News in 2021
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FIG statement on ensuring Diversity and Inclusion
23 June 2021, at the FIG e-Working Week in
Amsterdam, Netherlands
Making the land and property sector sustainable and resilient:
Ensuring Diversity and Inclusion
Narelle Underwood, Chitra Weddikkara, Paul Olomolaiye, Victoria
Stanley and FIG Vice President Diane A Dumashie
At the FIG e-Working Week 2021, a panel of land and property leaders
came together to open the conversation on equality Diversity and
Inclusion (D&I). They considered the opportunity that land professionals
could make to improve D&I in our survey profession (land, property and
natural resources) and to inspire the FIG community.
D&I in its broadest sense is key, a large part of
the resilience of our profession needs action to improve gender
balance as a key element to tackling the need for the very best talent.
With outset in the discussion at this Keynote session an closing action orientated statement
was made
for FIG members to improve D&I in our professional working practices
and organisations.
In short, FIG members can:
- Mobilize and partner to accelerate progress for D&I to build and
achieve a resilient profession
- Develop a ‘new social contract’ with our employees that fosters
D& I in our organsiation
- Build an equal, diverse and inclusive working culture
- Focus on a well-planned approach to promote positive and active
change in our organisations and leave no one behind in this
thinking.
The full statement is present below and you can also download the PDF version. The
full keynote session is also available on youtube and the link is also
highlighted
below.
Watch and be inspired by the keynote session here:
https://youtu.be/3N0A17G3fU8
Statement
in.pdf-format (4 pages)
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FIG Statement Diversity and Inclusion
Making the Survey Profession Sustainable and Resilient:
Ensuring Diversity and Inclusion
June 2021
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Moving from the talk to implementation in Diversity and Inclusion
practices we brought together a panel of leaders to listen to their
views, experience and we gained pointers to embed D&I into our
profession. These are the key message highlights
Above all to implement Diversity and Inclusion (D&I) will need
purposeful planning to ensure D& I is measurably advanced in our
professional practices and organisational leadership. In addition to
voluntary commitments we all have an individual duty to transform our
profession by our focused and widespread participation.
To build resilience into our professions; collectively, across
our unique contexts and areas of expertise, we commit to working
together to
- Center Stage the need for D& I policies in
member organsiations;
- Promote D&I by transferring the effective
tools, practices and gender responsive policies;
- Mobilize our members and partners to accelerate
progress for D&I;
- Foster and expand Women’s leadership in
governance and public decision making.
This means ACTING TO
1. Promote D&I in the culture of our
organisations
We:
- Applaud the younger generation of CEO’s coming through who are
seriously looking and acting on gender and social mobility
- Grasp the new frontiers and be bold in our actions henceforth.
- In the context of D&I policy, there is a slow start in gender
equity with the issues of pay gap. Introducing transparency to
promotion, pay and reward progression is a good start to
implementing change
- Respect that there are increasingly four generations in the work
place and that we will be inclusive and positively learn from each
other
- Acknowledge that there are positive discussions; but that we
need to recognize this is not always so for many people. This
requires us to be attentive to our employees needs
- Observe that there has been generations of bias; but we can
change this with purposeful and focussed actions
Action to:
- When inappropriate language/ behaviors are being used it
is important for others to step in and call out the behavior.
This helps behaviors to change and must be done in the moment. The
power this brings to a minority voice is considerable.
- At last the language of equality, diversity and inclusion is
being used openly, it is important to be aware that the
responsibility lies with all to ensure that our own cultures
adapt
- Take a long hard look in the mirror and ask are we diverse?
Our profession is not alone in needing to increase D&I; we can be
the trailblazer leader for the professions
Key action:
- Appoint within each organisation a dedicated person to hold the
role for equality, diversity and inclusion.
- Evidenced Paul Olomolaiye, Pro-Vice Chancellor
for Equality and Civic Engagement, University of West England a
thought leader in championing D&I.
