From March to August 2024, the G20 women's engagement group held the National Dialogues, an initiative that traveled around the country to listen to Brazilian women on the group's priority topics. With meetings in seven cities, the project proposed debates that will be finalized at the Final Summit on October 1st in Rio de Janeiro.
About six months ago, on March 25th, the 1st National Dialogues began, an interaction and active listening initiative promoted by the G20 Social Women's Engagement Group (GE), Women 20 (W20). Aimed at people and multi-sectoral organizations engaged in the cause of gender equity, the Dialogues formed a space for deepening and humanizing the working group's thematic axes. Seven meetings took place in different Brazilian regions in total, with regional diversity considered a key element in qualifying the debates.
In this order, the initiative passed through the cities of Rio de Janeiro, Brasília, Recife, Curitiba, Salvador, Belém, and São Paulo. It ended its 7th edition at the end of August in the capital of São Paulo, under the theme of "Gender and Economy: public policies and actions." From March to August, the other axes focused on entrepreneurship and economic empowerment of women, fighting gender violence, sustainable development and climate justice, care economy, and women and girls in science. The events, which were broadcast live, had more than 2,000 participants from the most diverse layers and groups of Brazilian society, both face-to-face and virtual.
Ana Fontes, chair of the engagement group, highlighted how local contributions can dialogue with urgent global challenges. "The Dialogues of Women 20 Brasil were essential to foster the agendas of gender equity and economic empowerment of women. In these events throughout 2024, W20 explored its five thematic axes, bringing together representatives from academia, civil society, companies, and government organizations to share ideas, concepts and proposals," she said.
At the end of the debates, which also systematically incorporated reflections about race and ethnicity linked to gender, Women 20 achieved two primary objectives: to democratize the stage of discussions on its themes by inviting and inserting civil societies from the five corners of Brasil in the construction of proposals, and to qualify, based on the suggestions of these entities, the contributions to the international delegations that together with the Brazilian coordination will finalize the GE Communiqué. The consensual recommendations document will be signed at the W20 International Summit on October 1st in Rio de Janeiro.
The Dialogues were an unprecedented accomplishment of the Brazilian coordination of Women 20, an engagement group that next year will complete ten years of the trajectory that began at the G20 2015 in Turkey. Next month, the Women's Summit will focus on recommendations for differentiated access to credit and directing green funds to projects that include women. The meeting with several confirmed authorities will be held in Rio de Janeiro on October 1st. Registrations are open at this link.
