Celebrating 10 years of Dive In

Aaida Abu Jaber, IGI’s AVP PR and marketing and diversity, equity and inclusion champion, reflects on the achievements of the Dive In festival over its first decade.

Let's address the main reason why diversity and inclusion (D&I) are important to the global (re)insurance market. Improved workplace culture, financial performance and innovation are all fuelled by diversity in the workplace.

At IGI, we are a very diverse group of people on all measures – gender, race, religion, age, etc – and we have first-hand experience with the benefits of supporting D&I efforts. In addition to being ingrained in our DNA, diversity is crucial to IGI’s resilience and success. With the support of the IGI board and executive team, we joined the D&I movement and began to take an active role in addressing this, especially with regard to the MENA region.

Since we are a relatively small business in the reinsurance sector and do not have the same abundance of financial resources as larger firms, we have chosen to concentrate on female empowerment and gender equality. Although gender is just one aspect of diversity – as we all know – it is an excellent place to start.

Over the past seven years, the Dive In Festival has been our greatest and most significant partner. It has given us a vital platform to enhance our D&I work. This year marks Dive In's tenth anniversary, and we are grateful to have worked together for so many years.

To demonstrate the significant work that has been done to enhance gender equality, we have chosen to highlight our Dive In initiatives over the course of the years. Our campaigns have always sought to be relevant, original and creative.

In 2018, we hosted Jordan's inaugural Dive In event, which brought attention to gender equality in the Middle East. Inspiring conversations about embracing gender equality in our region were presented by speakers and attendees from diverse parts of Jordanian society, including the public, business and governmental spheres.

In 2019, we focused on promoting conversations about workplace harassment. In the remote industrial Southern Shouneh region of Jordan, we organised a panel discussion in collaboration with MENA-based equality educator World of Letters and the Women as Partners in Progress movement. The purpose of the discussion was to educate the local working women on the rights, actions and laws pertaining to workplace misconduct and harassment.

We hosted an online webinar in 2020 – during the Covid-19 pandemic – addressing how the impacts of lockdown affected women leaders in the workplace. A psychology professor from South Africa was invited to the webinar to conduct personality analysis and use the Enneagram system to determine leadership style based on personality type. This was a fun and educational session that helped take the edge off the serious nature of the pandemic.

Embracing our passion and support for culture and film, we hosted a tête-à-tête in 2021 with renowned Palestinian filmmaker Najwa Najjar. She talked about the difficulties she faced as a female director and how she persisted in a male-dominated industry to become successful, drawing comparisons between the film industry and insurance.

In order to better understand some of the barriers and impediments that prevent women from advancing to senior and C-suite positions, we collaborated with recruitment consultancy Eames Group in 2022 to develop a survey addressing the lack of women in boardrooms. That same year, we also gave 10 young Jordanians the chance to join the Harvard Students Program to help them cultivate their entrepreneurial mindset and abilities.

We held an expert panel discussion in Jordan last year, bringing together professors from the US and Canada to discuss AI and how new technological developments could support gender equality.

In addition to Dive In, IGI partnered with Equal Playing Field, a non-profit organisation that promotes gender parity in sports, to send an all-female insurance team to France and they achieved the Guinness World Record for the largest soccer game ever played.

We are extremely proud of the work we have completed thus far to raise awareness of gender equality, and we are committed to accomplish even more in the future.