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14-Jun-2023: W20 Summit Women-Led Development; Transform, Thrive and Transcend

Women 20 Summit is set to take place in Radisson Blu Resort Temple Bay, Mahabalipuram, Tamil Nadu, India on 14th - 16th June 2023. The theme of this year’s summit is ‘Women-Led Development- Transform, Thrive and Transcend’. The summit will consist of an exhibition, a Janbhagidari event, 8 sessions and a closed-door meeting.

Under India’s presidency, W20 is committed to ensuring increased grassroots-level participation and enhanced stakeholdership of citizens in the W20  process. The summit will begin with a Janbhagidari (Citizen’s Connect Program) which is set on the theme of ‘The Journey of Empowerment’. During the event, transformational stories of women from across India will be shared with the W20 international delegates. The Janbhagidari event also provides grassroots women of Tamil Nadu the platform for sharing their concerns, stories and questions with global women leaders and policymakers. Ms. Bansuri Swaraj, Supreme Court Advocate, W20 India Delegate will deliver the opening remarks followed by five grassroots women of India and Ms. Megha Harsha, Artist & Guinness World record holder who will share their inspirational stories with the delegates of W20. Ms. Virginia Littlejohn, Co-HoD USA, will enrich the session by sharing her experience in empowering grassroots women. The event has been facilitated by the National Rural Livelihood Mission, Ministry of Rural Development, GOI and the Government of Tamil Nadu.

The summit will also include an exhibition from grassroots entrepreneurs of Tamil Nadu, supported by the Department of Rural Development, Tamil Nadu. The exhibition will offer a platform for women entrepreneurs to showcase their skills, creativity, and innovation. It also includes exhibits by W20 Argentina and W20 Indonesia. The exhibition will be inaugurated on 15th June in the Ball Room of Radisson Blu Resort Temple Bay, Mahabalipuram, Tamil Nadu.

The W20 summit will begin with an inaugural session that will be commenced by the inaugural remarks of Dr Sandhya Purecha, Chair of W20 India. The inaugural session will also be graced by the presence of Dr Shamika Ravi, Chair of the W20 Communique Drafting Committee, Dr Shombi Sharp, UN resident coordinator, India, Shri Amitabh Kant, Sherpa G20, Smt. Smriti Zubin Irani, Hon’ble Minister of Women and Child Development, GoI, and Ms. Dharitri Patnaik, Chief Coordinator W20. The W20 Communique 2023, which provides actionable recommendations to the G20 leaders to incorporate in the G20 Leaders’ Declaration, will be released during the inaugural session. W20 will also release a Compendium of Articles on several themes of Women-Led Development written by the delegates and knowledge partners of W20.

On 15th June, three plenary sessions will be conducted on the themes ‘Intersection between Women's Health, Gender Equality, and Socioeconomic Development’, ‘Women-Led Climate Action’, and ‘Bridging the Gender Digital Divide’. The W20 First Respondent Framework will also be released at the end of the first session. The day will end with a Gala Dinner and Cultural Evening which will showcase the rich cultural heritage of Tamil Nadu and India to the W20 delegates.

Three sessions on the themes ‘Breaking the Glass Ceiling’, ‘Economic Empowerment through Trade and Investment’, and ‘Investing in Services and Infrastructure for an Enabling Care Economy’ will take place on 16th June. The W20 summit will proceed to an end with a closing session on ‘Celebrating the Power of Women Empowerment’, a session that aims to celebrate the power of women empowerment and acknowledge the contribution of women to overall societal and economic progress in the world. The closing session will be graced by the presence of  Smt. Bharati Ghosh, Former IPS, who will deliver the welcome address, Ms. Gulden Turktan, Chair W20 Turkey 2015, Ms. Linda Laura Sabbadini, Chair W20 Italy 2021, and Ms. Uli Silalahi, Chair W20 Indonesia 2022. Dr Sandhya Purecha, W20 Chair 2023 will bring the summit to a close by delivering her closing address. The W20 delegates will also be experiencing the rich historical heritage of Mahabalipuram during an excursion coordinated by the Department of Tourism, Government of Tamil Nadu on 17th June.

The Women 20 (W20) is the official G20 engagement group, created in 2015 under Turkey’s Presidency of G20, with the objective of focusing on gender equity. The primary objective of W20 is women's empowerment and advocating for women’s rights, raising women’s voices in society. India’s W20 agenda focuses on five key priorities: Women’s Entrepreneurship, Grassroots Women's Leadership, Bridging the Gender Digital Divide, Education and Skill Development, and Climate Change.

27-Feb-2023: Women-20 Inception Meet starts in Aurangabad

The Women-20 (W-20) India inaugurated its inception meeting in Aurangabad today (February 27, 2023).

The W20 India conducted its first session on Empowering Women in Nano, Micro, and Startup enterprises. The session started with launching the iWN365 initiative to assist women in establishing their own enterprises and achieving financial freedom.

