G20 Summit Advances Women’s Financial Inclusion

The G20 Financial Inclusion and Women’s Empowerment Conference 2025 opens at Sun City Resort, North West Province, from 6 to 9 May 2025. Hosted by the Department of Women, Youth and Disabilities under South Africa’s G20 Presidency, it seeks to advance inclusive economic policy.

This year’s gathering unites the 2nd Empowerment of Women Working Group and the Financial Inclusion Conference. Building on Brazil’s 2024 outcomes, delegates will introduce a Guidelines Framework for Mainstreaming Women’s Priorities to steer future G20 policy and ensure that women’s financial empowerment remains central to global reform.

The event aligns with South Africa’s G20 priorities, notably EWWG Priority 2: Promoting the Financial Inclusion of and for Women. It also reinforces the UN Sustainable Development Goals, the African Union Agenda 2063, and South Africa’s National Development Plan 2030, underscoring a regional and global commitment.

More than 200 participants will attend, including international policymakers, development researchers, entrepreneurs, youth delegates, and civil‑society representatives. Their expertise will inform best practices to expand access to affordable financial products and services for women in all their diversity.

As convenor and Chair of the EWWG, the Department of Women, Youth and Disabilities has partnered with Tshwane University of Technology’s Centre for Entrepreneurship Development. In a statement, the Department said the meetings would “reaffirm our commitment to advance women’s empowerment and gender equality, while sharing successful models to accelerate outcomes.”

Key themes include a policy perspective on the care economy—paid and unpaid care work—promotion of women’s financial inclusion, and strategies to address gender‑based violence and femicide. These sessions will highlight the links between economic autonomy and personal security.

South Africa’s G20 Chairship coincides with the tenth anniversary of the SDGs’ adoption. SDG 5, focused on gender equality and women’s empowerment, calls for the elimination of discrimination, violence, and harmful practices against women and girls—a target that remains pressing with only five years to 2030.

Dr Patrick Ebewo, Co‑Chairperson of the Conference and Director at TUT, emphasised the urgency of dismantling structural barriers: “This conference offers a unique chance to develop practical strategies for reshaping financial ecosystems and expanding entrepreneurial opportunities for women.”

A dedicated Academic Track, led by TUT’s Centre for Entrepreneurship Development, will convene plenaries, policy dialogues, and research presentations. Objectives include generating evidence‑based solutions, integrating policy frameworks, fostering multidisciplinary collaboration, incorporating diverse regional perspectives, and supporting G20 EWWG aims to deliver measurable progress in women’s economic empowerment.