The state-owned national flag carrier – Air Botswana has signed up to the International Air Transport Association’s (IATA) 25by2025 campaign which is designed to address gender imbalance in civil aviation. Committing to this gender diversity pledge makes Botswana the second African country to sign up to this campaign. The other African airline is TAAG Angolan Airlines.
25by2025 is a global campaign for IATA member airlines to improve gender balance, especially female representation, in the aviation industry by 25%, or up to a minimum of 25% by 2025. By signing to this gender diversity pledge, Air Botswana will report annually on key diversity metrics, increase female representation in senior positions and under-represented areas and increase female nominations from their airlines for IATA governance roles to a minimum of 25%.
Currently a total of 59 airlines globally have signed up, which translates to just about 30 per cent of global air passenger traffic.
At the moment the number of female pilots globally constitute 5.18 % while the number of female airline Chief Executive Officers are approximately 3%. A report entitled “Women Matter” states that organisations in which women are mostly represented at board or top-management level are also the companies that perform best.
IATA launched the 25by2025 campaign in September 2019 and most signatories are from Europe (36), whilst the least come from Africa (2) and Middle East (4).
In a statement, IATA revealed that the next phase will be to collect data on key issues that the signatories have committed to, and these findings will be shared at the IATA Annual General Meeting which will be held this year in June. The United Nations states that the proportion of women in management has decreased to less than 25 percent on the African continent, and this is despite the fact that women represented 39 per cent of world employment.
Apart From IATA, Air Botswana has also partnered with other international organisations such as International civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) whose focus is to develop and adopt standards in aviation safety, and African Airlines Association (AFRAA) which is a trade organisation.
