By Asmau Ahmad
Delegates to the Women 20 (W20) Summit, convened ahead of the Group of 20 (G20) Leaders’ Summit in Indonesia’s Bali in November.
The forum has called for more support from G20 members to promote gender and women’s economic empowerment.
The three-day meeting concluded on Thursday in the Indonesian province of North Sumatra with eight communiques delivered to the Indonesian government.
It was responsible for leading the policy direction of the club of the world’s 20 largest economies.
Indonesia is currently the host country of the G20, consisting of 19 countries and the EU.
The W20 was aimed at ensuring that considerations on gender are mainstreamed into G20 discussions and translated into the G20 leaders’ declaration as policies promoting gender equality and women’s economic empowerment.
The delegates to the W20 summit called on the G20 forum to adopt a national strategy on gender equality, to build a G20 data gender network and promote regulations against gender violence.
The communique read on Friday as it also underlined the significance of financial support for women.
It called on the G20 forum to encourage the sustainability of the Women Entrepreneurs Finance Initiative (We-Fi) and commit to providing funds amounting to 350 million U.S. dollars.
This was to allocate funds from one per cent of global tax agreed by G20 members to help finance micro, small and medium enterprises run by women.
Also, to increase inclusive infrastructure investment by 25 per cent in rural areas by 2030.
The G20 members were also asked to carry out the mandate to employ people with disabilities in the public sector with not less than three per cent.
It would build and empower women with disabilities and girls in rural areas, according to the communique.
The summit of the G20 would take place on Nov. 15-16 on Indonesia’s resort island of Bali.
The chair of W20 Indonesia, Hadriani Uli Silalahi, hoped that leaders at the summit would address gender-related issues, particularly concerning women in rural areas and women with disabilities.
