EU Commissioner to participate in G20 ministerial conference on women’s empowerment

European Commissioner for Equality, Helena Dalli will visit India to participate in the three-day G20 Ministerial Conference

New Delhi: European Commissioner for Equality, Helena Dalli will visit India to participate in the three-day G20 Ministerial Conference on Women’s Empowerment in Gandhinagar, Gujarat.

The European Commissioner will represent the EU at the Ministerial, which this year has the theme of Women-led Inclusive Development as Cusp of Inter-Generational Transformation, according to the statement released by the Delegation of the European Union to India and Bhutan.

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On 2 August, the Commissioner will attend the opening session of the G20 Ministerial Conference on Women’s Empowerment at the Mahatma Mandir Convention Centre. She will then deliver the EU’s Ministerial Statement at the Session on Education and STEM,” the statement read.

During the session, Commissioner Dalli will speak on the Fora such as the “G20 play a key role in enabling a global discussion on challenges and opportunities to safeguard and strengthen women’s rights.

More importantly, they facilitate discussions on common efforts to mainstream equality across several policy areas. At the European level, we have worked over the last four years to set up an institutional framework to ensure that a perspective on gender equality is included at all stages of decision-making, from policy development to implementation. We are keen to share what we have learned from this experience and to learn from what other countries have succeeded in doing to promote women’s empowerment, the statement added.

Addressing the session’s topic of Education and STEM, Commissioner Dalli will also state that gender stereotypes have a multitude of detrimental impacts on our societies, which can inhibit the aspirations of both women and men. The outdated belief that certain careers such as those in STEM are for men, while others such as those relating to care are for women, has no place in the 21st century. And yet, these gender stereotypes continue to distort career aspirations. This is the reason that men occupy 80 per cent of the workforce in the digital sector.

The G20 members need to do more to encourage women to participate in STEM, including through specialized training courses and programs, Dalli will speak at the session.

The three-day G20 Ministerial Conference on Women’s Empowerment will start on August 2 and will be chaired by Union Minister of Women and Child Development, Smriti Zubin Iran.

The Ministerial Conference on Women’s Empowerment takes place amidst global challenges ranging from insufficient progress towards Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to challenges posed by climate change and uneven pandemic recovery, according to the statement released by Ministry of Women and Child Development.

The G20 Ministerial Conference while focusing on women-led development will be an opportunity for accelerating achievement towards Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment and achieving SDG: Goal 5.

The Ministerial meeting spread over three days will witness the participation of more than 150 delegates led by their respective Heads of Delegations from G20 members, invitee countries, and International Organisations (IOs).

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will deliver a special video address at the start of the Ministerial Conference.

The discussions and deliberations during three days will focus on priority areas on Education, a Game-changing Pathway to Women’s Empowerment; Women’s Entrepreneurship, a Win-win for Equity and Economy; Creating a Partnership for Promoting Women’s Leadership at all Levels including at the Grassroots; Women and Girls as Change-makers in Climate Resilience Action and Digital Skilling for Women’s Empowerment.

The thematic discussions and deliberations in these sessions will reflect in the Chair’s Summary and will be provided as recommendations to G20 leaders.

Further, Asian Development Bank (ADB), UN Women and NIPCCD will jointly organize a side event with support from the Ministry of Women & Child Development to identify the actions and policy levers in three keys areas of fiscal policies and tools for gender equality, the care economy and climate change challenge to accelerate gender equality.

On August 2 and 3, the Ministry of Women and Child Development will be organising an exhibition on the theme of India @ 75: Contribution of Women with a focus on Women in Crafts, Nutrition & Food, Health, STEM, Education & Skilling and in Trade and Economy.