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Grabbing US$28T additional GDP opportunities worldwide with One Global Women Empowerment
Networks are an important factor for business growth, but female entrepreneurs in Southeast Asia report that they have 7% less opportunity than men to access essential networks for the advancement of their business.
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Not just your ordinary policy recommendation, B20 Women in Business Action Council takes a step further with an important legacy project
Networks are an important factor for business growth, but female entrepreneurs in Southeast Asia report that they have 7% less opportunity than men to access essential networks for the advancement of their business. (Data by: Spf.org). Data provided by B20 Women in Business Action Council (B20 WIBAC) also shows that it is much harder for women to get funding, access to digital skills and lack of workplace opportunities compared to their male counterparts.
A gender-empowered global economy is projected to provide $28 trillion in additional GDP opportunities worldwide by 2025. In order to achieve this goal, Shinta Kamdani Chair of B20 Indonesia & CEO of Sintesa Group said, “We need close collaboration between the government, industry players, non-governmental organizations [NGOs], investors, philanthropists, service providers and the greater public to bridge the gender gap in participation in the world economy through the One Global Women Empowerment (OGWE) platform.”
B20 WiBAC launched the OGWE platform on August 23rd during the B20 G20 Dialogue forum with the theme: ‘Advancing Women in the Global Economy through the One Global Women Empowerment (OGWE)’ that was attended by all member countries of the G20 Presidency, including high-ranking government officials, business leaders, CSOs, philanthropists, women's platforms and relevant stakeholders, including Airlangga Hartarto (Coordinating Minister of Economic Affairs, Republic of Indonesia), I Gusti Bintang Ayu Puspayoga (Minister of Women Empowerment and Child Protection, Republic of Indonesia), H.E Smriti Irani (Minister for Women and Child Development, Government of India), Baroness Deborah Stedman-Scott (Minister for Women, Government of UK), Nadia Burger (Ambassador, designate of Canada to Indonesia & Timor Leste), Nicholle Manz-Baazoui (Director of Women’s Economic Empowerment, US Department of State) and others.
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“The platform is designed to bring together parties who need and can assist in empowering women workers and entrepreneurs everywhere. It is hoped that the existence of OGWE can encourage the acceleration of women's involvement wherever they are, which will impact global economic growth,” said Ira Noviarti, Chair of B20 WiBAC & President Director of Unilever Indonesia.
At the launch, 25 companies and organization around the world, such as BMO Financial Group, Unilever, and Tokopedia have pledged their commitment to participate and contribute for women advancement in business through the 5 key goals of OGWE:
- Digital Capability, access to digital capabilities and infrastructure for Women in Business
- Knowledge Sharing, access to cross-border information studies, resources and best practices sharing in advancing women in business
- Funding & Investment, access to cross-border financing/funding/investments for women in business and women empowerment initiatives
- Technical Support, access to coaching, business mentoring, training, legal support and other technical assistance for women in business
- Supportive Policy, accelerate the availability of government policy and regulatory actions to alleviate key issues on women empowerment.
In its implementation, OGWE will be run by a secretariat that is also technology enabled-based in providing their 5Cs of services: services called 5C - Crowdsource, Crowdfund, Curate, Clarify and Communication - to all stakeholders involved with the women entrepreneurs and women in the workforce as the target beneficiaries.
Baroness Deborah Stedman-Scott, Minister for Women, Government of UK at the B20-G20 Dialogue Women in Business Action Council said that, “Efforts to support women economic empowerment such as the work we are celebrating today is more important than ever. I am thrilled to hear about One Global Women Empowerment (OGWE) platform which will bring together networks to accelerate initiatives for supporting women led businesses and empower women at work. I am especially pleased this platform connects women’s empowerment and the effort between successive G20 & B20 presidencies enabling progress from Indonesia to India, Brazil and beyond.”
The task force hopes to achieve the successful adoption of several measures, including upskilling women in business, expanding their networks to support collaboration between different industries, improving collaboration and reducing the time spent on searching for information.
“Through OGWE, B20 WiBAC seeks to encourage more women to lead, participate and have access to better business and economic opportunities, increase entrepreneurial skills and improve digital skills. We invite all elements from business actors and all other stakeholders to collaborate in supporting domestic economic growth and on a global scale through women empowerment. The better this cross-stakeholder collaboration is, the better the results of our efforts in bridging the various gaps towards equal gender participation in the world economy will be,” Ira concluded.
