BVA’s Gender Equity Goals

The BVA strives to broadly promote diversity, equity and inclusion in the Belgian private equity and venture capital industry and has made DEI a topic for attention in the years to come. As part of these efforts, the BVA seeks to promote gender equity and to achieve the following objectives.

At the level of the member organisations:

  • to reach a percentage of 25% of people of a different gender in the investment decision-making body[1] by 2030.
  • to reach a percentage of 40% of people of a different gender in the investment teams[2] by 2030.

At the level of the portfolio companies:

  • to reach a percentage of 25% of people of a different gender in the executive bodies of enterprises with more than 250 employees, by 2030.
  • to reach a percentage of 25% of people of a different gender among the people that found, co-found or manage financed companies by 2030.

[1] “investment decision-making body” means any administrative or management body or committee of a fund or a fund manager which has authority by law or according to the articles of association to approve or reject an investment or divestment proposal, i.e. investment committee, board of directors, executive committee or any other body or committee with the same authority.

[2] “investment team” means the group of individuals involved in the preparation and implementation of investment and divestment decisions, and managing the investment portfolio, including in particular partners, founders, CEOs, CIOs CFOs, Executive Directors, directors, principals, investment or portfolio managers as well as tax or legal managers, financial analysts, risk managers, and ESG professionals, when they are primarily deal-facing.

Charter for Gender Equity

The members of the BVA that sign this charter publicly affirm their commitment to pursuing a policy for gender equity at all levels of their organisation and within portfolio companies to contributing to reaching the gender equity goals set by the BVA. As part of this commitment, they undertake to implement the following actions:

Commitments
At the level of its own organisation, each of the undersigning parties commits to:

  • Ensuring fair and non-discriminating recruitment, assessment, and promotion practices, in particular by:
    • ensuring that the job offers are not gendered and do not contain gender stereotypes,
    • striving for gender parity when considering applications until the end of the process,
    • eliminating gender bias during interviews, for example by excluding gendered questions to ensure that women are not asked different questions (private life, etc.), and
    • ensuring – as far as possible – an equal gender representation in the recruitment teams during the evaluation, interview and selection procedures.
  • Eliminating gender pay gaps for equivalent positions and skills, including the alignment of variable compensations and carried interests, as well as transparency of the remuneration policy.
  • Applying best practices regarding gender-inclusive language in communication practices.
  • Fighting against gender stereotypes and ordinary sexism, in particular by :
    • ensuring that communication, public and internal, does not contain verbal expressions or pictures reflecting or promoting gender stereotypes,
    • helping the staff with training or other means to identify and eliminate unconscious bias, and
    • putting in place a whistleblowing system.
  • Applying strict policies against sexual harassment in the workplace and having zero tolerance for inappropriate sexist behaviour of any kind and in any form.
  • Adopting and implementing policies for families, in particular by:
    • promoting the right for all the staff to request flexible working arrangements to balance work and family life,
    • encouraging secondary caretakers to take leave for childcare,
    • ensuring continuation of the salary to the extent not covered by government-funded social security, and
    • ensuring that optimal conditions apply for the departure on and the return from leave for parental leave (flexible schedules, remote work, …).
  • Developing and structuring all programmes, consultation processes, policies, trainings, seminars and workshops in a gender-responsive manner, so as to ensure the gender-inclusive participation. Avoid “all male panels”. Ensure that work is done with women and not only for women.
  • Participating in programmes and activities launched or promoted by the BVA to make progress towards gender parity, such as testimonials of women professionals in schools, awards programmes for women in finance, networks of women entrepreneurs, …
  • Considering to adopt a parity or diversity charter and/or create a parity or diversity committee within its governance structure.
  • Choosing business partners that are committed to equity and diversity.
  • Adopting and monitoring gender equity indicators and communicating them periodically to the BVA (which will anonymise them).
  • Sharing knowledge and best practices with each other, particularly through the meeting of the BVA ESG committee.

At the level of the portfolio companies, each of the undersigning parties commits to:

  • Monitoring the number of files received which are led by women founders, co-founders and/or women managers.
  • Monitoring the number of investment files which are led by women founders, co-founders and/or women managers.
  • Communicating about this charter, the shared goals and the commitments to achieving these goals and raising awareness among portfolio companies about the importance of equity and diversity.
  • Encouraging companies to put into practice the principle of balanced representation in their decision-making and advisory bodies and promoting best practices with respect to gender balance beyond what is stipulated in applicable law (if any).
  • Including (gender) parity topics in the ESG audits and in the annual ESG reports.