Tamara Dancheva, Senior International Relations Manager, addressed the W20 Brazil Summit as the Head of the EU Delegation W20 earlier this month. This year’s Summit focused on delivering the W20 Communique to the G20 Brazilian Presidency, with over 700 delegates in attendance from across W20 Delegations, public and private sectors, academia, and civil society. There were also important policy discussions around the five key thematic areas for this year’s W20 Presidency as reflected in the Communique: Women Entrepreneurship, Women in STEM, the Care Economy, Combating Gender-Based Violence, and Climate Justice.
As part of her remarks, Tamara highlighted the importance of bridging the mobile gender gap and spoke more broadly about actions G20 governments can undertake to tackle the digital skills barrier to mobile internet adoption as part of the larger debate on closing the usage gap:
“The share of the global population living in areas without mobile broadband coverage stood at 4%, or around 350 million people in 2023 with the majority of the unconnected communities being predominantly women, rural, poor and sparsely populated (i.e. the coverage gap). Of the 3.45 billion people who remain unconnected to the mobile internet, 90% or around 3.1 billion live in an area already covered by mobile broadband but are not using it (i.e. the usage gap). As such G20 governments need to focus their investments on addressing not just the coverage gap but also the usage gap, which the GSMA data indicates it’s particularly challenging to tackle due to barriers such as a lack of digital skills and literacy. For example, G20 governments could implement initiatives and policies that disproportionately benefit women, such as digital skills training in schools and lowering mobile-specific taxes.”
Notable speakers at the W20 Summit included the Chair of W20 Brazil, the Brazilian Ministers of Racial Equality and Women, the G20 Brazil Sherpa, the Governor of the State of Rio de Janeiro, the Secretary for Women of the State of Rio de Janeiro, the Mayor of Rio de Janeiro and the Secretary of Women’s Policies and Promotion of Rio de Janeiro.
The W20 Brazil Communique also made references to implementing actions to achieve women’s economic empowerment and gender equality as agreed in previous G20 Leaders Declarations, including halving the digital gender gap by 2030.
Tamara also held a bilateral meeting with the EU Ambassador to Brazil, H.E. Marian Schuegraf, during which she presented a copy of the W20 Communique as part of the EU Delegation’s broader advocacy efforts with Ambassador Schuegraf reiterating EU’s commitment to the gender equality agenda cause.
Read the full W20 Communique from W20 Brazil.
The W20 is the G20’s official independent engagement group focused on promoting gender equity and women’s economic empowerment.