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South Africa's G20 presidency a pivotal opportunity for women's economic empowerment and care policies

South Africa's G20 presidency a pivotal opportunity for women's economic empowerment and care policies
Jamela Hoveni
By Jamela Hoveni
6 May 2025
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Through its leadership of the G20, South Africa has the opportunity to champion policies for women’s economic empowerment, implemented nationally and sustained beyond its G20 presidency.

One of the achievements of India’s G20 presidency was putting women’s economic empowerment (WEE) squarely on the table through the establishment of the Women Empowerment Working Group.

This working group subsequently gained momentum under the Brazilian presidency. This year, South Africa is hosting the G20 presidency, the last in a series of Global South presidencies.

Much is expected from South Africa’s presidency given the successes secured by India and Brazil. South Africa has historically had a broad commitment to women’s economic empowerment and gender mainstreaming through various ministries and programmes charged with the mandate to lead socioeconomic transformation through investing in women’s economic empowerment.

Despite this broad commitment, social policy in South Africa has not achieved this transformation, in part due to a bias towards policies of austerity affecting the funding of key ministries and programmes targeting women.

The G20 is a multilateral space that aims to promote international cooperation and policy coordination on various issues. Through its leadership of the G20, South Africa has the opportunity to champion policies for women’s economic empowerment, implemented nationally and sustained beyond its G20 presidency.

The focus for South Africa’s presidency will be on three policy priority areas — unpaid care work, financial inclusion and gender-based violence (GBV). The G20 represents an opportunity to build consensus around transformative social policies that can support women’s economic empowerment.

This article unpacks the South African government’s G20 women’s economic empowerment priority areas, showing why they are important and why policy recommendations are needed to address these.

Priority 1: Care work and unpaid care work


The first priority area under South Africa’s G20 presidency is on care work. Women in South Africa undertake the majority of the unpaid care work related to child and elder care, cooking and cleaning. In relative terms, they contribute twice as much to unpaid care work as men.

Unpaid care work affects social and economic outcomes. In the labour market, women are unable to take up paid employment due to their care responsibilities. Where they can take up paid employment, it is often in informal or casual employment sectors with low pay and no benefits.

Thus, unpaid care work contributes to the gender pay gap and other social inequalities. Unpaid care work also reduces welfare and wellbeing, and exacerbates time poverty.

Investing in care through a comprehensive strategy for resourcing care, adopted by G20 members, could enhance women’s wellbeing. Such policies that enhance women’s wellbeing also have multiple positive spin-offs, such as that women’s wellbeing is linked to better economic and social outcomes. Given women’s propensity to devote household resources to children, it also enhances children’s welfare.

Priority 2: Financial inclusion


The second priority area is on financial inclusion through ensuring that women have access to affordable and reliable financial and savings products.

Globally, women constitute the majority of the unbanked and face several economic obstacles. Women entrepreneurs face obstacles in raising funding and securing insurance, while women farmers struggle to access vital resources. Although studies of financial inclusion are inconclusive, there is a link between various aspects of women’s empowerment, including education, health, decision making, and economic empowerment.

Financial inclusion measures can enhance women’s economic empowerment by offering cheap, accessible products and expanding the range of options available. This also means that they will not be vulnerable to unscrupulous lenders and frees them from relying on men and exposing them to GBV, priority area number three.

Priority 3: Gender-based violence and femicide


GBV has been identified as a priority area for South Africa, reflecting the high levels of violence experienced in this country. The Women, Peace, and Security Index 2023/2024 by GIWPS & PRIO (2023) ranked South Africa among the most violent countries in the world, reflecting significant disparities in women’s inclusion, justice, and security.

Moreover, racialised women are at a higher risk due to unequal power structures, social norms that prevent them from accessing basic services, and the unequal burden of unpaid care work.

In 2024, the Institute for Economic Justice published a policy brief on care and gender-based violence in which we argue that the Covid-19 crisis laid bare the social and economic vulnerabilities of women, while the accompanying economic precarity contributed to a rise in intimate partner violence.

The African Union’s convention on ending GBV, drafted in February 2025, is a bold and significant move that could help chart a new path forward. However, to be effective, it requires ratification by African member countries. South Africa’s G20 presidency and the AU’s recent accession to the G20 provide an opportunity for the continent to align its priorities in this area and mobilise G20 countries in support of action on GBV.

Progressive policies


With these priorities in mind, it is useful to consider concrete policies that can contribute to the economic empowerment of women and address the priority areas identified within the G20.

First, labour market policies that adequately address unemployment by creating decent jobs and enhancing social protection contribute to the realisation of a universal employment safety net that is needed. For example, expanding women and community-centered public employment initiatives, as piloted through the South African Presidency Employment Stimulus, is necessary.

The Expanded Public Works Programme is a strategic initiative by the South African government aimed at reducing poverty and supporting women’s livelihoods through the provision of work and training activities for unemployed South Africans, the majority of whom are women — 70% of the employment created by the programme has directly benefited women.

Second, better access to the Unemployment Insurance Fund (UIF) for precarious, informal, and domestic care workers: currently in South Africa, domestic workers who are registered through their employer can access these benefits. Expanding the scope of these benefits would enhance social protection.

Similarly, enhanced social security, for example through implementing a universal basic income grant for low-income unemployed women, would be a major step forward in supporting caregivers, mostly women. The Social Relief of Distress (SRD) grant has been a critical intervention to alleviate poverty.

Third, improving the working conditions for care workers employed as domestic workers, including better enforcement of the minimum wage, would greatly improve women’s economic empowerment. For example, the establishment of the minimum wage for domestic workers in South Africa has greatly contributed to the formalisation of the domestic workers’ sector.

Improving the social wage and reducing the burden of care by adopting the 3R framework to Recognise, Reduce and Redistribute care work is recommended. Policies aimed at reducing women’s unpaid care burdens, such as the provision of care infrastructure in early child development and education, as well as elder care, would help to redistribute the care burden.

Loan schemes


Fourth, support should be given to women business owners, for example through the National Empowerment Fund, as well as other public and private programmes to assist women in accessing funding for small businesses. It is important to monitor and explore how the Independent Development Corporation is expanding existing loan schemes for women. In addition, enhancing policies to support women informal traders to register their businesses, access credit, and access to markets is key. 

Fifth, policies to address GBV, as mentioned in our policy brief, must be put in place to enhance women’s economic empowerment through care, legal support, employment, and social protection as part of the national strategic framework on GBV. GBV prevention campaigns and rebuilding social cohesion are critical in the fight against GBV, as well as enhancing the justice system and supporting women’s wellbeing through care, support, and healing.     

The year 2025 is dubbed South Africa’s year; the accession of the African Union into the G20 shows that there is a growing consensus in Africa on the importance of engaging in the G20 process.

Given its influence in Africa, South Africa is in a unique place to secure commitment from African governments on women’s economic empowerment, as the African Convention on GBV already shows.

South Africa can use this as an opportunity to push through an ambitious agenda on care and social protection as a pathway to achieving national resourcing for care strategies. DM

Dr Jamela Hoveni is Senior Researcher at the Institute for Economic Justice (IEJ).

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