People all over the planet are at the epicenter of three epochal influences – the pandemic crisis, the climate crisis, and the technological revolution. These will have a considerable social, economic, and environmental impact for years to come, particularly on women.

The transformative role of women in tackling our environmental and climate crises, as well as calls for a well-being approach to economic recovery, were highlighted by the working group on women to the G20, Women 20 (W20).

The G20 Women 20 Summit 2021 took place on July 13-15, in Rome, Italy, two months before the G20 Leaders Summit 2021, which is to be hosted by Italy in October 2021. Women 20 (W20) is the official G20 engagement group focused on gender equity.

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.

That is, to address gender inequalities, establish sustainable development policies, employ and fund strategies to support the empowerment of women, with priority on tackling the intersecting structural barriers that negatively impact women and girls in all their diversity. These were the main focus areas and recommendations discussed in the W20 summit (copied from their website):

1. Place gender equality at the heart of budgeting decisions by creating inclusive and innovative economic models that work for women and focus on achieving human well-being;
2. Ensure equal representation of women at all levels of decision making in public and private, national and global, political and economic bodies by 2030; adopt multi-year plans to achieve this goal and monitor progress annually;
3. Collect, analyze, and report on all areas identified using gender-sensitive and disaggregated data;
4. Develop gender impact assessments, leaving no one behind, in the design, implementation, monitoring, and evaluation of all legislative, political, strategic, and programmatic initiatives including post-pandemic reconstruction plans, and climate response strategies;
5. Promote education by investing in infrastructure to ensure women and girls have access to and participate in preschool to tertiary education, including early education and STEAM programs; bolster technical and vocational training, digital, financial, and entrepreneurial skills, and lifelong learning. This is to enable women to secure quality employment with continuing education and progression during career breaks.

With the new academic year starting soon, we would like to get inspired by these recommendations and make them our own values. We aim at translating them into the new goals to achieve through our S.H.E Talks initiative during the A.Y. 2021/22.

A new program of S.H.E. Talks events and activities is coming soon. Stay tuned!

By Dr. Sara Agnelli, One Health Center Adjunct Assistant Professor

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