Colombo, Friday 19th November 2021: Nikita Shuhumar of Seven Seas Holdings Ceylon (Pvt) Ltd, a 50 year old Sri Lankan / Ceylon spices, agro produce, tea and coffee export house, was recently recognized by UN Women for exemplary business practices and leadership. She was included in the select list of top 24 candidates for The United Nations Women Asia & Pacific Women Empowerment Principles Award – Youth Leadership for Generation Equality in Business (under 35 years of age). More than 700 individuals, and businesses from 20 different countries (of Asia and the Pacific region of the world) had been initially nominated, and further shortlisted based on business practices and values.
As mentioned by UN Women Asia, the top 24, including Nikita Shuhumar, hold leadership roles in ‘businesses that are taking bold action for gender equality and accelerating progress to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals’. UN Women also goes on to say that ‘The UN Women Asia-Pacific WEPs Awards are the only regional awards initiative to recognize companies actively implementing gender-inclusive initiatives across their businesses aligned with the Women’s Empowerment Principles (WEPs)’.
The 2021 Asia Pacific WEPs Awards are organized by UN Women’s WeEmpowerAsia Programme funded by and in partnership with the European Union, and with additional support from Australian Aid and Investing in Women, initiatives of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade of the Australian Government. Ultimately, the awards strive to make good practices visible and aim to encourage more businesses to take action by joining the WEPs community’.
This is the first time in history that a Sri Lankan leader and business has been recognized for The UN Women Asia-Pacific WEPs Awards.