South Africa Makes History Hosting G20 Women's Empowerment Meet

• 2025 is a monumental moment in history as South Africa held the G20 Presidency for the first time in Africa
• South Africa hosted the G20 Working Group on Women's Empowerment (EWWG) for only the second time in G20 history
• It was led by the Department of Women, Youth and Persons with Disabilities (DWYPD)

In 2025, South Africa had the honor of being the G20 Presidency, being the first African country to hold that standing and specifically hosting the G20 Working Group (EWWG) for Women’s Empowerment (on the African continent of which this is the only occurrence of a G20 EWWG), the event was led by the Department of Women, Youth and Persons with Disabilities (DWYPD).

The EWWG was created under Brazil’s 2024 G20 Presidency and adopted at the 2023 New Delhi G20 Leaders’ Summit. The G20 EWWG aims to drive the economic growth, human rights, equality, safety, and dignity of women through an intersectional perspective, building upon previous commitments from the G20 in relation to women’s empowerment and gender equality.

The 2025 EWWG identified three main priorities: addressing gender based violence and femicide; understanding the care economy and developing policy approaches to the care economy, including paid and unpaid care work, and household responsibilities; and ensuring that women's financial inclusion is prioritized.

Unpaid care work, and the time-poverty associated with fulfilling daily household requirements, diminishes women's opportunities for education and labour force participation; is under-valued in relation to importance and, therefore, creates well-being constraints for women; and contributes to time-poverty and deeper inequalities being embedded in the future.

Following the engagement of the G20 in prior efforts, the EWWG took further steps in pursuing policies to recognize, reduce and redistribute unpaid care work; support work-life balance; and strength the rights of paid care workers through fairer representation and compensation.

Equitable work and care policies, supported by underpinning mechanisms such as affordable childcare, paid parental leave and varied work arrangements are considered necessary for driving gender equality and new economic growth.

Promoting the financial inclusion of women is another important priority in the G20, recognizing that it has implications for economic empowerment and poverty reduction, with heretofore neglected broader social and economic benefits of such efforts—improved gender equality; greater financial literacy; and less corruption.