2. Pipeline of Talent
We:
- Acknowledge there is a continuing need to get the talent
pipeline fit for the future. The future and resilience
of our profession requires much more technical diversity to adapt
and lead in the ongoing development in Ai, Big Data and IoT
applications
- Consider it an imperative to outreach to primary and secondary
school as a key element in the supply chain
- Encourage employers to support entry of employees to further
their university/ professional education
Action to:
- Proactively increase diversity within the profession by opting
to choose from a bigger talent pool, and
- Develop a strategy to change the image of non-traditional
education routes into the profession
Key action:
- Develop and implement an outreach to the young in our
communities
- Evidence: Narelle Underwood Surveyor-General of NSW, Australia
and ambassador for evidenced by ‘Get Kids in Surveying’
https://www.getkidsintosurvey.com/
3. Promote D& I policy and professional
Culture
We:
- Present and implement D& I gender responsive policies in the
work place
- Support the need to centre stage D& I policies in FIG member
organsiations.
- Encourage and facilitate D&I policies that are well-planned to
ensure they promote positive and active change in our organisations.
This can be achieved by transferring the range of effective tools
and practices already available
- Accept that cultural norms do influence how we work; but we are
certain that change can happen slowly and gradually, this increases
the importance of role models in all cultures/ societies.
Action:
- Identify and support our role models drawn from diverse
backgrounds; men and women, young and old, and to support them to
tell their story to facilitate change
- Start the change from our own homes, in our own communities and
countries
Key action:
- Think ‘out of the box’ to make change in our profession
- Evidence: Chitra Weddikkara,
Chartered Architect, Chartered Quantity Surveyor , pioneered a
program for Women skills in construction trades in Sri Lanka
4. Place and society
We:
- Actively support FIG partnerships with donor agencies that
relate to gender equality and societal indications such as networks
and programs with GLTN, World Bank, FAO etc
- Welcome and applaud the efforts of FIG professional standards WG
1.2 women in surveying (https://www.fig.net/organisation/comm/WG/2022_1.2.asp).
- Recognise that SDG’s really plays out across our lives; where we
work, live and socialise. Professioanally we can take
Leadership on the key trends in Environment, Climate Change &
Resilience
- Foster Women- gender equlity in the land sector in particular
tenure equlity
Action:
Take leadership in the
- Land, built environment and natural resource sector by aligned
with relevant SDG’s; and
- SDG 5 that envisages achieve gender equality and empowerment of
all women and girls in cities and human settlements; and
- Especially working toward helping women secure access to and
control over land, property and housing
Key Action:
- If surveyors are enaged in any type of project it is important
to recognise that there is a social obligation to ensure that the
work we do in our contries is inclusive. This obliges
professionals to educate communites on land law and inform and align
with SDG’s
- Evidence: Victoria Stanley, Senior
Land Administrator World Bank, USA, Steering committee partner for
‘Stand for her land’. A program of key thematic areas
critical to improving the political, social, and economic well being
of women and to ensuring gender responsive urban development
https://stand4herland.org/
What can we immediately do about this?
5. Participatory opportunities for FIG
members:
Our members can:
- Mobilize and partner to accelerate progress for D&I to build and
achieve a resilient profession
- Develop a ‘new social contract’ with our employees that fosters
D& I in our organsiation
- Build an equal, diverse and inclusive working culture
- Focus on a well-planned approach to promote positive and active
change in our organisations and leave no one behind in this
thinking.
“Diversity makes sense: it is in the DNA of
humanity which we can take into our organizations;
It is morally right to do so and leads to sustainable organizations.”
“D&I is the responsibility of ALL; not just the minority”
Panelists:
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Chair, Diane Dumashie, FIG Vice President,
Dumashie Ltd, UK/Ghana
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Narelle Underwood, Surveyor-General of NSW,
Australia
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Chitra Weddikkara, Emeritus Professor,
Chartered Architect, Chartered Quantity Surveyor, Sri Lanka
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Paul Olomolaiye, Professor Construction
Engineering and management, Vice- Chancellor for Equalities and
Civic Engagement, University West England, UK
-
Victoria Stanley, Senior Land Administrator
World Bank, USA
Nanna Jørgensen
October 2021
