The Women 20 (W20), held its inaugural inception meeting and announced its policy priorities for the Saudi Arabia Presidency of the G20. 

 In a working meeting that brought together 28 delegates from eleven G20 member states to align on policy priorities for the year, the W20 announced that it would focus its efforts over 2020 on tangible and actionable policy priorities.

  “Our overarching priority for women is inclusion, focusing primarily on labor inclusion, financial inclusion, digital inclusion and inclusive decision-making,” said Dr. Thuraya Al Obaid, W20 Chair. “Women entrepreneurship will remain a cross-cutting issue.”

 “Strong policy changes and recommendations in these areas will empower women to succeed and create a more gender-equitable environment.”

 W20 Sherpa, Salma Alrashid, added: “Our ultimate goal is to ameliorate the challenges facing women’s economic empowerment. By aligning our priorities with the key focus areas of this year’s G20, we’ll be able to increase the uptake of our policy recommendations and hopefully create a better reality for women globally.”

 G20 officials, including Dr. Fahad Almubarak, G20 Sherpa, and members of the G20 Sherpa Track representing the Education, Employment, and Development Working Groups, laid out their priorities and engaged in a dialogue with delegates about the priority issues on the women’s empowerment agenda. The W20’s knowledge partners, We-Fi, OECD and Accenture shared research and data on women entrepreneurship, gender equality and the current challenges facing women globally. 

The W20 delegates shared their perspectives and discussed how to work together to effectively impact the overall G20 women empowerment agenda. The W20 will work to bring about positive policy change on the following issues: digital inclusion, financial inclusion, labor inclusion and inclusive decision making, with a cross-cutting focus on women entrepreneurship. 

 “The W20 has long been advocating for gender equality but this year, we see a unique opportunity to push our agenda forward and demand accountability from G20 leaders on their promises. 2020 will be the year of women,” concluded Dr. Thoraya Obaid.

For more please visit: https://www.w20saudiarabia.org.sa/en/Pages/default.aspx