The W20 Indonesian Presidency Summit took place at Lake Toba, Indonesia on 19 to 21 July. As Co-Chair of the W20 Rural Women Working Group and member of the European Union delegation, the GSMA led the final negotiation rounds on the W20’s priority policy work in the area of digital and financial inclusion for rural women.
At the summit W20, delegates representing G20 countries adopted a strong Communiqué which called for halving the mobile Internet gender gap in low- and middle-income countries by 2030 among other issues. Discussion on the communiqué was informed by the latest GSMA research on the mobile gender gap and mobile money. This research demonstrates the key role of the mobile industry in bridging the digital gender divide.
Under the G20 Indonesia Presidency theme “Recover Together, Recover Stronger”, the W20 Communiqué also calls on G20 leaders to ensure women and girls are central to the G20 Presidency. It does this by asking them to match or exceed private sector investment in initiatives to close the digital gender gap, and mainstream gender equality in all official development assistance (ODA) related to digital transformation.
The W20 Summit featured several high-ranking officials including:
- Bintang Puspayoga, Minister of Women’s Empowerment and Child Protection
- Luhut Pandjaitan, Coordinating Minister for Maritime Affairs and Investment
- Sri Mulyani, Minister of Finance
- Airlangga Hartarto, Coordinating Minister for Economic Affairs
- Lestari Moerdijat, Deputy Speaker of the People’s Consultative Assembly (MPR)
- Sandiaga Uno, Minister of Tourism and Creative Economy
- Teten Masduki, Minister of Cooperatives and Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs)
- Puan Maharani, House Speaker and Chair of P20 Indonesia
- Edy Rahmayadi, Governor of North Sumatra
The summit also saw virtual remarks from:
- Retno Marsudi, Indonesian Foreign Affairs Minister
- Katy Gallagher, Australian Finance Minister
- Melanie Joly, Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister
- Sima Sami Bahous, Executive Director of UN Women
- Mari Elka Pangestu, Managing Director for Development Policy and Partnerships, World Bank
As Co-Chair of the EQUALS Skills Coalition, the GSMA was also able to support the mission and objectives of the W20 Indonesian Presidency directly by submitting its joint EQUALS Her Digital Skills initiative. This is a concrete pledge, committing to target rural women in particular, as part of the initiative’s goal of providing access to free gender transformative foundational digital skills training and e-mentoring for a million women and girls by 2026.
The topic of rural women is one of the four core W20 themes which are linked to the G20 Indonesian Presidency’s priority issues this year including, global healthcare infrastructure, digital transformation and sustainable energy transition.
The W20’s primary mission is to influence high-level commitment to women’s empowerment and gender equality agenda in the G20, putting gender equality and women’s empowerment at the centre of the global discussion.