ESG performance Social theme.