W20 Series: Leveraging Women's Untapped Potential to Accelerate Inclusive and Sustainable Future

The second Women 20 (W20) International meeting was held in Jaipur, the capital of the Indian state Rajasthan, on April 13 and 14, 2023, with the theme “Leveraging Women’s Untapped Potential to Accelerate Inclusive and Sustainable Future” as a part of Women-led Development. I joined the international meeting as the sole delegate from Japan in the pink city Jaipur. Around 120 women delegates from 18 countries participated in the meeting. The agenda of the two-day international meeting focused on five key priorities: women entrepreneurship, grassroots women leadership, bridging the gender digital divide, education and skill development, and climate change.

On the morning session of April 13, in the inaugural ceremony, Shri Indevar Pandey, Secretary of the Ministry of Women and Child Development, presented a vivid account of the digital revolution in India through various schemes enabling women led development to succeed. G20 India Sherpa, Mr. Amitabh Kant, emphasized the importance of women led development as the key priority of India. He also pointed out that digital and financial inclusion is the key to reducing the gender gap. He urged W20 members to think out-of-the-box and come out with radical solutions for the urgent need of closing the gender gap. His strong words encouraged and resonated all the delegates. “Mission Digital Women” was launched in his presence as a part of “call-to-action” W20 initiative. The objective of launching “Mission Digital Women” is to empower women through financial and business literacy as well as digital proficiency so that they can start their own enterprises and expand their businesses.

At the end of the day, we had a cultural program and dinner with exotic and wide varieties of mouth-watering food demonstrating the superb and diverse culinary skills of traditional and modern India. The cultural program mesmerized us with the music and folk dances of rural Rajasthan. The performers of fire dance and pot dance made all the delegates spell bound with their outstanding skills.

The second day of the meeting began with an early morning yoga session followed by the plenary session on Grassroot Leadership and Entrepreneurship, in which various speakers presented their views. G20 Chair Sandhya Purecha remarked in her welcome address that the meeting was critical for bridging the gender divide. Ms. Elvira Morasco, W20 Italy delegate, shared success stories of entrepreneurial ventures by women in Italy that made positive impact in the local community. Bharati Ghosh, a former UN official, emphasized the importance of providing opportunities for women to take on leadership roles in their communities. Virginia Littlejohn, Founder of Quantum Leaps and Co-Head of the W20 U.S. Delegation, suggested creating a Women Entrepreneurs Finance Code and a policy framework to provide impetus to a women’s entrepreneurship ecosystem. Smt. Darshana Jardosh, Minister of State for Railways and Textiles, Government of India, acknowledged that grassroot leadership is significant for achieving gender equity and stressed the need to empower women economically, socially, and politically. She also said that India is rapidly moving towards women-led development and that the country’s G20 presidency can unite the world in pursuit of common goals and well-being for all.

The next event, W20 Summit, will be organized in Mahabalipuram, Tamilnadu on June 15 and 16, where six W20 delegates from Japan are expected to participate. We, W20 delegates, are eagerly looking forward to the summit and the handover of the draft communiqué to the G20 Sherpa for submission to the G20 Summit.