A MEETING ON W20 WORK ISSUES IN 2020 HAS BEEN HELD

The meeting was attended by representatives of Russian socially oriented non-profit organizations, public figures, businessmen and members of public and government organizations dealing with protection and promotion of women’s rights.

Viktoria Panova told the meeting participants about the history and the specifics of development of W20, having pointed out that representatives of Russia were among the ideologists of establishment of the “woman track” of G20.  Also, Viktoria Panova rated highly the work of Saudi Arabia’s presidency in G20 in 2020 as regards promotion of gender equality. Viktoria Panova identified the main lines of W20 activities within the framework of Saudi Arabia’s presidency: the issues of employment, digital inclusion, financial inclusion, inclusive decision-making and promotion of women’s entrepreneurship.

Yekaterina Yurova, Second Secretary of the Economic Cooperation Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation and Member of the Secretariat of the Interdepartmental Committee on Facilitation of Participation of the Russian Federation in G20 noted that dialog formats, such as W20 started to become increasingly reflected in the leaders’ declarations. Also, Yekaterina Yurova noted that “outreach” formats were aimed at promotion of the partnership and identification of common grounds in positions of G20 states.

Participants in the meeting discussed priority lines of Russia’s activities in W20 and put forward their proposals, particularly, in respect of the final documents of Saudi Arabia’s presidency in W20. Their proposals include the new format of exchange of experience, promotion of  “success stories” of women from G20 countries, joint participation in education projects, carrying out of research into the role of women in the economy, establishment of mechanisms of formation of  professional women and promotion of women’s participation in digital economy and public diplomacy.