Gender Equity Plan

1. Statement of Commitment

At JERICA Global, we recognise gender equity as fundamental to our mission: to design and champion ethical, inclusive, and regenerative systems, where people, planet, and shared prosperity evolve together. We cannot credibly advocate for systemic change in the world if we do not practice it ourselves.

This Gender Equity Plan (GEP) formalises our commitment. It sets out the principles, responsibilities, practices, and indicators that guide how JERICA embeds gender equity across our organisation, our work with associates and partners, and in the applied practice we deliver for clients and communities. It moves beyond aspiration to accountability – naming what we commit to do, how we will know we are doing it, and who is responsible.

This GEP applies to JERICA Global, JERICA France, and all future subsidiaries operating under the JERICA name. It applies to JERICA’s Co-CEOs, all associate practitioners engaged by JERICA on a self-employed basis, and all partner organisations who represent or work in the name of JERICA.

This Plan is aligned with: the EU Gender Equality Strategy 2020–2025; the EU Work-Life Balance Directive; EU Pay Transparency expectations; and the Gender Equality Plan (GEP) framework established under Horizon Europe – which, while formally mandatory only for public bodies, research organisations, and higher education institutions, we choose to meet voluntarily as an expression of our values.

2. Scope

This GEP applies to:

  • JERICA’s Co-CEOs and any future directors or governance members.

  • All associate practitioners engaged by JERICA on a self-employed or sub-contracted basis – whether engaged for a single project or on an ongoing basis.

  • All partner organisations who co-design, co-deliver, or formally represent JERICA’s work.

  • JERICA’s applied practice – including all design work, stakeholder engagement, case study development, assessments, and feedback processes carried out on behalf of or in partnership with clients and communities.

JERICA does not have a traditional employment structure. We work with a network of self-employed associates and partner organisations. This GEP is therefore designed to operate relationally rather than hierarchically – through clear standards, transparent expectations, and consistent modelling by JERICA’s Co-CEOs.

3. Policy Principles

The following principles underpin this Plan, commitments against which we hold ourselves accountable.

3.1 Equal Treatment and Non-Discrimination

JERICA does not tolerate discrimination – direct or indirect – on the basis of gender, gender identity, or gender expression, or on any other protected characteristic including race, ethnicity, disability, age, sexual orientation, national origin, religion, or socioeconomic background. We recognise that these characteristics interact and compound each other; our approach to equity is therefore intersectional by design.

All JERICA associates and partners can expect equal and fair treatment in every aspect of their engagement with JERICA: in how they are selected and briefed, how work is assigned and valued, and how their contributions are recognised.

This reflects our purpose, operating model and 5 principles.

3.2 Pay Equity and Transparency

JERICA commits to equal pay for equal work, or work of equal value. We apply consistent, transparent rate-setting approaches for associate engagement, and we do not vary rates on the basis of gender or any other protected characteristic.

We will monitor our associate engagement data annually to identify any patterns that suggest differential pay by gender (or other characteristic) and will take corrective action where gaps are identified. This aligns with EU Pay Transparency expectations and the principle that fair pay should be demonstrable, not merely declared.

This reflects our principle of ethical financial practices.

3.3 Gender-Balanced Leadership and Representation

JERICA’s leadership is currently gender-balanced at Co-CEO level, and we are committed to maintaining and strengthening balanced representation as the organisation grows. We will actively seek gender balance in advisory, governance, and decision-making roles, and will take positive action to address structural underrepresentation where it exists.

We apply the same expectation to our partnerships: where JERICA collaborates on consortia, programmes, or governance structures, we will advocate for gender-balanced representation in leadership and decision-making roles within those structures.

This reflects our principle of inclusion.

3.4 Work-Life Balance and Equitable Flexibility

JERICA recognises that regenerative systems must support holistic wellbeing, and that access to flexible working and caregiving arrangements is a fundamental driver of gender equity and inclusion. We operate with inherent flexibility – remote working, flexible scheduling, and project-based engagement are the norm rather than the exception.

Where associates or partners take parental, caring, or health-related leave during a JERICA engagement, we commit to accommodating this without penalty to their professional relationship with JERICA or to future work opportunities. We will review our approach bi-annually to ensure it remains equitable and responsive to the real lives of the people we work with.

This aligns with JERICA’s regenerative operating philosophy.

3.5 Safe and Respectful Working Environments

JERICA recognises that gender-based violence – including sexual harassment, intimidation, coercion, and hostile behaviour – is a violation of fundamental human rights. We do not tolerate any form of gender-based or sex-based harassment, discrimination, or violence, whether in-person or in online and virtual environments.

All JERICA associates and partners are expected to contribute to safe, respectful, and inclusive working environments. They also have the right to work within the same safe, respectful, and inclusive environments when working with other organisations – clients, partners, communities.  Any concern, complaint, or report of gender-based harm will be taken seriously and handled with care, confidentiality, and urgency.

