As a Co-Head of South Korean delegation, Ms. Angela Joo-Hyun Kang, Founder and Executive President of Global Competitiveness Empowerment Forum (GCEF) represented South Korea at the Women 20 (W20), G20's gender policy platform that brings together women leaders of businesses, entrepreneurship ventures, think tanks and civil society, during its India G20/W20 presidency in 2023.
W20 is one of official engagement groups of G20, like B20(Business 20), C20(Civil Society 20), L20(Labor 20), Y20(Youth 20), T20(Think Tank 20), etc. Incepted in Australia in 2014, W20 was established for the first time during the Turkish presidency of the G20 in 2015 and its activities continued and expanded in the presidencies by China (2016), Germany (2017), Argentina (2018), Japan (2019), Saudi Arabia (2020), Italy (2021), and Indonesia (2022). It is the 7th year since Ms. Kang has represented South Korea at W20 from its German G20/W20 presidency in 2017, since she was invited by GIZ, a German development agency of the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), which supported 2017 W20 Germany Secretariat.
Especially, during the W20 India's presidency year, 2023, Ms. Kang was appointed as Co-Chair of Climate Change Taskforce at the virtual 2023 W20 India kick-off meeting for discussing about priority issues, policy framework, and taskforce structure of 2023 W20 India, opened by Dr. Sandhya Purecha, Chair of 2023 W20 India and moderated by Ms. Dharitri Patnaik, Chief Coordinator overseeing overall policies and actions of the W20 India's secretariat, with attendance of 71 delegates from G20 countries on January 18, 2023.
The five key topics of 2023 W20 India were women's entrepreneurship, grassroot women leadership, bridging the gender digital divide, education & skill development, and climate change. The Chair of Climate Change Taskforce was Ms. Martina Rogato, the W20 Sherpa during the 2021 W20 Italy's presidency year, who introduced the environmental topic and working group for the first time in the W20's history. With Ms. Rogato as Chair, Ms. Kang as Co-Chair led the Climate Change Taskforce consisting of 27 delegates from 15 countries (G7 except Canada - UK, US, France, Germany, Italy, Japan + BRICS except China - Brazil, Russia, India, South Africa + MIKTA except Australia - Mexico, Indonesia, Korea, Turkey + Argentina) of W20 by emphasizing the importance of climate actions and how women can play a crucial part in safeguarding our earth and environment.
The W20 secretariat, Chair/Co-Chair/Members of Taskforces, and W20 Delegates/Head of Delegations from G20 countries prepared the W20 communiqué, the list of policy recommendations through a group intelligence work with various international online and offline dialogues. The final W20 communiqué was presented to the 2023 G20 India presidency to be reflected into G20 Leader's Declaration at the 2023 W20 India Summit in Mahabalipuram on June 15-16, 2023.
For more detailed information, please refer to the official 2023 W20 India's website www.w20india.org.
HOME > News & Views > News 
