The 2025 Group of 20 (G20) Summit in Johannesburg, South Africa, November 2025, marks five years before the deadline of the United Nations (UN) 2030 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) Agenda. The discussion surrounding development and for gender equality, has reached a turning point. Due to ATAF’s support for gender equality, ATAF is a member of the G20 Empowerment of Women Working Group (G20 EWWG) and weighed in on the deliberations of the G20 EWWG which has culminated into the Chair’s Statement of G20 EWWG.
One might ask, why is the work of G20 EWWG important? There is no doubt that the realisation of the fifth SDG happens in the wake of a series of shocks, lack of financing for women empowerment, and societal factors hinder progress towards its full realisation. Africa faces a severe and widening financing gap with an SDG financing shortfall of nearly USD 1.7 trillion a year. For women, cuts to foreign aid due to the rise in conflict, climate change, and displacement, threaten gender equality initiatives and organizations that provide services for women and girls. Furthermore, the African Union Agenda 2063’s key targets on gender equality are not on track.
In light of the above, the G20 under the South African Presidency noted the relevance of key priorities for the advancement of women: (i) advancing the care economy, (ii) expanding women’s financial inclusion, and (iii) eliminating gender-based violence and femicide (GBVF). The ATAF Women in Tax Network (AWITN) has played a significant role in the G20 EWWG deliberations, given that promoting gender equality and empowering women are critical components of effective domestic resource mobilisation reforms, supporting inclusive and sustained economic growth.
In making good on its promise, to promote gender equality AWITN’s key achievements in 2025 were:
- The AWITN Mentorship programme with 98 mentees and mentors.
- Increasing the participation of women in the ATAF Tax Academy training programmes with targeted sponsorship for women in specialised tax areas.
- The rollout of the pilot gender disaggregated data project in ATAF member countries.
- AWITN Leadership Conference in March in Cape Town to advocate for gender equality and gained inputs for the new 2026-2030 AWITN Strategy.
- AWITN Pledge signed by twenty-three (23) ATAF member countries since establishment at the 2024 ATAF Annual Meetings with the support of the ATAF Vice Chair and AWITN Gender Champion, Mr Sam Shivute, the outgoing AWITN Chair, H.E. Veronique Herminie, First Lady of Seychelles and incoming AWITN Chair, Ms Jeneba Bangura, Commissioner General Sierra Leone.
AWITN affirms the Chairs Statement of G20 EWWG which acknowledged that the recognition, reduction and redistribution of unpaid care work, and the rewarding and representation of paid care work, is essential to address structural barriers to women’s empowerment and advancement. Additionally, the expansion of women’s access to opportunities, alongside efforts to end GBVF.
AWITN objectives directly feed into the outcomes of the G20 EWWG since AWITN’s work on gender-disaggregated data will assist policymakers in determining which areas of tax policy require a fresh re-think. This could be in the form of zero-rating on female products such as sanitary towels, which has the potential cost-savings of $0.60cents per packet (if we assume a cost of disposable pads in today’s prices at $4.00 per packet in South Africa). However, as noted in the ongoing AWITN/RRA Study on the Impact of the Value-Added Tax Exemption on Sanitary Towels in Rwanda, the cost savings do not ultimately get passed on to the consumer. Instead, the prices of sanitary towels have significantly increased in Rwanda since 2019 causing the intended outcome of affordability for vulnerable consumers of the fiscal policy to be negligible.
Furthermore, AWITN in its 2026-2030 Strategy has centred the G20 EWWG’s priority of tackling workplace inequalities and addressing the care economy as a priority area. This is given the need for countries to increase DRM and support gender transformative policies on the expenditure side that enable women to earn income rather than carry out unpaid care, such as free healthcare, education, access to water, social protection, or instituting social payments for care work.
The recently concluded 2025 G20 Empowerment of Women Chair Statement includes significant commitments on empowering women by the G20. It affirms the G20’s commitment to the context of the 30th anniversary of the 4th World Conference on Women and the adoption of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action. AWITN will continue to leverage on the commitments of the G20 EWWG and support initiatives which will transform the G20 commitments to action.