Reporting: Anyone who experiences or witnesses behaviour that violates this principle should contact JERICA’s Co-CEOs directly at support@jericaglobal.com.  Reports may be made anonymously if the person prefers. Where a concern involves a Co-CEO, the other Co-CEO will take responsibility for the response. JERICA will signpost to external support services or formal complaint channels where appropriate.

This aligns with our inclusion and respect principles.

3.6 Gender Equity in Our Applied Practice

JERICA’s work involves ethical practice capability-building, leadership development, facilitation, applied design, stakeholder engagement, case study development, organisational assessment and design, and feedback processes. We recognise that this work can either reinforce or disrupt existing gender inequities – and we are committed to the latter.

Specifically, JERICA commits to:

  • Applying a gender equity lens to all applied design work – asking, at each stage, whether the design, process, or output treats all genders equitably and whether it may inadvertently disadvantage any group.

  • Disaggregating stakeholder engagement and feedback data by gender (and other relevant characteristics) where sample sizes permit and reporting disaggregated findings to clients.

  • Ensuring that case study development includes gender-diverse voices and does not default to androcentric narratives or frameworks.

  • Assessing the gender equity implications of recommendations made to clients – and proactively naming these in our outputs.

  • Advocating with clients for inclusive, gender-aware approaches to organisational design, leadership, and decision-making.

We recognise that applying a gender equity lens to our work requires ongoing learning and critical reflection. JERICA’s Co-CEOs commit to modelling this practice and to supporting associates and partners in developing the skills and confidence to do the same.

This reflects our purpose and operating philosophy, and our 5 principles.

4. Dedicated Resources and Responsibility

JERICA’s Co-CEOs hold joint and equal responsibility for the implementation, monitoring, and review of this GEP. This responsibility cannot be delegated.

Both Co-CEOs are jointly responsible for implementing and reviewing the GEP. Annual data collection and reporting will be led by Co-CEO Esteban Fernandez Drovetta, as a signal of allyship. Responsibility for GBV or harassment complaints will sit with the Co-CEO who is not involved in the complaint, with external support signposted where needed. Training and awareness-raising will be led by both Co-CEOs, supported by associates with gender-equity expertise or by external expertise where needed. Applying the GEP in practice is a shared responsibility of both Co-CEOs and all associates involved in JERICA-led work.

JERICA’s Co-CEOs hold joint and equal responsibility for the implementation, monitoring, and review of this GEP. This responsibility cannot be delegated. Specific accountabilities are as follows:

As a small organisation working with a network of self-employed associates, JERICA does not have a dedicated budget line for gender equity as a standalone function. Instead, we embed the cost of this work – in time, reflection, and learning – into our standard operating practice and annual leadership planning. Where specific external expertise or resources are needed (for example, to support training or to conduct a deeper pay equity analysis), the Co-CEOs will allocate budget from JERICA’s operational funds.

This aligns with our own contextual ethical financial practice principle.

5. Training and Awareness-Raising

JERICA is committed to building and maintaining genuine understanding of gender equity as a living practice that makes our work better, our relationships more equitable, and our impact more authentic.

5.1 Co-CEO Commitment

JERICA’s Co-CEOs will complete or refresh training on gender equity, intersectionality, and unconscious bias on a minimum two-yearly basis, and will actively engage with developments in gender equity research, policy, and practice as part of their ongoing professional development. Evidence of this engagement will be noted in organisational transparency reports.

5.2 Associate Onboarding

All associates newly engaged by JERICA will be introduced to this GEP as part of their onboarding process. They will be expected to read the policy, confirm their understanding, and raise any questions or concerns before beginning work. This is a condition of engagement, not optional.

5.3 Ongoing Awareness

JERICA will facilitate at least one gender equity learning touchpoint per year for the associate and partner network – this may take the form of a shared reading or resource, a facilitated conversation, an external speaker session, or integration into a regular team or partner gathering. The format will be responsive to the size and structure of the network in any given year.

5.4 Applied Practice Development

Because JERICA’s work is applied – not theoretical – training and awareness-raising will be connected directly to practice. When new applied methods are introduced (new design approaches, stakeholder engagement tools, assessment frameworks), the Co-CEOs will consider the gender equity implications of those methods before deploying them with clients or communities.

6. Data Collection and Monitoring

JERICA commits to annual monitoring of gender equity indicators across our organisational practice. Given our size and structure, our data requirements are proportionate but genuine. We will not collect data for its own sake; every indicator below is linked to a specific commitment in this Plan.

Data will be collected each year by the lead Co-CEO and will form the basis of an internal annual progress summary shared with the full associate and partner network.

JERICA will monitor leadership representation by reviewing the gender breakdown of the Co-CEOs and any governance or advisory roles. The target is to maintain or improve gender balance year on year.

We will monitor the composition of the associate network by reviewing the gender breakdown of active associates engaged during the year, based on self-reported gender identity where associates consent to share this information.

We will review associate day rates by gender to identify any unexplained pay differential. Any gap greater than 5% will be investigated and addressed within six months.

