WOMEN'S EQUAL economic participation is a necessity.
Poverty still has a woman’s face
- Women own only 1% of property globally.
- More than 70% of those living in poverty are women.
- Half a billion women are illiterate.
- Globally, women own approximately 25-33% of all private businesses in the formal economy, but get less than 1% of the business contract opportunities offered by corporations and governments.
Women’s progress is global progress
The world is waking up to the fact that progress - whether measured in economic growth, higher standards of health and education, protection of human rights or overall well-being - is intrinsically related to the economic status of women in society.
The Petition
Dear G20 Member States,
I stand with La Pietra Coalition to request from you a broad-based commitment to the financial inclusion of women at all levels of finance and development. Increasing women’s economic opportunities will not only help alleviate poverty, but also foster greater economic growth for nations and communities.
To this end, along with La Pietra Coalition, I ask you and your national governments to broaden the work launched at your Summit in South Korea and continued at your Summit in France regarding financial inclusion. Now is the time for you to recognize the critical role that women can play in the global economy, if they are enabled and prepared. Ensure that women have greater access to: finance, markets, ownership of land and property, and education and training.
To achieve these goals, you must:
- Ensure that the Global Partnership for Financial Inclusion include on its agenda effective access to financial services for women.
- Urge Central Banks and other national financial authorities to develop methods for the collection and dissemination of gender-disaggregated data.
- Commission a polling survey on access to finance to determine reasons why women are unbanked.
- Call for incentives and specific goals for increased procurement by your governments of goods and services from women-owned enterprises in your countries.
- Identify critical and actionable limitations to implementing existing laws that could protect women’s property rights.
- Encourage national level policies that leverage women’s property rights for increased agricultural productivity and incomes for women farmers.
We have come together out of a common conviction and commitment that women’s equal economic participation is a necessity for the common good. We recognize that women’s full contribution in the economy is the only way that societies will develop and prosper. Take action at the G20 Summit in June 2012 in Mexico so that women’s economic potential can be successfully harnessed and leveraged for global growth!