International Relations and Cooperation Minister Maite Nkoana-Mashabane is in Xi’an, the People’s Republic of China, where she will participate in the W20, an outreach engagement of the G20, taking place on 24-26 May 2016.

W20 was launched in 2015 in Turkey as a stand-alone outreach group to support G20’s efforts to achieve inclusive growth and raise the profile of gender issues with the core objective of promoting global gender-inclusive economic growth. This year’s meeting will take place under the theme: “Equal participation and innovative development”, divided in the following four sub-themes:

• A gender perspective in global economic governance
• Women’s employment and entrepreneurial and social protection
• Women’s role in the digital economy
• Interconnected and innovative women’s network

The meeting’s outcome communique will be adopted and tabled at the G20 Leaders meeting scheduled to take place on 4-5 September in Hangzhou, China.

South Africa views this meeting as important in the context of its membership within the BRICS Bloc as a number of common interest issues such as population and development are discussed.

Minister Maite Nkoana-Mashabane is joined by the Minister of Social Development Bathabile Dlamini as well as senior officials from the Department of Women.

 

Issued by the Department of International Relations and Cooperation