We will review work assignment patterns to assess whether high-profile, high-value, or leadership-facing assignments are distributed equitably across the associate network by gender.

We will monitor flexibility and leave by recording the number of flexibility requests received and whether they were met without professional disadvantage. Our target is that 100% of flexibility requests are met without disadvantage.

We will monitor GBV, harassment, complaints, and concerns by recording the number received and how each was resolved. This will be reported only in aggregate to protect confidentiality.

We will monitor applied practice by recording the number of client projects where a gender equity lens was explicitly applied, together with qualitative notes on how this shaped outputs.

We will monitor training and awareness-raising by recording activities completed by the Co-CEOs and the wider network during the year.

We will monitor partner selection through a qualitative assessment of whether gender equity was considered in at least one major partnership decision during the year.

7. Equitable Engagement – Associates, Partners

JERICA does not recruit employees in the conventional sense. We engage self-employed associates and partner organisations to work with us. The principles of equitable recruitment and career progression apply to this context, translated as follows:

7.1 Associate Engagement

  • JERICA will maintain an active and diverse associate network, and will take deliberate steps to ensure that the network is not inadvertently homogeneous by gender (or by any other characteristic).

  • When seeking associates for specific work, JERICA will consider gender balance in the candidate pool and will not exclude candidates on the basis of gender or any other protected characteristic.

  • Where JERICA identifies that specific types of work are consistently being assigned to associates of the same gender, we will review whether this reflects genuine skills-matching or implicit bias, and correct course accordingly.

  • Rate transparency: JERICA will maintain standard day rate ranges that will be applied to prospective associates, so that rate negotiation is conducted on an informed and equitable basis.

7.2 Partner Selection

When selecting organisations to partner with, JERICA will apply a values screening that includes gender equity. Specifically, we will ask: does this organisation have demonstrable commitments to gender equity in its own operations? Where a prospective partner does not, JERICA will raise this directly as part of the partnership conversation, and will consider it in the decision to engage.

We recognise that not all potential partners will have formal GEPs, particularly smaller organisations or those in contexts with less developed gender equity infrastructure. Our approach will be proportionate – we are not looking for perfect, but for genuine commitment and openness to learning.

This reflects our principles of partnership and inclusion.

8. Intersectionality

Gender does not operate in isolation. JERICA recognises that gender intersects with race, ethnicity, disability, age, sexual orientation, socioeconomic background, national origin, and other dimensions of identity to produce compound experiences of advantage or disadvantage. An approach to gender equity that does not account for these intersection risks benefiting the most advantaged women while leaving others behind.

JERICA’s approach to equity is therefore explicitly intersectional. This means:

  • Our monitoring data, where sample sizes permit, will be disaggregated by multiple characteristics – not gender alone.

  • Our applied design work will consider intersectional impacts, not just gender in isolation.

  • Our associate and partner network will be assessed for diversity across multiple dimensions, not only gender.

  • JERICA’s Co-CEOs will engage with intersectionality as a continuing area of learning and reflection, recognising that this is a field of evolving understanding and practice.

JERICA’s commitment to intersectional equity is not a separate programme of work – it is woven through every section of this Plan and core to our purpose and operating approach. We are a small organisation. We will not always get this right. What we commit to is honesty about where we fall short, and a genuine will to improve.

9. Accountability and Review

9.1 Annual Progress Summary

JERICA’s Co-CEOs will produce an annual Gender Equity Progress Summary each year, covering all indicators listed in Section 6. This summary will be:

  • Shared with the full associate and partner network.

  • Published on JERICA’s website alongside this GEP.

  • Written in plain language, including honest acknowledgement of areas where progress has not met our own expectations.

9.2 Policy Review

This GEP will be formally reviewed every two years by the Co-CEOs, or sooner if:

  • EU or global gender equality legislation or guidance changes in ways that require updates.

  • JERICA’s organisational structure changes significantly (e.g. through the addition of new subsidiaries, a significant growth in the associate network, or a move toward more formal employment relationships).

  • The annual monitoring process reveals a significant gap or concern that requires a policy-level response.

Updated versions of this GEP will be re-approved by the Co-CEOs and published on JERICA’s website, with a clear version history.

9.3 Shared Responsibility

While the Co-CEOs hold primary accountability for this Plan, all JERICA associates and partners share responsibility for living the JERICA Principles, modelling inclusive behaviour, and raising concerns where they observe practice that conflicts with this policy. JERICA’s culture is one of ethical, honest, courageous conversation – and that applies to equity as much as it does to any other dimension of our work together.

10. Document Information

This document is titled JERICA Gender Equity Plan.

This is Version 1.1.

It was published on 22 February 2026 and is due for review on 22 February 2028.

The Plan is signed by Jules Harrison-Annear and Esteban Fernandez Drovetta, Co-CEOs of JERICA.

It is published at www.jericaglobal.com/gender-equity-plan.

It applies to JERICA Global, JERICA France, and all future JERICA subsidiaries, as well as all Co-CEOs, associates, and partners.