In short

• Closing gender gaps can drive major economic and health gains globally.
• The W20 Communiqué urges action on financial inclusion, care systems, STEM access, climate justice, health equity and ending violence.
• It also urges measures to end modern slavery through mandatory due diligence, stronger controls and survivor-centred approaches.
• Johannesburg Goals target a 35% reduction labour-force, wage and unpaid-care gaps by 2035, tracked by international bodies.

As president of the G20, South Africa hosted the Women20 Summit in Johannesburg in October 2025. The event culminated in the W20 2025 Communiqué—a statement capturing the deliberations of global leaders, researchers, policymakers and civil society representatives. It set out priority areas and urged G20 leaders to act on concrete recommendations to meet gender-equity targets.

According to the World Bank, closing the gender gap in employment and entrepreneurship could lift global gross domestic product by more than 20%, effectively doubling the global growth rate over the next decade. This gap refers to the difference between women’s and men’s rates of labour force participation, employment and business ownership. Additionally, UNESCO argues that if all women completed primary school, maternal deaths would fall by two-thirds, and if all women had secondary education, child deaths would be cut by half, saving about three million lives each year.

From 12 to 14 October 2025, the Women20 (W20), an engagement group part of the Group of 20 (G20), hosted a summit in Johannesburg, South Africa. The G20, an international forum of major economies, was chaired by South Africa in 2025 under the theme Solidarity, Equality and Sustainability. Professor Narnia Bohler-Muller, a divisional executive at the HSRC, served as Chair and Head of Delegation for W20 in 2025.

The summit brought together civil society experts, global leaders, researchers and policymakers to reflect on a decade of W20 impact and to present the 2025 W20 Communiqué. The Communiqué advised G20 leaders on policy pathways that would advance gender equality and women’s economic empowerment.

W20 Communiqué 2025

The Communiqué urged G20 leaders to act on six priority areas affecting women and girls: women’s entrepreneurship and financial inclusion; the care economy; science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM), education and the digital divide; climate justice with food and environmental security; health equity; and ending violence against women and girls.

Entrepreneurship and financial inclusion

Entrepreneurship and financial inclusion focus on removing the barriers that prevent women from starting, growing and financing businesses. A recent W20 policy brief highlighted how funding gaps hold back women entrepreneurs in the energy sector, with women-led firms receiving under 2% of all venture capital. This limits high-growth potential and slows inclusion.

The Communiqué called for stronger access to finance, fairer procurement, sex-disaggregated tracking so leaders can identify and close the gaps, reforming laws to build an inclusive business ecosystem for women, and supporting women to enter high-growth sectors and digital markets through tailored mentoring and market access.

The care economy

The care economy includes all work that sustains people and society—both paid and unpaid care, direct and indirect care—delivered at home and in services such as childcare, elder care, disability support, health and social care.

According to a recent W20 policy brief, women in G20 countries deliver about twice as much unpaid care work as men, and 229-million women remain excluded from the labour market due to care responsibilities. “We want to see women’s paid and unpaid care work properly recognised within societies,” said Bohler-Muller at the summit.

The brief recommends increasing investment in care and support systems to 10% of national income by 2030 and reducing the unpaid-care gender gap by 35% by 2035. The Communiqué echoed this, calling for a commitment to sustained public investment in quality care systems, while recognising, reducing and redistributing unpaid care work. It also recommended ensuring decent work, fair pay and protections for paid care workers, guided by regular, comparable time-use and other sex-disaggregated data.

Education, STEM and the digital divide

The education, STEM and digital divide priority aimed to close the skills and access gaps that exclude women from future jobs. A W20 policy brief reported that only 65% of women use the internet compared to 70% of men. Women in low- and middle-income countries are 14% less likely than men to use mobile internet, make up about 35% of STEM graduates, and represent around 22% of the global AI workforce. The brief advocates for fully funded national digital inclusion programmes, scholarships linked to career pathways, and a Global AI and Gender Equality Index that includes safety indicators for technology-facilitated abuse.

Climate justice, environment and food security

This area linked gender equality to resilient food systems and a fair energy transition. A W20 policy brief showed that rural women form 36% of the agrifood workforce globally, rising to 66% in Sub-Saharan Africa, yet women own less than 20% of land and face climate shocks that reduce incomes in female-headed households. Women also make up a large share of small-scale fisheries value chains (the blue economy), often accounting for up to half of the workforce in pre- and post-harvest roles, yet remain largely unseen in data and finance.

The brief recommended tenure security, women-led early-warning and recovery systems, gender-responsive energy value chains and targeted finance for women-led firms. The Communiqué urged gender-responsive climate and food finance, secure land and resource rights, women’s leadership in energy and environmental governance, and support for the blue economy.

Health equity for women and girls

According to a W20 policy brief, maternal-health gains have stalled. The brief proposes embedding sex- and gender-based analysis in regulation and delivery, guaranteeing universal access to sexual and reproductive health and rights, integrating women’s mental health into universal health coverage, and building equity into digital and environmental health.

