The National Council of German Women’s Organizations and the Association of German Women Entrepreneurs are the joint organizers of next year’s W20 Summit, hosted by Germany. The two Berlin-based organizations had the following to say about the final communiqué of this year’s G20 summit in Hangzhou:
“We welcome the fact that in several places the communiqué mentions strengthening the participation of women in the economy, but this target must be applied with more vigour and we need concrete goals.” It is Germany’s turn to chair the G20 Summit in 2017.
Mona Küppers, the president of the National Council of German Women’s Organizations, stressed that “Equal participation must become a permanently established part of the G20 process as a basic principle of sustaina-ble economic activity. To achieve that, we need binding, quantifiable goals that the G20 member states must commit to.”
Stephanie Bschorr, the president of the Association of German Women Entrepreneurs, added that “Equal par-ticipation of women should not be seen merely as the cherry on the cake of G20 economic goals. Greater par-ticipation in the world of work, good opportunities for promotion and career advancement, and, not least, larger numbers of active female entrepreneurs are important drivers for the global economy.”
The G20 member states can and should take decisive steps in this regard. The two women’s organizations have pledged to strive towards ensuring they do so. The German federal government has asked the organizations to jointly lead the civil society dialogue of the Women 20 engagement group (otherwise known as W20) during Germany’s term as chair of the G20. W20 will accompany and support the G20 process throughout that entire period, giving advice on women’s policy, making concrete proposals for action, conducting consolidated lobby-ing activities, and compiling expert reports. Another important task is the organization of the W20 Summit in Berlin on 25 and 26 April 2017, including the handover of the final W20 communiqué to German Federal Chan-cellor Angela Merkel.
The National Council of German Women’s Organizations (Deutscher Frauenrat – DF) is an umbrella organiza-tion of more than 50 nationwide women’s associations and organizations. It is Germany’s biggest lobby for women’s political interests. The Association of German Women Entrepreneurs (Verband deutscher Un-ternehmerinnen – VdU) is a cross-sector business association that has been championing the economic, social and political interests of female entrepreneurs for more than 60 years. Today, the VdU represents around 1,800 businesswomen across Germany.
press release (pdf)