A three day IBSA Women's Forum meet will start on 14th May at Chanakyapuri, New Delhi

The fifth India Brazil South Africa (IBSA) Women’s Forum meet will be inaugurated by Smt. Krishna Tirath, Minister for Women and Child Development on 14th May, 2013.

The meet will be held for three days and will hold the stage to various delibrations led by the Ministry of Women and Child Development, Government of India, the Ministry for Women, Children and Persons with Disabilities, Republic of South Africa and the Special Secretariat for Policies on Women, Presidency of the Federative Republic of Brazil, civil society representatives, academics and young people.

The first day will bring various stakeholders and civil society organization and academics in a consultative deliberation over various issues of women’s empowerment and gender equality. Succeeded by the official level meeting on 15th May.

After two days of discussion and deliberations the outcome will pave the way for the declaration at the Ministerial meet of the Forum, to be held on 16th May.

Women’s Forum is an initiative launched under the People-to-People’s Forum by the Heads of the IBSA States during the 2nd IBSA Summit in South Africa 2007, and is a unique platform of co-operation bringing together the countries of India, Brazil and South Africa with the objective of promoting gender equality and empowerment. Over the years the forum has setup the stage for facilitating the process of people to people consultation and sharing of best practices in order to strengthen partnerships among the three countries.

The Forum will take up and discuss the issues that contribute towards the transformation of women’s lives; by highlighting initiatives around preventing violence against women and girls; addressing the needs of vulnerable and marginalized women and accelerating gender equality; political partnership and leadership; empowering the rural and marginalized women; strengthening social protection systems within the developmental framework; and gender responsive budgeting.

By addressing structural and institutional barriers as well as strengthening gender mainstreaming the Forum will move towards its vision to ensure the status and condition of women be improved.