This weekend, world leaders (mostly male) from 20 countries will come together in Toronto for the Group of 20 — or G20 — summit. What issues will they cover? They will focus on economic recovery and financial reforms, issues similar to, but not quite the same as, those covered last week at the G(irls)20 summit, which focused on issues most relevant to the 3.3 billion women and girls in the world.
Organizers called the summit, which was spearheaded by the Belinda Stronach Foundation, “the start of a global conversation about the economic prowess of girls and women.” For two days, the 21 G(irls)20 delegates (one teenage girl from each of the G20 countries and one girl from the African Union) participated in several discussions about the topics of education, child and maternal health, and economic opportunity, which are focus areas of the United Nation’s Millennium Development Goals. Then the girls created tangible solutions to these challenges that face girls and women around the world. Now, the delegates will take back the recommendations they created as a group and try to implement them in their own countries as voices for positive change.
What a wonderful idea! I wish this had been around when I was a teenage girl.
Are you a woman or a girl? You can still get involved. There are 3.3 billion of us, so there are 3.3 billion ways to change the world. Find out your unique number. Mine is 10,831. Then use your number and your voice to provide specific examples and suggestions for how we can provide universal education, eradicate poverty, and improve child and maternal health. If two heads are better than one then surely hundreds of thousands of heads are best to brainstorm and decide on ways to concretely improve the world!
