First Company in the Pacific obtains Global Business Certification for Gender Equality
Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea, July 9, 2018 — IFC, a member of the World Bank Group, has helped Papua New Guinea’s
largest catering and camp management company, NCS, become the first company in the Pacific to be awarded the leading
global assessment and business certification for gender equality – EDGE, the Economic Dividends for Gender Equality.
NCS, which is also a landowner company, now joins 12 other organizations in the East Asia Pacific region to be awarded
EDGE gender certification, which evaluates companies’ workplace gender equality performance against global and industry
benchmarks. The EDGE gender certification provides a competitive advantage by positioning a company or organization as a
gender equal environment to work in, invest in, and do business with. EDGE is currently working with nearly 200
organizations, in 50 countries, and 23 industries.
With its headquarters in Port Moresby, NCS employs 680 women in a workforce of 1300. Through the EDGE gender assessment
process and with support from IFC, NCS has actively pursued employing, and promoting women in its workforce, through
measures such as sending high-potential female staff to leadership training and setting up an in-house mentoring
program. The company has also systematically worked on building a culture that values women as equals. NCS has also
benefitted from implementing a policy on family and sexual violence in the workplace to help its staff, reduce
absenteeism, and improve productivity.
“I could see how the EDGE gender certification and our work with IFC on gender-smart initiatives would help our female
staff, especially those impacted by violence,” said former Managing Director of NCS and now Chief Executive Officer of
its parent company, Anitua, John Gethin-Jones. “As a business, we gained the added bonus of benefiting from a workplace
where all staff are viewed as equal so we now have a more productive, engaged, loyal, and skilled team. Gender equality
is without a doubt a win-win for both our staff and business.”
“NCS now stands out as an employer of choice for women. We hope more companies will discover the strength of the
business case for greater gender equality in the workplace,” said Thomas Jacobs, IFC’s Country Manager for the Pacific.
“There’s no doubt that companies can deliver greater business impact and be more competitive by fostering an equitable
and inclusive workplace for women and men.”
IFC’s work in Papua New Guinea is supported by the Australian and New Zealand Governments under the Papua New Guinea
Partnership.