KPMG announced as top-tier partner of Women 20 Engagement Group

• KPMG will support and sponsor W20’s efforts to promote gender equality and women’s empowerment across the G20’s international ecosystem
• The W20 and KPMG Saudi partnership will focus on increasing women’s participation in the workforce and highlight KPMG’s practical expertise

Riyadh: Women 20 (W20), an official G20 engagement group established during the 2015 Turkish presidency and KPMG, leading provider of audit, tax, and advisory services in Saudi Arabia, are delighted to announce their partnership as part of the G20 Saudi Presidency year.

In the lead up to the G20 Leaders’ Summit in Riyadh in November 2020, W20 will formulate concrete actionable policy recommendations to advance gender equality in G20 negotiations, to be unanimously agreed upon by international delegates from all G20 member states. These will form the basis of a communique to G20 Leaders to foster gender equality and women’s economic empowerment.

They will also host a number of expert meetings, roundtables and dialogues virtually in Saudi Arabia, which KPMG will support and sponsor, most notably the Women 20 Summit in October 2020. These events include a W20-Alnahda Majlis, which taken place on 24 June at which Ms. Kholoud Mousa, Partner & Head of Diversity &Inclusion at KPMG in Saudi Arabia, participated as a panelist.

The partnership will also allow both parties to work together to promote the efforts and core focus areas of W20: Digital inclusion, Financial inclusion, Labor inclusion and Inclusive decision-making, with Women’s Entrepreneurship as a cross cutting topic. This is particularly pertinent for KPMG, Saudi who, as pioneers in hiring women globally, whose percentage of female representation has steadily increased over the last five years.

Women 20 Sherpa Salma Al Rashid announced the partnership: “Women 20 is delighted that KPMG Saudi are joining as a top tier partner for our important work this year. KPMG has a clear commitment to improving the rights for and mobility of women through women’s participation in the workforce. This is a positive time for women’s empowerment in Saudi Arabia, and the region. We want to continue that momentum throughout the G20 Presidency.”

Commenting on the partnership with W20, Ms. Kholoud Mousa expanded: “This strategic partnership comes in the context of KPMG’s continuous endeavor to enable national cadres, Saudi women in particular, to contribute to enhancing the developmental role and benefit from the national expertise and capabilities. These dialogue sessions of W20 aim to address different fields that may contribute to integrating and enabling Saudi women in different fields.”

“Our participation in and support of these sessions reflect our consolidated commitment to supporting the events that enhance the efforts in contributing practically to the promotion of the status of women with regard to the economy and investment are at the heart of the agenda of G20 this year,” Kholoud added.

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For media inquiries including interview requests for W20 Sherpa Salma Al-Rashid, please contact Amy Selman, aselman@apcoworldwide.com , 

About W20
The Women 20 (W20) is an official G20 engagement group established during the Turkish presidency in 2015.

It is a policy recommendation engagement group which is part of the G20 process but is independent from governments. In its functioning, it mirrors the G20 process.

Its primary objective is to ensure that the gender considerations are mainstreamed into G20 discussions and translate into the G20 Leaders' Declaration as policies and implementation commitments that foster gender equality and women’s economic empowerment.

The W20 is formed of a transnational network of delegates representing non-government women’s organizations, civil society, female entrepreneurs, businesses, and think tanks across G20 member states.

Through a broad dialogue facilitated by digital tools, expert meetings, roundtables and the final Summit, W20 delegates jointly formulate concrete actionable policy recommendations to advance gender equality in G20 negotiations. The W20 Communique reflects the engagement group's position with supporting evidence; while these recommendations are non-binding, they are considered by the G20 for its discussions and negotiations, and contribute to the policy-making process.

Every year, the W20 develops and addresses to the G20 Leaders a Communique which contains a series of actionable policy recommendations aimed at fostering gender equality and women’s economic empowerment in order to boost gender-inclusive economic growth for each and every country.

About KPMG

KPMG in Saudi Arabia is established through its member firm KPMG Al Fozan & Partners and has operated in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia since 1992.  KPMG has grown to become one of the largest professional service providers in the Kingdom.

During the last few years, KPMG has reached to a workforce of nearly 1,300 across the country, based in Riyadh, Jeddah and Al Khobar.

© Press Release 2020