Women’s equality is everyone’s business: Inside the W20 Summit and Communiqué under South Africa’s presidency

According to the World Bank, closing the gender gap in employment and entrepreneurship could lift global gross domestic product by more than 20%, effectively doubling the global growth rate over the next decade. This gap refers to the difference between women’s and men’s rates of labour force participation, employment and business ownership. Additionally, UNESCO argues that if all women completed primary school, maternal deaths would fall by two-thirds, and if all women had secondary education, child deaths would be cut by half, saving about three million lives each year.