Given today’s turbulent geopolitical landscape, all eyes are on India’s G20 presidency, which was handed over on 1 December 2022. Perhaps, there has never been a better time for the members to come together and solve each other’s problems. India’s presidency will on one hand allow the country to demonstrate its leading role, and on the other provide a unique opportunity to look at international developments from the perspective of the developing world, turning the tables on the developed countries that have largely set the tone of G20 discussions.
But a lot will depend on how ideas trickle down to action and finally impact the world. In this regard, India should use its G20 presidency to pursue its thought leadership role, formulating solutions—to deal with the emerging fault lines in world affairs—that are not only transformative but also inclusive, thereby placing gender issues and women’s participation at the core of its agenda. After all, smart economic growth and global development will not be possible by excluding half of the population.
Gender inequality is not an uncommon feature of G20 economies where, for instance, around a third or even fewer women are formally employed in Turkey, India, Saudi Arabia, etc., with gender-based discrimination and prohibitive societal norms continuing to limit their socio-economic and political participation even today. This is the case despite G20 leaders committing to address gender equality as early 2008.
In fact, from 2008 to 2020, the G20 formulated 63 core commitments on gender equality and several related ones, which although initially focused on increasing female labour-force participation and improving workplace conditions, eventually expanded to grow women’s participation in STEM. The G20 member states even committed to end gender based violence during the 2017 and 2018 summits, and acknowledged the differential impact of Covid-19 on women in 2020.
However, the G20 members have averaged only 59% compliance, with the 24 gender commitments assessed by the G20 Research Group, which remains well below the overall average of 71%. And out of these, it was the core gender equality commitments that averaged a slightly higher compliance of 63% than gender-related ones that stood at 55%.
Apart from these efforts, the gender mandate is also being mainstreamed in G20 through various multilateral side-groups such as the Women 20, the “EMPOWER” track of the Business 20 group and several other initiatives. And while these groups are vital to delve deeper into specific areas of engagement and drive the gender agenda forward through a detailed action, they have somewhere facilitated the pushing of women’s issues on the sidelines, away from the highest level of G20 discussions.
Inferring from this, one can easily say that G20’s commitment to gender has remained more on the surface with women’s inclusion at all levels of decision-making constantly hindered.
Sustainable development and robust economic growth however, cannot be considered without meaningful participation of women and the adoption of a more inclusive agenda. It is in this regard that India—during its presidency—can play an important role by bringing forward the voices of the most vulnerable populations in global governance and championing the need for an inclusive lens.
India has, in fact, time and again conveyed its solidarity with the G20 member states for promoting gender equality and women’s empowerment issues. For instance, in August 2021, Smriti Irani, the Union Minister of Women and Child Development, stated that “India is committed to address gender and women-centric issues through mutual cooperation with the G20 group of countries.”
In addition, over the past years, the Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led government has also undertaken various initiatives in terms of fostering gender equality, providing better access to healthcare, promoting and facilitating female education, strengthening women’s safety and security. And while many issues still remain to be addressed, India’s implementation of domestic gender policies in these areas has been bringing about the overall parity progress.
Reflecting on these actions, it would, thus, be fair to state that India is well positioned to leverage its leadership to ensure that a strong gender and inclusive lens becomes cross-cutting and prevalent as a norm at the G20, creating an innovative framework that countries can adopt going forward.
And there exist multiple ways in which this can be done. To begin with, India must make an effort to streamline gender issues within the main G20 agenda, thereby, placing women at the very heart of its engagements instead of limiting discussions regarding women to a few groups such as the Women 20 or Empower. It should encourage making the G20 a more inclusive process by opening it for women belonging to varied backgrounds.
Besides, in order to transform the G20’s ad-hoc approach on gender—which often results in vague and scarcely action-oriented declarations—India should persuade G20 countries to pay close attention to the way commitments are structured. G20 member states should, in fact, consider setting a specific target and timelines to achieve greater compliance across gender declarations.
This strategy has already worked well for G20’s historic commitment to reduce the labour force participation gap by 25% by 2025 set at Brisbane in 2014, where due to its specific nature, “around half of G20 members are on track to meet the 2025 goal” today. Adopting such an approach will, therefore, ensure progress across diverse intersectional gender issues.
India’s G20 leadership not only provides the country with an unprecedented opportunity to shape the global narrative but also present itself on the global change. And by bringing gender to the highest levels of G20 agenda among the other key priorities—such as digitisation, climate change, global food and energy security, etc.—India will send a strong message about its seriousness towards global responsibility, which is not exclusive but inclusive of women.
Akanksha Khullar is an independent scholar working on gender issues.
She tweets at @akankshakhullar.