In every country in the world, women face gender-based discrimination, job disparities, and the risk of violence in private and public.
Efforts to increase women's participation in work have been hindered by the COVID-19 pandemic, which led to 5 percent of female workers globally losing their jobs in 2020, an official has said.
"The G20 Summit provides an important opportunity to overcome the problem and ensure inclusive economic recovery by placing the role of women as the priority of the attempt," Women 20 (W20) chair Handriani Uli Silalahi said at the opening of the W20 Summit, which was held in a hybrid format at Lake Toba, North Sumatra province, on Tuesday.
W20 is one of the G20 engagement groups that is focused on discussing and promoting women's empowerment and gender equality.
Hence, ahead of the upcoming G20 Summit in November 2022, Silalahi asked G20 leaders to pay more attention to promoting women's equality, security, and welfare.
“In every country in the world, women face gender-based discrimination, job disparities, and the risk of violence in private and public. It must be addressed immediately," she stressed.
The G20 forum is also expected to increase the participation of women in the micro, small, and medium enterprise (MSME) sector by helping women overcome the structural and legal barriers to their running MSMEs and improving their access to financial resources and networks to develop their businesses, she added.
The G20 also needs to promote a gender-based equitable health response by ensuring affordable and accessible health services for women and girls, she said.
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In addition, the forum must pay attention to the empowerment of women and girls in rural areas, who play an important role in agriculture, food security, natural resource management, as well as rural enterprise sectors.
The W20 chair noted that women in rural areas often live in poverty, remain vulnerable to conflict and climate change, and face a lack of connectivity and digital services.
She then appealed to G20 leaders to encourage the empowerment of women with disabilities as they are systematically marginalized, which prevents their equal participation in the community.
She said that the W20, as one of the G20 engagement groups, can play a role in influencing global economic governance to promote gender-inclusive economic growth by prioritizing international peace and protection of women and girls.
She further said she expects all parties involved in the engagement groups to bring out a communique on women’s issues that will be handed to President Joko Widodo (Jokowi), as the chair of the 2022 G20 presidency, for discussion at the G20 Summit.
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