G20 or Group of Twenty Leaders’ Summit, which aims at promoting and facilitating international financial stability, has become a prominent event. A comparatively lesser-known but equally important event is G(irls)20. Its objective is to cultivate a new generation of female leaders and increase female labour force participation across the world. Anannya Parekh, an aerospace engineering student who was selected to represent India at this year’s summit, talks about the significance of the event and how it helps participants make a difference.
Selection process
I had to first submit a delegate application. About 300-400 applications are sent from India every year. Of these, two are shortlisted for a Skype interview. This year, I was selected to represent India. G(irls)20 summit was started in 2009. It has permission from the Government of Canada to consider itself as a not-for-profit and aims at promoting female labour force participation. It follows the G20 leaders wherever the summit happens, prior to the original G20 summit. Its main agenda is to create a formal document called the communique which is submitted to the G20 leaders. It elucidates how more jobs can be created for women.
To facilitate this, delegates are selected from the G20 nations to curate the document and decide what recommendations should be present in it. The delegates bring in their perspectives based on their country’s data. This year, the topics were migration, digital economy and climate change. Participants are trained to launch an initiative in their country to benefit women.
At the summit
This year, 22 girls were selected from various countries. Six workshops were conducted for us on strategic planning, leadership development, and so on. We also had several talks by prominent speakers such as Malala Yousafzai’s father, on issues affecting women.
After this, all the delegates got together to discuss and compile the communique which contained suggestions on how the G20 leaders can help in creating 100 million jobs for women by 2025. My biggest takeaway is the knowledge I gained from the workshops. One of these was Negotiating 101. I learned the art of negotiating in a matter of three hours and gained a lot of confidence. Also, the networking opportunities were amazing. Another highlight was meeting the other 22 participants. It is heartening to know that 22 woman from completely different backgrounds and cultures are working towards attaining the same cause.
Making a difference
I like to think that I’m already making a difference though my women leadership solutions startup — The Inner Goddess Academy — that has been functioning for the last two years. But, the summit helped me gain fresh insights which will enable me expand further. I met several potential mentors who have been working towards the same mission for a long time now. Their guidance will help me run my initiative more effectively.
Women need to be in positions of leadership where they can decide the future of women. Right now, we have men deciding what women need; this makes no sense because they do not understand the biology of women.