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The Department in the Presidency responsible for Women convened the first BRICS Senior Officials and Experts Meeting in Pretoria from 11-12 December 2018.
The two-day meeting was attended by delegates from Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa and sought to develop a common approach to the development of the proposed BRICS Women’s Forum.  The gathering follows the 10th BRICS Summit held in Johannesburg from 25-27 July 2018, which looked to collaboration for inclusive growth and shared prosperity in the 4th Industrial Revolution, and emphasized the role of women in promoting inclusive development.

The meeting noted that, despite progress in advancing the status of women, gender inequality persisted in BRICS countries and across the globe.  The BRICS Women’s Forum could provide an important platform to exchange best practices and forge partnerships across BRICS countries to promote women’s advancement.  Among its key objectives would be the promotion of women’s full participation in political, social and economic life and promote women’s issues within the broader BRICS agenda.

“The BRICS Women’s Forum aims to identify common challenges facing women and share best practice in responding to gender inequalities at a socio-economic level as well as to improve women’s participation in decision-making and leadership,” said Ms Griessel, the Acting Director-General of the Department of Women.

The Forum will further help ensure that BRICS countries accelerate the implementation of international obligations and commitments on the advancement of women as set out in the various international instruments on women’s empowerment such as the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW, 1979), the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action (1995) and the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

The two-day meeting was able to finalise a concept note on the establishment of a BRICS Women’s Forum which would be taken to all governments for further consideration.

Among the identified priority areas for further deliberations were women in leadership and decision-making; poverty eradication; the elimination of all forms of violence against women and girls; women’s economic empowerment; health and education.

The two day meeting proved to be industrious and thought provoking, further affirming the need for the BRICS Women’s Forum to be established.  Brazil will be assuming the chairship of BRICS in 2019 and was tasked with convening the next meeting.

Issued by the Department of Women