Panel discussions:

  • The first panel discussion session  emphasized on establishing a framework allowing women to set up their own enterprises without any discrimination and prejudice.
  • The second session on ‘Role of Women as Changemakers in Climate Resilience Action’ highlighted the need for introducing a gendered- lens to policy designing at the global level.
  • The third session of the W20 Inception Meet focused on ‘Creating an Enabling Ecosystem for Women Leaders at the Grassroots’ identifying challenges and pathways to ensuring equal participation by girls and women in political and public leadership at the grassroots level.
    The fourth session on ‘Improving Access Through Infrastructure & Skill to bridge the Gender Digital Divide’ focused on bridging the gender-digital divide, leveraging technology and the IoT (Internet of Things) to enable women to break the barriers and institute themselves as core architects of human society. The session focused on finding solutions to the serious problems of accumulation of resources in the hands of a few, thereby giving them unreasonable power, while others struggle for their survival.
  • The fifth session on ‘Creating Pathways for Women through Education & Skilling’ stressed the need for empowering women and girls through skill development and education in order to create pathways for them to take up available income-generating opportunities and also create new entrepreneurial setups, which in turn will contribute to structural transformation and economic growth.
  • The day ended with a special session on "Women-led Development in India".

The emphasis of W-20 will be to influence the G-20 Leaders’ Declaration and G20 Communiqué and take steps to build consensus for active engagement with women entrepreneurs, and commitments to policies that will advance gender equality and make women’s agenda, the core of G-20 deliberations.

25-Feb-2023: W20 (Women 20) for India's G20 Presidency

W20 (Women 20) is an official engagement group under the G20 which was  established during the Turkish presidency in 2015. Its primary objective is to ensure that gender considerations are mainstreamed into G20 discussions and translated into the G20 Leaders’ Declaration as policies and commitments that foster gender equality and women’s economic empowerment.

W20 India took over the presidency from W20 Indonesia on 12 December 2022. W20, under India’s presidency, is focused on actualizing Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi’s vision of “Women-Led Development” with a with the vision to create a world of equality and equity where every woman lives with dignity and where every woman gets the opportunity to thrive, transcend and transform their lives and those of others. W20, 2023 is focusing on removing barriers to women-led development and ensure an enabling environment and ecosystem for women to realize their full potential, transforming their lives as well as of others.

The goal that has been set by the W20 2023 is to ensure continuity of the W20 agenda from the past presidencies while establishing a stronger W20 global and national network. These inclusive consultations and actions will be feeding into the W20 Communique and G20 Leaders’ Declaration. W20, 2023 aims to ensure that the W20 communique is representative and comprehensive and will provide solutions to enhance the status of women across the globe.

There are five priority areas of W20 under India’s Presidency which include, Women in Entrepreneurship, Women Leadership at Grassroots, Bridging the Gender Digital Divide, Education & Skill Development and Women & Girls as change makers Climate Resilience Action.

Dr. Sandhya Purecha, Chairperson of Sangeet Natak Akademi is the chair of W20. Other eminent Indian Delegates of the group include, Dr. Jyoti Kiran Shukla, ex-chairperson of the 5th Rajasthan Finance Commission, Prof. Shamika Ravi, Member Economic Council of Prime Minster of India, Ms. Bharati Ghosh IPS (Retd.), Ms. Raveena Tandon, Actor, Ms. Bansuri Swaraj, Advocate, Supreme Court of India and Dharitri Patnaik, Entrepreneur & Philanthropist as Chief Coordinator of W20 Secretariat. W20 has approximately 100 delegates representing the 19 countries and EU which works collaboratively and intensely on the five task forces, the policy recommendations and drafting of the Communique. Since taking over from W20 Indonesia, W20 India has signed more than 15 MOUS with various organizations as knowledge and network partners, conducted 40 Jan Bhagidari programs with thousands of women across 10 states in India.

The Inception Meet at Aurangabad, Maharashtra will be held on 27-28 February, 2023. This will be followed by two other W20 International meets at Jaipur, Rajasthan on 13th-14th April and at the W20 Summit in Mahabalipuram, Tamil Nadu on 15th-16thJune.

The city of Aurangabad is all set to host the Inception Meeting of W20. ‘Pursuit of gender equality, equity and dignity for women-led development’ is the theme of the Inception meeting and it envisages discussing, deliberating and developing a cogent strategy to target gender-related issues. The Meeting will welcome International delegates from G20 nations, guest countries and International organizations.

Various panel discussions during the Inception meeting will deliberate on empowering women in nano, micro & start up enterprises; role of women as change makers in climate resilience action; creating an enabling ecosystem for women leaders at the grassroots; improving access through infrastructure and skill to bridge the gender digital divide; creating pathways for education, skill development and entrepreneurship; and on women led development in India. The stories of unconventional women in India breaking barriers in different fields including in the Indian Navy, in grassroots entrepreneurship, etc., will also be shared with delegates.

In addition, the Inception meeting will have cultural programmes and a visit to the heritage sites of Aurangabad, ancient Ellora caves to showcase the historical and cultural heritage of Maharashtra.

Today India is witnessing a rapid transition from women’s development to women-led development. The country is moving with the vision of Hon’ble Prime Minister of a new India where women are equal partners in the sustainable development of the country. India is committed towards nurturing a society where empowered women live with dignity and contribute as equal partners.

W20 meetings are envisaged to play a pivotal role in driving collaboration and providing further impetus to gender equity and women’s economic empowerment.