Eradicate violence against all women and girls

“We strongly support the W20’s call to treat violence against women and girls as a public health emergency,” said the South African Minister of Human Settlements Thembi Simelane at the summit. A GBVF brief cited about 51,000 women killed by partners or family members in 2023, with economic losses reaching up to 3.7% of GDP in some countries. It called for stronger laws to address technology-facilitated abuse, survivor-centred services across justice and health sectors, greater investment in prevention, improved data, and accountability that works across borders and crises. The Communiqué called for comprehensive, enforced laws and survivor-centred services, decisive action on technology-facilitated abuse, and women’s leadership across conflict, migration and humanitarian settings.

Johannesburg goals

The Communiqué proposed new minimum targets to be reached by 2035, known as the Johannesburg Goals. These include reducing the female labour force participation gap, the gender wage gap and the unpaid care gap—each by 35% by 2035. These will be tracked by the International Labour Organization (ILO) and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). These goals are intended to replace the G20 Brisbane commitments, which were set for completion by 2025.

Modern slavery

In its 2025 Communiqué, for the first time, the W20 called for an end to modern slavery, including forced labour, trafficking and forced marriages, which disproportionately affect women and girls. The Communiqué urged G20 leaders to adopt mandatory human-rights due diligence, strengthen import controls and support survivor-led solutions across supply chains.

Research contacts and acknowledgements

This Review article was written by HSRC science writer Jessie-Lee Smith. It is based on the W20 South Africa Summit. For more information, contact Prof. Narnia Bohler-Muller at nbohlermuller@hsrc.ac.za.

The policy briefs mentioned in the article and their authors include:

Unlocking Just Energy Transition: Empowering Women’s Participation and Agency in Regional Value Chains, Research, and Innovation Ecosystems, written by Barbara Cleary (W20 Head of Delegation, United Kingdom) Lorena Aguilar (Executive Director Kaschak Institute for Social Justice for Women and Girls), Vonani Rikhotso (Chair of Climate Justice, Environment and Food Security W20 Task Team and Handza Energy Founder), and Fabiana Menna, (W20 Delegate, Fundación Gran Chaco President, and Rural Women Network Founder).

Prioritising care, powering economies: A G20 agenda for inclusive growth and women’s empowerment, written by Kelsey Harris (Senior Policy Analyst, Centre for Global Development) and Victoria Duncan (Head of Research, Harambee Youth Employment Accelerator).

Closing the Gender Gap in Digital, Education, STEM and AI, written by Dr Moloko Mathipa-Mdakane (Information Scientist, Council for Scientific and Industrial Research, South Africa).

Empowering Women in Small-Scale Aquaculture and Fisheries for Resilient Food Systems, written by Nicole du Plessis (South African Environmental Observation Network), Mashebane Thosago (South African Network for women in fisheries and aquaculture), Bernice Mclean (African Union Development Agency), Vonani Rikhotso (Chair of Climate Justice, Environment and Food Security W20 Task Team and Handza Energy Founder), Barbara Cleary (Head of United Kingdom W20 Delegation), and Fabiana Menna (W20 delegate, Fundación Gran Chaco President, and Rural Women Network Founder).

Embedding Gender Equity in G20 Health Systems: From Commitments to Continuity for Resilience and Justice, written by Dr Zaynab Essack (Centre for Community-Based Research, Public Health, Societies and Belonging Division, Human Sciences Research Council, Sweetwaters and South African Research Ethics Training Initiative, University of KwaZulu-Natal), and Elvira Marasco (Senior Gender Equality Advisor Founder of the Italian Delegation W20 W20/G20, and Co-Founder President AW20).

Accelerating justice, expanding prevention, and strengthening accountability: The need for G20 action to end gender-based violence and femicide (GBVF), written by Lesley-Ann Foster (Community organiser and activist, Masimanyane Women’s Rights International and W20 delegate, South Africa), Dr Dane Isaacs, (Senior Research Specialist, Human Sciences Research Council and W20 delegate, South Africa), Prof Bettina Pfleiderer (Professor, University of Münster and Co-Head of EU delegation), Tandi Nzimande (Chief Executive Officer, GBVF Response Fund), Dr Betül Özel Çiçek (Vice General Manager for Strategy and Impact, KADEM (Women and Democracy Foundation) and W20 delegate, Turkey), Miznah Alomair (Chief Executive Officer, Alnahda Society and Head of Delegation of W20 Saudi Arabia), Lerato Mofokeng (Researcher, Gauteng Provincial Legislature), Dorothy Gordon (Associate Fellow, Chatham House, UK W20 Delegation), and Mabel Bianco (President and Founder, Foundation for Studies and Research on Women, and Head of Delegation of W20 Argentina).

If you enjoyed reading this article, please click here to subscribe to the HSRC Review quarterly magazine.