Building a web that is open, safe and secure is crucial for women and girls. As a vehicle to promote this within the G20 agenda, the Web Foundation will serve as a co-chair of one of the work streams of the Women 20 (W20) group — a multi-stakeholder network that is part of the G20 bodies, and which is composed of women leaders with a goal of influencing the G20 agenda to increase women’s economic and social participation.

The Web Foundation will focus specifically on the Digital Inclusion track of the W20, which aims to “improve the employability of women in urban and rural areas by helping them to acquire the social and technical skills they need in a global, digitised world.” Gender inclusiveness and gender equality both comprise integral parts of the G20 process, and W20 aims to impact public policies in order to increase women’s participation in the economies and societies of their countries.

The Web Foundation will take on this co-chair role together with the GSMA. The Digital Inclusion group will aim to formulate strong policy recommendations for ensuring meaningful digital access and use for women; these recommendations will then be submitted to the G20 heads of state and government. The process will culminate in a W20 Summit in Buenos Aires, 1-3 October 2018.

Follow us on Twitter @webfoundation to follow along as this process continues.