Burson-Marsteller

BlackBerry Mom: The G(irls)20 Summit and evidence-based communications

by Katarina Wallin Bureau on 24th October 2011 • The Cast Blog

Last week I was proud to take my 2-month old daughter to the G(irls)20 Summit  in Paris.

I am on maternity leave but didn’t want to miss the opportunity to participate in this event, an initiative that brings together one delegate, a girl aged 18-20, from each G20 country, plus a representative from the chair country of the African Union, to debate, discuss and design innovative ideas necessary to empower girls and women globally. The agenda is the same as the one of the G20 leaders and focuses on economic innovation, with a set of recommendations developed at the end by the delegates and presented to a representative of President Sarkozy, in advance of the G20 meeting in Cannes next week.

There is growing evidence from the World Bank ; McKinsey; Deloitte and other prominent organisations that investing in girls and women and increasing their participation in economic and political society isn’t only the fair and equitable thing to do but also has an exponential effect on economic growth. As I had been asked to participate in a panel on how girls can use their voices for political change I argued that this evidence should be the backbone of political communications to the G20 leaders and other stakeholders that the girls are seeking to influence back in their communities. The Economist said in an article last week that women’s rights don’t move the general public. But economics does -and we need to make the link between economic growth and female empowerment in the developing and developed world. I also spoke about the value of Ambassadors, advocates (and some should be men!) and building coalitions. Being strategic and evidence-based in our communications will help girls and women deliver a powerful and credible message about the value of their full inclusion. Coincidentally our Director of Strategic Research Elaine Cameron has studied the trend known as “She-conomics” for one of her upcoming Future Perspective newsletters and had a lot of interesting findings to share with me.

Another area we debated was how the pace of change itself has changed thanks to innovations in technology. So while women in Sweden got the right to vote in the early 1920s and have been steadily improving their rights for the better part of a century, with Sweden now being a relatively egalitarian society, the changes in the Middle East, where some women only got the vote in the past decade, may happen much faster. There are some amazing examples of women using technology to make a big impact during the recent Arab uprisings, such as the woman in Saudi Arabia who uploaded a video of herself driving as part of an internet campaign to give Saudi women the right to drive.

It was a privilege to meet the 21 young women who had been selected among hundreds of applicants as representatives from their countries. During the week of the summit they had workshops led by companies such as Google and Standard Chartered Bank in addition to panel discussions and debates. Girls and women from G20 countries such as China, India, Saudi Arabia and Italy face some similar challenges but also many different ones. They asked excellent – and difficult – questions about they can use different political and communications tools as well as technology to advance their ideas. I believe networks like G(irls)20 and more political awareness of the crucial role that girls and women can play in global economic progress combined with the power of technology will help drive the cause of empowering girls and women forward. Based on the evidence of last week’s summit, there is plenty of girl power to change the world.

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One Response to “BlackBerry Mom: The G(irls)20 Summit and evidence-based communications”

1. Elaine Cameron says:

   1st November 2011 at 5:33 pm

   Katarina, What a great opportunity and as you rightly say this chimes nicely with the research I have been doing to prepare the next FUTURE Perspective newsletter. One of the most stunning pieces of evidence driving this trend of She-conomics is the fact that 1 billion middle class women are expected to enter the global economy over the next decade. If China and India each represent 1 billion emerging participants in the global marketplace, then this “third billion” will be made up of women in both developing and industrialised nations, whose economic lives have previously been stunted or suppressed. Globally, women total $13 trillion in yearly earnings and could reach $18 trillion in the next five years, representing a growth twice as big as China and India combined. This will have massive implications on communication and leadership styles for our companies and organisations.. and a massive economic power shift. Interesting times!