At a dialogue forum on 17 February, representatives of various women’s social, business and political associations came together for a committed and enthusiastic debate on the goals of W20 2017. Taking this year’s W20 recommendations as their starting point, the participants fleshed out the three thematic focuses “labour market inclusion”, “financial inclusion” and “digital inclusion”.
Stephanie Bschorr, the president of the Association of German Women Entrepreneurs, stressed that, “We will utilize this valuable input to help strengthen women’s economic status and make that an inherent part of the G20 process as a decisive factor for future development. We want to work together to ensure that Women20 is a voice that can be heard clearly among the various G20 stakeholder groups.” Mona Küppers, the president of the National Council of German Women’s Organizations, said, “We are moving away from the periphery and starting to take up our place at the G20 negotiating table. That is where we need to be to ensure that equality of participation is enshrined as a basic principle of a sustainable economy and taken on board as a wider issue.”
The civil society and women’s policy dialogue of Women20 (W20) began as Germany took over the chair of the G20 on 1 December 2016. The federal government asked the National Council of German Women’s Organizations and the Association of German Women Entrepreneurs to jointly lead the dialogue process as the official engagement group during Germany’s term as chair. Further information about Women20 Germany is available on the website www.W20-Germany.org.
The National Council of German Women’s Organizations (Deutscher Frauenrat – DF) is an umbrella organization 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 Unternehmerinnen – 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.