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Given the disproportionate economic impact of the pandemic on women, Google is making it easier to search for and support women’s businesses by making the “women-owned business” attribute searchable in English, globally.

And in order to enhance security protections for women, its Advanced Protection Program will partner with UN Women on a 12 month Security Training partnership.

To mark International Women’s Day, Google also announced a $25M Google.org Impact Challenge for Women and Girls, an open call to support organizations across the world, which are helping women and girls access pathways to prosperity.

Selected organizations will receive funding from Google.org, mentoring from Googlers, Ad Grants and additional support to bring their ideas to life. Nonprofit organizations and social enterprises are invited to apply, and grantees will be selected with the support of an entirely female-led expert panel, composed of Google executives, political/policy leaders, activists and influencers.

Philips and Dutch development bank FMO (Nederlandse Financierings-Maatschappij voor Ontwikkelingslanden N.V.) have signed a partnership agreement aimed at improving access to quality primary care in Africa.

The partnership is built on the shared belief that private sector innovations and partnerships result in better and affordable care underpinned by investable business models for underserved communities.

Philips and FMO will work together on primary healthcare projects in low- to medium-income countries in Sub-Saharan Africa to develop projects from ideation to proof of concept – testing innovations in real life settings to validate clinical and financial assumptions and making improvements so that investment decisions on scaling can be made more confidently.

The initial scope of the project is to provide development financing for around ten projects over the next five years. Each project receives approximately EUR 1 million in catalytic funding for proof of concept.

DNB ASA, Norway's biggest bank, achieved the highest score for equality between the sexes of all corporations in the Equileap Gender Equality Global Report & Ranking of 2021, published this month.

DNB's chief executive, Kjerstin Braathen, says the key to success is making sure women aren't disadvantaged when they have children. And the best way to do that is to provide adequate paid parental leave.

At DNB, the goal is to have at least 40% of the bank's top four layers of management held by women.

After a survey uncovered challenges for female agronomists, the project “Women in Agronomy” was launched as part of Yara’s Diversity & Inclusion agenda. The programme connects emerging female talents with more experienced female colleagues, with the goal of attracting, developing and retaining more women in agronomy.

A global survey among Yara agronomists uncovered a very low female representation. It also found that female Yara agronomists frequently face challenges, both internally and when meeting customers and distributors. Although regional differences exist, the results show that breaking traditional stereotypes in the field is a challenge for Yara’s female agronomists globally.

Most people believe that women and men should be paid equally for equal work. Yet, this is not the reality. Gender gaps still exists, and the Covid-19 pandemic seem to make the gaps even harder to fill.

Ipsos presents a few important insights about the perception of gender pay gap and the implications of Covid-19 from a report made in collaboration with the Global Institute for Women's Leadership and King's College London.

The survey finds that as countries slowly recover from the pandemic, more than half of people think that gender equality between men and women will revert to what it was before the pandemic. Still, people are divided in whether gender equality will improve or get worse. About one in ten think women will become more equal with men and the same proportion think women will become less equal. However, women are slightly more pessimistic than men on this issue.

Coca-Cola delivered on its decade-long drive to enable the economic empowerment of 5 million women entrepreneurs, the company announced today on International Women’s Day.

In fact, the initiative known as 5by20® surpassed the ambitious goal announced in 2010 on the margins of the United Nations General Assembly by then Chairman and CEO Muhtar Kent.

To date, 5by20 has reached more than 6 million women entrepreneurs—from fruit farmers, retailers and restaurant owners, to artisans, recyclers and distributors—through access to business skills training, financial services, peer networks, mentors and other resources.