“There are 3.3 billion women in the world, which makes 3.3 billion ways to change the world.” This is the rallying cry for the twenty-one delegates who will attend this year’s G(irls)20 Summit in Paris, from October 16th to 21st.
The G(irls)20 Summit is an initiative of The Belinda Stronach Foundation (TBSF), a Canadian association founded in 2008. Three years ago, TBSF lobbied a large number of national and international organizations in an effort to draw global attention to the imperative of accelerating girls’ and women’s empowerment in both developing and developed countries. As a result, the first G(irls)20 summit was hosted last year in Toronto, where the G20 meeting of global leaders was held a few weeks later. This year, TBSF is hosting the second G(irls)20 summit in Paris, bringing together twenty female ambassadors between the ages of 18 and 20 from the G20 countries, and one delegate from the African Union. The delegate from each country was selected on the basis of her previous involvement in humanitarian activities. These young women will share their insights and recommendations for pushing girls’ and women’s empowerment up the global political agenda.
The 5-day event will be an opportunity for the young delegates to exchange views and make use of their experiences to generate innovative ideas for advancing girls’ and women’s social, economic and political empowerment. The round-table discussions will be facilitated by a panel of journalists, entrepreneurs and senior members from international institutions and NGOs, with the objective of collectively issuing recommendations to the G20 summit leaders. Last year’s G(irls)20 summit in Toronto gave rise to concrete initiatives such as the provision of mobile libraries in Indonesian slums.
Everyone is invited to join this campaign. What do you think we, and our governments, need to do to accelerate girls’ and women’s empowerment? If you would like to share your ideas for accelerating girls’ and women’s empowerment, you can connect to girlsandwomen.com.
© Women’s Worldwide Web 2011
