The Accountant-Jan-Feb 2017

ADVERTORIAL
THE 2 ND LADIES LEADERSHIP &
ACCOUNTABILITY CONFERENCE
Theme: Corporate Governance in a Dynamic World
Date: 8th to 10th March, 2017
Venue: Sarova White Sands Beach Resort & SPA, Mombasa
BACKGROUND
The 2nd Leadership and Accountability
Forum is a continuation of the delightful
Inaugural Ladies Leadership and
Accountability Conference held in March
2016 at Sarova White Sands Beach
Resort & SPA, Mombasa. It builds on
the initial theme of having women as
architects and champions of leadership
and accountability in Kenya by focusing
on their role in corporate governance in
a changing and dynamic world. As the
gender agenda continues to take shape
in Kenya and across the world,
women are finding themselves
increasingly at the helm of
change. This conference
reinforces and prepares
them to take up leadership
challenges even as they
champion for accountability
in both corporate and
political spheres.
The conference
builds on the realization
that despite the fact that
women comprise a little
over half of Africa’s
growing population and
their contribution to
the region’s economy
is extensive; women
continue to form the
majority of the poor in
Africa.
As the thirst for
qualified women to
take up leadership
positions in both corporate and political
spheres grows and the opportunities for
women participation increase, a number of
bottlenecks that constrain the development
of women leaders have to be overcome.
The socialization and stereotypes of female
roles in society, lack of opportunities for
women and inadequate organizational
support among other tailbacks need to be
explored and addressed if women are to
succeed.
WOMEN AND CORPORATE
GOVERNANCE
It has been rightfully observed that the
corporate world is a place of societal social
power, it is a place of conflicts of power, and
even conflicts between people. And whilst
most of these conflicts are regulated, more
or less effectively, by the good governance
standards, the quest for greater efficiency
and ‘feminisation’ of Boards is a significant
potential lever of change. Indeed, more
and more women have slowly been
brought into positions of power within
government, corporations, academic
institutions and other organizations. As
such, inquiries into the presence and
progress of women on boards especially on
their role in corporate accountability is of
critical importance.
A recent study by the African
Development Bank (AfDB 2015)
observed that Women hold 12.7% of
board directorships (364 out of 2,865) in
307 listed companies based in 12 African
countries. This is 4.6% lower than the 17.3%
women’s representation on the boards of
16 JANUARY - FEBRUARY 2017