Jakarta, 27 August 2021. The G20 Ministerial Conference on Women's Empowerment will take place on 26 August 2021 in Santa Margherita Ligure, Italy. The Chairperson of the Indonesian Women's Congress (KOWANI), Hadriani Uli Silalahi and the President Director & CEO of XL Axiata, Dian Siswarini were also present at the conference representing the Government of Indonesia in this case the Ministry of Women's Empowerment and Child Protection (PPPA). In addition, the Director & Chief Strategic Transformation & Information Officer of XL Axiata, Yessie D. Yosetya and Chairperson of the Standing Committee for Education of the Indonesian Women Entrepreneurs Association (IWAPI), Rinawati Prihatiningsih as chair and co-chair of G20 Empower were also present. The G20 Ministerial Conference on Women's Empowerment is the first time it has been held since the G20 was formed. The aim of this Conference is to create a moment to focus attention transversely on the issue of women's empowerment, bringing together government and non-government actors.
The presence of 4 Indonesian representatives at the conference in Italy, among others, was to express their opinions on the issue of women as well as to observe and prepare for Indonesia in the framework of the G20 Presidency in 2022. As is known, Indonesia will become the G20 Presidency and host the G20 Summit. Indonesia as the G20 Presidency will carry the theme Recover Together, Recover Stronger.
Expert Staff for Connectivity, Service Development, and Natural Resources, Coordinating Ministry for Economic Affairs/Co-Sherpa G20 Indonesia, Dr. Raden Edi Prio Pambudi, SE, MA said "One of the issues discussed at the Ministerial Conference on Women's Empowerment in 2021 is the role of women in MSME entrepreneurship in the digitizing era. Indonesia should take this opportunity to increase the capacity of women to contribute to economic recovery through family businesses. With more than 133 million women in Indonesia, it becomes a great human resource capital to drive the productive sector.”
Deputy for Gender Equality at the Ministry of PPPA, Dra. Lenny N. Rosalin, M.Sc said, "Indonesia will continue to strengthen its commitment to ensure the implementation of gender mainstreaming, protection of women's rights, women's empowerment both at the national and global levels. We will continue to oversee these issues, how to reduce the gender gap in various fields of development. We are also ready to formulate policies and programs that are of course to close the gender gap as a whole. This is of course in line and part of the President's priorities as stated in the national mid-term development plan 2020-2024 which is explicitly stated in the Presidential Regulation Indonesia's active participation and commitment has been recognized by various countries in the world, therefore, this is the right momentum to create opportunities, open dialogue and diplomacy to collaborate with various countries in realizing gender equality, women's empowerment, protection of women's rights and so on.
We will realize this commitment and spirit later through the Indonesian presidency at the 2022 Ministerial Conference on Women's Empowerment. We hope that all elements of the government, private sector, community institutions, the business world, the media and academia can take advantage of this momentum to pay attention to the implementation of these efforts of empowering women, realizing gender equality and fulfilling women's rights, especially in Indonesia."
The Chairperson of KOWANI, Hadriani Uli Silalahi said, “The G20 presidency needs careful planning at the Ministerial, Working Group, and Engagement Groups levels, both in terms of substance and technicality. We, as part of the W20 Engagement Group, have a responsibility to ensure the smooth running of Indonesia's presidency in 2022. For this reason, we are supported by the G20 Indonesia Sherpa Office, representing the Indonesian government to attend the G20 Ministerial of Women Conference to make observations as a preparation effort."
Uli Silalahi added that our activities while in Italy were centred on mapping the diplomatic process that took place at international meetings so that in the future we could apply what we learned during the Indonesian presidency. We also witnessed that all delegates had a strong commitment to bringing gender empowerment to the forefront, regardless of their background. KOWANI, which is the largest and oldest federation of 97 women's organizations in Indonesia, with a long history of trying to achieve women's empowerment since 1928, feels very proud to join. As the theme for the G20 Indonesia Presidency; Recover Together, Recover Stronger, unity is indeed very important in achieving common goals.
President Director & CEO of XL Axiata, Dian Siswarini said, “After attending the G20 Ministerial Conference on women's empowerment in Italy, I will continue to be committed to actively participating in the success of the G20 2022 Presidency, especially in terms of women's issues and gender equality, including starting with the development of STEM (i.e. integrated learning between knowledge, technology and mathematics to develop creativity in order to be able to solve problems in everyday life), according to the agenda that was agreed upon at the G20 conference in Italy.”
Director & Chief Strategic Transformation and Information Officer XL Axiata, Yessie D. Yosetya as Chair of G20 Empower added, "In the future, we from the private sector collaborate with the Government, and Community Institutions will continue to focus on improving women's leadership programs in the business world and developing talent of the more resilient and sustainable women workers. Because it is undeniable that the presence of women in leadership positions is fundamental to a country's economic growth and can be used to assess a country's competitiveness."
The Chairperson of the Standing Committee for Education of the Indonesian Women Entrepreneurs Association (IWAPI), Rinawati Prihatiningsih attended the invitation of the Minister of "Equal Opportunities and Family", Italy, Elena Bonetti as one of the speakers at this Ministerial Conference. In the session with the theme "STEM, Financial and Digital Literacy, Environment and Sustainability", Rinawati said, "Significant progress for women's empowerment related to empowerment in the field of STEM, Financial and Digital Literacy for women can be achieved if there is coordination and cooperation of all stakeholders in the field, both national and global levels in program implementation, policy and implementation. In addition, the importance of follow-up based on a gender perspective in the measurement, monitoring and evaluation of programs, policies and their implementation, so that they can consider gaps, challenges and opportunities to overcome them and ensure the resulting achievements.”
G20 EMPOWER : Private Sector Sets Steps to Advance Women's Leadership Representation
The G20 EMPOWER Alliance, which brings together private sector representatives and government partners from G20 countries with a common goal of accelerating the process of leadership and empowerment of women in the private sector, identifies concrete actions to be taken in three main focus areas: promoting productivity through strengthening resources. people, innovation for production and an inclusive economy as well as improving the quality of education and soft skills; increase resilience and ensure growth; inclusiveness, sustainability and stability.
Based on the data submitted by G20 Empower in the 2021 G20 Ministerial Conference Communiqué Document on women's empowerment as follows:
In addition, the Empower G20 Communiqué promotes a new leadership model that rethinks the skills and qualities a leader must possess and ensures companies are led by a diverse and capacity-driven team to create an equal work environment for all, centred on the values of inclusiveness, fairness, and sustainability. This leadership model also seeks to increase the innovation potential of a diverse workforce, ensuring that women, like men, are provided with STEM and soft skills, productive resources, and opportunities to lead the companies of tomorrow.
By changing policies and education, training and work culture and by leveraging all relevant tools – including the Sustainability and Environmental Governance (ESG) framework – the private sector can accelerate positive change in relieving women of gender stereotypes and unconscious biases, and ultimately have a lasting impact on the advancement of women in leadership in all G20 countries.
G20 Empower is an alliance that was launched at the G20 Summit in Osaka, Japan in 2019. G20 Empower itself aims to build and support private sector networks in G20 member countries in identifying challenges and supporting the advancement of women's leadership in the private sector. Indonesia's Empower G20 membership is currently represented by a focal point consisting of representatives from the Ministry of PPPA, the Indonesian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (KADIN), the Indonesian Women's Congress (KOWANI), the Indonesian Women Entrepreneurs Association (IWAPI), and PT. XL Axiata, Tbk.