G20 Global South leadership drives gender equality progress across three consecutive Presidencies

Between 2023-2025, India, Brazil, and recently South Africa have been at the helm of the G20, respectively. These three consecutive G20 presidencies from the Global South have brought fresh momentum to the forum's gender equality agenda, each building on the other's work to advance women's economic empowerment. 

Through strategic prioritization of issues like the care economy, women's digital inclusion, and gender-responsive finance, the presidencies have shown how developing nations contribute crucial perspectives on the challenges women and girls face globally. Their combined efforts are a significant mark on the G20's ongoing commitment to reducing gender gaps and ensuring women's full participation in the global economy.

India's shift from just empowerment to leadership

India's 2023 presidency marked a watershed moment by reframing the narrative from ‘women's empowerment’ to ‘women-led development’. This was not just semantics but represented a fundamental change in how gender perspectives were integrated across the entire G20 agenda. 

“Rather than treating gender issues as a standalone topic, the presidency mainstreamed this framework across the entire G20 agenda, positioning women's participation as essential for global development. This approach integrated gender perspectives into diverse priorities, including climate justice, digital transformation, and the financing of the Global South, ensuring that women’s voices and concerns were center-staged in broader economic governance discussions,” explains Sanya Seth, UN Women India Country Programme Manager.

The most significant institutional legacy was the creation of the Women's Empowerment Working Group, elevating gender equality from the realm of engagement groups to formal G20 architecture. India reinforced the Brisbane commitment to reduce the gender gap in labour force participation by 25 per cent by 2025, while introducing a new focus on care infrastructure and social protection. 

Through the Startup20 initiative, UN Women led an inclusion task force that embedded gender considerations into startup ecosystem frameworks across G20 countries, directly benefiting women entrepreneurs through improved access to finance and markets.

Brazil champions the care economy agenda

Brazil's 2024 presidency moved India's vision into action by hosting the first-ever meeting of the Empowerment of Working Group and the inaugural G20 Ministerial Meeting on Women's Empowerment. Minister Cida Gonçalves positioned the care economy at the heart of Brazil's agenda, recognizing that women dedicate nearly 22 hours weekly to unpaid domestic and caregiving tasks, which is double that of men.

Brazil's W20 introduced five pillars underpinned by racial and ethnic intersectionality: entrepreneurship, care economy, women in STEM, climate justice, and ending violence against women and girls. This intersectional approach acknowledged that Indigenous and black women face compounded disadvantages. The Brazil presidency also secured ministerial commitments, linking women's economic autonomy to the Global Alliance Against Hunger and Poverty, recognizing that food security remains fundamental to women's ability to access other rights.

How South Africa amplified African voices and navigated the pushback

South Africa's 2025 presidency, themed "Solidarity, Equality, and Sustainability," arrived at a critical moment - five years before the 2030 SDG deadline and coinciding with the 30th anniversary of the Beijing Declaration. Minister Sindisiwe Chikunga has expanded the agenda to include seven thematic areas, adding health equity, land rights, and agriculture to existing priorities.

South Africa’s presidency secured unprecedented African Union participation throughout the working group processes. Key priorities include addressing the care economy through both paid and unpaid dimensions, promoting financial inclusion particularly in resource-rich sectors like lithium mining, and confronting gender-based violence and femicide. South Africa's innovative approach includes hosting the Financial Inclusion and Women Empowerment Conference in May 2025, introducing a Guidelines Framework for Mainstreaming Women's Priorities to ensure lasting institutional reform.

"What we are seeing as is a shift in how economic power is being applied for gender justice. The Global South is not just adopting existing frameworks, but these three presidencies are rewriting them. South Africa has broadened the G20 gender agenda to include debt sustainability as a gender justice issue, the inclusion of women's safety into infrastructure planning, and the recognition of women entrepreneurs in trade discussions. This approach seeks to ensure that women's experiences are reflected in global economic policymaking. The beauty of this moment is that it's not one country's vision; it's a relay race where each presidency has passed the baton forward with added momentum,” said Aleta Miller, UN Women South Africa Country Representative.

Common threads and persistent gaps

Across these three presidencies, several themes emerge consistently. All have prioritized the care economy, recognizing its invisibility despite representing an estimated 9 percent of global GDP if compensated. Each has addressed the digital divide, acknowledging that technology access determines economic participation. All three have confronted gender-based violence as both a human rights crisis and economic impediment.

Yet significant gaps persist. Despite the 2014 Brisbane commitment, most G20 countries remain far from achieving the 25 per cent reduction in labour force participation gaps. Gender-responsive budgeting is still an ideal that has not fully translated into reality. Climate finance continues to bypass women with only 1.7 per cent reaches small-scale producers in developing countries, while only 8 percent of overseas aid focuses primarily on gender equality.

Then there is the global elephant in the room: the pushback against gender equality in theory and practice. This was very clear when the 2025 Ministerial Meeting of the Empowerment of Women Working Group failed to reach consensus for a much-awaited declaration.

"We faced significant resistance to using the term 'gender' throughout the draft Ministerial Declaration. This ideological pushback against internationally agreed language created substantial negotiation challenges and required strategic advocacy to safeguard core commitments to women's rights and equality," said Neo Mofokeng, UN Women South Africa Generation Equality and G20 Programme Lead.

Over the years, in all three countries, UN Women has played an important role in supporting the host governments on a technical level and resources to ensure that gender equality remains on the global agenda through forums such as the G20.

Tangible impact on the lives of women

Despite the challenges and the pushback, the abovementioned policy shifts translate into tangible changes. In India, the startup ecosystem framework ensures women entrepreneurs aren't afterthoughts but are central to innovation strategies. Brazil's emphasis on intersectionality means policies now explicitly address how Black and Indigenous women face multiple barriers to economic participation. South Africa's focus on land rights addresses the reality that while women produce most of Africa's food, they own little of its land.

The experiences of India, Brazil, and South Africa highlight the importance of diverse perspectives in addressing gender inequality. Success requires rigorous accountability,  continuous funding for gender initiatives, and recognition that women's leadership isn't just morally imperative but essential for economical development. With only five years until 2030, the G20 must transform women-led development from vision to reality.