Shengyao Guo, who is currently pursuing a masters in Finance and Accounting at Sheffield University Management School, recently attended the G20 Summit in Brazil. This was a unique opportunity for Shengyao to see how the topics she has been learning about in her studies play out in real life across the world.
The G20 is a leading international forum where major economies gather to address global economic governance, financial stability, and sustainable development. The 2024 summit, hosted in Rio de Janeiro in November 2024, brought together world leaders, senior government officials, international organisations and experts from various sectors. This year's agenda focused on:
- Fighting hunger, poverty and inequality
- Advancing sustainable development across economic, social and environmental dimensions
- Reforming global governance systems to address the challenges of today
The G20 also gave Shengyao the opportunity to gain a variety of other insights which she will be able to apply to her research in the rest of her studies as well as her future career. She brought together her reflections on the summit in a policy note entitled 'The G20 and Women in Trade: A Real Commitment or Empty Promise?'. Shengyao highlights the transformative potential of integrating women into global trade systems, emphasising that empowering women in trade could add up to $5 trillion to the global economy. Her report delves into the limitations of current sustainability reporting frameworks like Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) metrics, arguing that they often neglect critical social and ecological dimensions.
On returning from the summit, she presented her reflections to her fellow classmates, passing on her learning and reflections and inspiring them to consider some of the issues that the G20 caused her to think more deeply about.
