The official launch of the G20 engagement group W20 (Women20) was held in Ankara on 6 September 2015.  W20 Turkey has been established with the contributions of some of the most important women’s rights organisations of Turkey such as KAGİDER, TİKAD and KADEM. The opening remarks of the meeting were realised by Prime Minister Prof. Ahmet Davutoğlu, G20 Turkey Sherpa Ambassador Ayşe Sinirlioğlu and W20 Chairwoman Gülden Türktan. The Following the opening remarks, keynote speakers addressed the participants. They were composed of IMF Managing Director Christine Lagarde, OECD Secretary-General Angel Gurria, UN Women Deputy Executive Director Lakshmi Puri and International Trade Centre (ITC) Executive Director Arancha Gonzalez. The second part of the meeting was comprised of three panels entitled “Women and Technology”, “Women in the Financial World” and “Women and Trade” respectively.

During her speech, W20 Turkey Chairwoman Gülden Türktan declared that W20 constitutes an essential platform for the improvement of women’s rights across the world.  

G20 Turkey Sherpa Ambassador Ayşe Sinirlioğlu emphasised the importance of the participation of women to economic life in her speech. Furthermore, Ambassador Sinirlioğlu indicated that one of their targets is to include over 100 million women into the workforce by 2025.  She also stressed the necessity to create a sound accountability mechanism to achieve a real improvement in this area.

In his speech, Prime Minister Prof. Ahmet Davutoğlu stressed the priorities of the Turkish Presidency of G20. He indicated three basic pillars which are the following:

- Strengthening the Global Recovery and Lifting the Potential;

- Enhancing Resilience;

- Buttressing Sustainability.

Davutoğlu emphasised that Turkey has accomplished many reforms as women’s rights in recent years. Moreover, he indicated that Turkey will pursue its efforts as regards the reduction by 25% of the employment gap between men and women which was one of the objectives of the 2014 Brisbane Leaders Declaration. He also pointed out that increasing women employment is helpful broadly speaking to the economy and he further underscored the government’s determination in supporting women entrepreneurship.

IMF Managing Director Christine Lagarde denoted that women participation in the economy reduces poverty and inequalities. As means of an example, she pointed out to the developed countries, which possess higher women participation in the economic life. Moreover, she emphasised that the general contribution of IMF to this particular issue will be strengthened. Additionally, she underlined the critical importance of a strong education policy in narrowing the gender gap.  

Following Lagarde’s speech, OECD Secretary-General Angel Gurria took the floor. He deplored that the talents and capabilities of women are not being served enough to ensure further economic growth and development. Gurria also stressed declared the indispensability of an urgent intervention, which would begin with the participation of the G20 Member States.

UN Women Deputy Executive Director Lakshmi Puri, who spoke on behalf of the United Nations, stressed that gender equality and enhancing thoroughly and decisively women’s rights are two key subjects. Puri said that women should be fully included to the financial sector, while deploring the continuation of gender discrimination in this particular area. Puri, denoting that the UN is preparing a progress report which treats in detail the state of women in the world, stressed that the report points out to issues of concern to women such as gender and payment inequalities. In addition, she indicated that within the framework of the objectives of the UN is the elimination of all forms of violence, inequality and discrimination towards women by 2030.

The last keynote address of the meeting was performed by ITC Executive Director Arancha Gonzalez.  Gonzalez indicated that empowering women should not be solely considered as a moral issue but also as an economic one. Reminding that ITC is working hard to bring more women-owned SMEs to the economy, Gonzalez stressed that their target is to develop above 1 million women-owned SMEs by 2020.

In the panels, issues of concern to women at the global level and possible solutions to these issues were discussed. The panellists stressed the necessity to drastically increase the presence of women in the workforce at the global level, in conformity with the principle of male-female equality. In that respect, some solutions were notably unveiled as how to further support women-owned SMEs in the technological area. It was further underscored that there is a growing number of companies with innovative policies in that particular area, but it was also indicated that States should increase their support in that matter. Moreover, another issue which was explored by the panellists was the importance of enhancing women’s economic, social and political networks and to increase the number of women in decision-making positions in both the public and private sectors. They also highlighted the need to empower women economically by creating a link between policies as regards education, employment and entrepreneurship. Additionally, some clues were revealed as how to facilitate women’s access to financial assets.