Amrita’s C20 working group on Gender Equality and Disability (GED) organised a two-hour webinar to connect Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) that work in the areas of women’s safety and engaging men & boys in achieving gender equality. The goal was to begin the process of identifying promising policy recommendations and associated information to produce papers on policy.
Overall, 90 international participants from CSOs working in these areas attended and represented different countries including Brazil, India, Italy, and the USA. The event was the first step in formulating policies to present to the heads of state of the world’s leading economies when the G20 summit takes place in New Delhi this September.
The webinar began with the playing of the C20 introduction video, and a short introduction and welcome address by Dr. Bhavani Rao, an Indian Co-Coordinator for the GED working group. Several other members of the GED Advisory Board also participated, including Deepa Narayan, Author and Founder of Chup Circle, US; Amb. Gopinathan A, Chief Inspector of the JIU, UN, India; Anjali Menon, Co-Founder of the Women in Cinema Collective (WCC); and Nidhi Goyal, also an Indian Co-Coordinator of the working group and with Rising Flame, India.
Also in attendance were Nayana Sahasrabudhe of the C20 Core Committee and Huma Masood from the UNESCO New Delhi office. This proved to be an ideal sized webinar to have deeper, more engaged conversations that produced high quality recommendations.
Following this, two breakout rooms formed where aligned CSOs converged on the topics of 1) women’s safety and preventing violence, and 2) engaging men and boys towards gender equality. A summative presentation was made from each breakout group on their discussions, with key points highlighted and captured for future reference and in organising our upcoming policy papers.
A call to all CSOs was made to submit a written summary of their policy recommendations that include: a description of the problems as they understand them, their experience in meeting and overcoming challenges in their work, and a list of policies they hope will be considered within the G20 context to ensure greater progress in their field.
These recommendations will be used to structure the upcoming face-to-face meeting at the University of Kashmir, Srinagar (February 13-14, 2023) where a more finalised list of policies will be deliberated.
Following this, closing remarks were made by Narayan where she expertly wove together both of the thematic areas and gave all listening seeds of wisdom for how we can propose the best possible policies to the G20 leadership.
A final word of encouragement was given by Dr. Rao to inspire the CSOs to continue this process and submit written drafts of a shorter paper for policy recommendations to ensure all voices are heard. The event concluded with a vote of thanks and the playing of Amma’s video about the significance of the C20 logo.
