India to develop online platform to mentor G-20 country women

India will take the lead in creating global mentoring for the G20 Nations by facilitating knowledge sharing through an online platform among women in order to promote women's leadership at all conceivable levels.

The site would be housed under the NITI Aayog's platform for women's empowerment. At the second working group meeting on women's empowerment, which was held last week in Thiruvananthapuram, the topic was discussed. In addition to the United States, Japan, South Africa, Turkey, Italy, and France, there were 18 more countries represented. International organisations including the UN Women, the World Bank, the IMF, the UNICEF, the World Trade Organization, and the ILO were also represented.

The e-platform will serve as a global mentoring and capacity-building gateway that facilitates structured knowledge-exchange between women mentors and mentees of G-20 nations, according to a statement from the Women and Child Development Ministry.

Accelerated success

Women entrepreneurs in small, medium, and large businesses, as well as grassroots leaders, will experience faster success because to the mentorship, networking, knowledge-sharing, capacity building, and best practises provided by this platform, according to the press release. Moreover, it would act as a fusion of already-existing mentorship portals that concentrate on certain industries, including Science, corporate leadership, and entrepreneurship.

The discussion also examined the academic and skill gaps that have affected women's ability to succeed in numerous sectors, as well as the gender gap in digital skills. According to the survey, the STEM sector, which excludes entrepreneurship opportunities, offers the highest-paying careers and the fastest rate of employment development, had the biggest gap.

The G-20 empowerment group also addressed the two largest barriers for women entrepreneurs: the availability of financing and market access. Among other things, it recommended increasing gender-responsive procurement in the public and commercial sectors by using a "proudly owned by women" seal, loan guarantees, pooled credit funds, and other long-term gender-inclusive financial models. The objective was to create a thriving environment for female business owners.