Cape Town, Thursday, 8 May 2025 — Over 100 women from diverse backgrounds worldwide will converge in Cape Town for the Women20 South Africa (W20SA) inception meeting to be held at the Lagoon Beach Hotel from 21 to 22 May 2025. Delegations from Argentina, Australia, Brazil, European Union, Ghana, India, Indonesia, Italy, Kenya, Russia, Turkey, and the United States are expected to attend the inception meeting. Consuls from Angola and Turkey will also be present.

This Inaugural Meeting will feature a diverse range of speakers, including Aleta Miller, UN Women Multi-Country Representative for South Africa; Ambassador Mathu Joyini, Permanent Representative of South Africa to the United Nations in New York and Chair of the Commission on the Status of Women; Maude Modise, General Manager at The Shoprite Group of Companies; Nontobeko Ndhlazi, Group Chief Financial Officer at Wiphold; and Prof Bonang Mohale, Chancellor of the University of the Free State and Chairman of The Bidvest Group Limited and SBV Services, among others.

W20SA Head of Delegation and Chair, Professor Narnia Bohler-Muller, highlighted the persistent barriers women face, noting that despite global efforts to advance gender equality, women continue to encounter systemic barriers in education, economic participation, healthcare, and decision-making.

“In South Africa, women’s economic participation remains significantly lower than that of men, with high rates of gender-based violence further exacerbating inequality. Globally, the underrepresentation of women in leadership and Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) fields continues to hinder inclusive development.

“Therefore, the W20SA Summit’s theme, “Women in Solidarity Towards Sustainable Socio-Economic Development,” seeks to address some of these pressing global challenges through an inclusive, multilateral approach,” said Prof Bohler-Muller.

Women20 (W20) is an official engagement group of the Group of 20 (G20) over which South Africa presides this year. The group was established by the G20 in 2015 to promote gender equality and women’s economic empowerment.

The South African chapter of the W20 marks the 10th anniversary of the W20 engagement group. This milestone will be celebrated to showcase W20’s decade-long contributions to global gender equality and set the stage for future initiatives.

The W20SA Inaugural Meeting will include the following panel discussions:

• The Intersections between Entrepreneurship, Financial Inclusion and the Care Economy
• Gender-Based Violence as a Critical Barrier to Women’s Progression in STEM Fields
• The Challenges and Promises of a Just Transition to Renewable Energy for Women’s Economic Empowerment
• The Untapped Potential of Rural Women for Food Security. Climate Resilience and Digital Transformation

As an engagement group in the social track of the G20, W20 works annually under the respective G20 presidencies to develop consensus-based recommendations to ensure that gender is mainstreamed and included in the G20 leaders’ discussions and, ultimately, the Leaders’ Declaration.

The W20SA inception meeting is a significant milestone in the country’s efforts to promote gender equality and women’s empowerment. This provides a platform for women from diverse backgrounds to come together and advocate for policies and programmes that promote women’s economic empowerment and social justice.

The key objectives are to:

• Guarantee the inclusion of W20 recommendations reached by consensus in the Leaders Declaration
• Honour 10 years of W20
• Promote people-centric advocacy through effective outreach and knowledge sharing
• Strengthen the voices of Africa and the Global South

The W20 was first launched in 2015 in Turkey to provide a platform for women’s voices to be heard in G20 decision-making processes. Over the past decade, the W20 has become a powerful force for promoting gender equality and women’s empowerment globally.

For more information, see https://women20.org/, or  click here to view the programme

For media enquiries, please contact Adziliwi Nematandani: Cell: +27 82 765 9191 Email: anematandani@hsrc.ac.za

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Notes to the editor

W20SA Thematic areas

W20SA will focus on addressing gender equality and women’s economic empowerment by tackling key challenges through carefully selected priority thematic areas. These areas will be further developed by working groups with expert support, ensuring alignment with national, continental, and global needs and agendas.

The core composition of each task team integrates chairs and co-chairs from the Global South and North, as well as a South African delegate. The ultimate objectives are to amplify the voices of African women and women of the Global South and to lobby for the inclusion of W20 recommendations in the Leaders’ Declaration.

The thematic areas for task teams for W20SA–2025 are:

• Entrepreneurship and financial inclusion
• The care economy
• Gender-based violence and femicide
• Climate justice and the environment
• Education, STEM and the digital divide
• Health equity for women and girls
• Women, land and agriculture

The defining value for W20SA, drawing from the essence of the African way of being, is “UBUNTU: I am because you are, I am because we are“. This philosophy is reflected in the guiding principles of W20SA, which are rooted in unity, multilateralism, mutual respect, and inclusivity.

The W20SA is headed by Professor Narnia Bohler-Muller, the head of delegation and chair. She also serves as a divisional executive at the Human Sciences Research Council (HSRC). Professor Bohler-Muller is a renowned expert on gender and development, and she has a long history of advocating for gender equality, women’s rights and empowerment.

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