The Business 20, the official Business Community Engagement Forum for the Group of 20 countries has begun a Special Initiative on Women Empowerment with a holistic policy agenda to support women in business globally.

This is part of the post Covid-19 pandemic agenda to raise awareness on the importance of having more women participating in the labour market, especially in high-growth sectors, among others.

A member of the taskforce of Business 20, Isaac Aggrey, said the B20 Women’s Empowerment – Special Initiative Task Force will work to identify actionable recommendations to address the current challenges in obtaining gender parity and lead to a more equal world that is more resilient to future crises.

He added that the Special Initiative on Women’s Empowerment Team will raise awareness on the importance of having more women participating in the labour market, especially in high-growth sectors, reimagine workplace policies and practices to promote gender equality at work and in society and reduce the barriers which limit the ability of women to advance, and to start and lead businesses.

The three recommendations have been designed to shape strategic dialogue between institutions and stakeholders and the path for a more equal world.

According to Mr. Aggrey, within the recommendations, three cross-cutting themes can be identified. They are build the relevance and resilience of women’s skills, embed a gender lens at the core of innovative activity and target gender parity in senior decision-making positions.

The International Labour Organisation estimates that women account for 76.2% of total hours contributed in unpaid care work.

But according to the World Bank, 104 economies globally have laws restricting how, when and where women can work

There is also a mismatch between the demand and supply skill as the World Economic Forum reported that women are still under-represented in the STEM workforce. They hold only 14% cloud computing roles and 32% AI roles.