GEEIS celebrated in Dubai at EXPO 2020

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On March 15, 2022, Arborus and Bureau Veritas Emirates organized a GEEIS award ceremony at the France Pavilion of EXPO 2020 under the patronage of the French Embassy in Dubai.

This ceremony took place in the exceptional setting of the World Expo and was itself exceptional for the importance of the organizations labeled GEEIS: Dubai Police, 

8 major African ports, 5 international companies and the EXPO2020 itself!

The Dubai Police, received a trophy for the renewal of its label. 

8 major African ports have been awarded the GEEIS label, under the leadership of Hibo Abdillali, Regional Senior Manager - People & Sustainability at DPWorld: Algeria, Angola, Egypt, Mozambique, Rwanda, Saudi Arabia, Senegal, Somalia Land.

Major companies in the region received the awards and showcased their best practices and the benefits of the GEEIS label.

Camfil, with Jessel Villaruz HR Manager Middle East, Agnes Genevois D&I global and Stéphane Ruiz, Managing Director, Camfil Middle East & Africa.

KEOLIS, with Amal Addullateef, HRDirector 

LEGRAND, with Faris Adward-Salman, Regional Head Ofiice Gulf Countries and Near East

LOREAL, with Jean-Dominique de Ravignan, HR Director at L'Oréal Middle East 

SODEXO, with Coralie Zaidi, HR Business Partner Africa and Middle East.

Finally, the Exhibition itself has obtained the GEEIS EVENT label, a new certification for major national and international events.

The GEEIS EVENT was born from the request of Dina Storey, Head of Sustainability OperationsHead of Sustainability Operations - EXPO DUBAI 2020

to have an evaluation linking gender equality to the objectives of sustainable development.

Dina Storey, for example, inspired the creation of GEEIS EVENT and demonstrated through her audit that the EXPO 2020 had equal processes and environmentally friendly infrastructures. 

We hope that this new label carried by BVC Emirates will be spread all over the world to ensure that major events respect the two pillars for a sustainable world: equality and respect for the environment.

This ceremony was followed by exciting visits to the Dubai Police Headquarters where Major Expert Anood Al Saadi, Head of Dubai Police Women's Council received the business delegation from Arborus and Bureau Veritas.

The theme of the visit was oriented on the safety of people and in particular of women as well as the prevention and treatment of violence against women.

The delegation was able to visit the control center of the 100 000 cameras that are positioned in the city of Dubai as well as the processing of cases. Not only the cases of delinquency or violence are treated by this control center but also actions of rescue of people are possible with an intervention time of the helpers of less than 2 minutes. 

We also visited the building reserved for the Women's Council of the Dubai Police, located within the headquarters. 

The actions put in place to promote women's leadership and the ultra-modern and friendly infrastructure are impressive.

With a staff of 20,000 police officers, the Dubai Police Force is constantly increasing the number of female officers through extensive recruitment and awareness-raising activities in schools to sensitize young girls to the challenges of this field.

The visit to the port of Dubai enabled us to discover the state-of-the-art port infrastructure, which allows us to work in very safe conditions with a real quality of life at work, which is reflected in a major action plan to promote gender diversity.

The robotization of activities and the visit of a prototype of container storage and loading of trucks and ships, entirely driven by an artificial intelligence, make the mix totally possible. The AI control rooms we were lucky enough to visit make the working conditions comparable to those of a back office.

The French delegation was received by H.e Shamsa Saleh, Secretary General of the UAE Gender Balance Council who explained the legal framework of the UAE equality policy and with whom we laid the foundations for a partnership.

The city of Dubai seems to be particularly attentive to the subjects that concern GEEIS: Equality between women and men but also the subject of inclusion and sustainable development.

This city, out of an anticipation movie, in full expansion and of an incredible modernity has understood the crucial stakes of an egalitarian and sustainable society. Thus it represents the prefiguration of the city of tomorrow. And tomorrow is already today. 

A city that combines absolute modernity with quality of life, which is achieved through real equality, implemented concretely. 

With a population composed mainly of expatriates (90% of the population) Dubai is a city that cultivates diversity. Women represent about 20% of the population. They have a very protected status with legislation against violence against women that penalizes aggressors unlike many countries in the region. Moreover, security is considered very important because of the surveillance cameras and the important sanctions in case of transgression.

A country in full expansion and cultural revolution!