Many organizations in the Middle East have made significant efforts to develop diversity and inclusion policies in recent years. However, the 2018 Global Gender Gap Report published by the World Economic Forum identified that the Middle East is lagging behind other developed regions in closing gender parity gaps. Additionally, the 2018 UAE Diversity and Inclusion in the Workplace Survey Report found that respondents still believe that race/ethnicity, religion, gender, and nationality all impact employee success and career progression. This initiative aims to address the full spectrum of diversity and inclusion topics, notably neurodiversity, and technological impacts (such as AI use).

The initiative is carried out through series of competency-based training with the aim of bringing about systematic and sustainable change in the culture of organizations, as well as follow up research summary to ensure organizations that have undergone training stay abreast of best practices through partnership with THE DIVERSITY AND INNOVATION ALLIANCE OF LEADERS (DIAL). During the workshop, Alerive and Leaders Group will discuss the importance of a full understanding of Diversity and Inclusion implementation in meeting the SDGs published by the UN, and share their vision for training, partnerships, and ongoing education to measurably improve diversity and inclusion in the Middle East.

During the workshop, Alerive and Leaders Group will discuss the importance of a full understanding of Diversity and Inclusion implementation in meeting the SDGs published by the UN, and share their vision for training, partnerships, and ongoing education to measurably improve diversity and inclusion in the Middle East. o Well@Work Leader Certification through Alerive based on completion of core modules, along with ongoing bi-annual continuing education to maintain certification. o Ongoing continual education through participation in the DIAL-ME group In order to ensure that Well@Work Leader Certification incorporates all key elements of diversity, inclusion, and workplace wellbeing, one of the goals of the workshop is to identify individuals who may be interested in participating in the steering committee which will ratify and/or amend the current proposed core modules and requirements for continuing education certification. Similar to other certification programs, Alerive’s Well@Work Leader Certification program is designed to be inclusive of community partners and allow partnership between Alerive and other organizations to certify externally-provided courses as meeting the requirements of a CE course within a Well@Work core education category.

What contributes to this lag? The problem is twofold. First, many leaders have a limited understanding or sense of urgency regarding what “Diversity and Inclusion” should incorporate outside of gender, race, and religion, as evident by the lack of other diversity groups inclusion in last year’s reports and currently no certification exists that verifies a leader’s knowledge on Diversity and Inclusion issues. Secondly, even when educated, few leaders have time to weed through all Diversity and Inclusion news and research to identify those few policies and practices that might be useful within their sphere of influence. Alerive, LLC was founded on the desire that organizations should be able to confidently say “All here thrive” as fully inclusive, economically productive, and sustainable organizations. Upon identifying that these two problems are currently hindering leaders’ ability to implement diversity and inclusion principles to their fullest, Alerive launched the Diversity and Innovation Alliance of Leaders (DIAL) to help leaders get the training and information they need to be effective. Alerive has partnered with Leaders Group to propose utilizing the SIDS partnership framework to develop a DIAL-Middle East consortium of like-minded individual and organizations to monitor and ensure the full implementation of meaningful partnerships and progress in improving diversity, inclusion and reporting the related positive innovations, in the Middle East. Alerive and Leaders Group are planning to organize a regional workshop in Kuwait on the 18th of June 2019.

Alerive Inc. Leaders Group for Consulting and Development