The minister of women, youth and person with disabilities, Sindisiwe Chikunga, said women are the engines that keep the visible economy running.

She said this on Tuesday, July 1, during the opening the four-day long Group of Twenty (G20) Empowerment of Women Working Group’s third technical meeting in the Kruger National Park. It aimed to promote women’s participation and representation in leadership, governance, decision-making, ownership and control.

The meeting will continue until Friday, July 4.

The focus on the theme ‘The care economy – paid and unpaid care work and household responsibilities’, aimed at addressing long-standing disparities in the recognition and distribution of care work, which is essential to both household functioning and national economies yet remains undervalued and disproportionately carried by women and girls.

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“When we speak about women’s empowerment over the next few days, let us remember that dividends of energy, reform and agro-processing must flow into the very hands that long carried both unpaid and subsistence farmers. We want value chains to open doors to women farmers, processors and exporters,” Chikunga said.

She said the outcomes of this meeting will contribute to the G20’s policy agenda on women’s economic empowerment, with a specific focus on recognising, reducing and redistributing unpaid care work.

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The meeting brought together G20 member states, guest countries, civil society organisations and technical experts to advance global dialogue and co-operation on gender equality.

The Mpumalanga Premier welcomed the guests at the meeting.