Empowerment Principles (WEPs) of UN Women. We also endorse the mission of the UN’s High Level Panel (HLP) on Women’s Economic Empowerment. We reiterate our commitment to expanding opportunities for women and girls by building their capacity including through quality education and training, and supporting women and girls to realize their full potential. To translate such commitments into actions, we endorse common guiding principles set out in the Annex, the G7 Guiding Principles for Capacity Building of Women and Girls: towards Sustainable, Inclusive and Equitable Growth and Peace, that builds on the SDGs in the area of gender equality, health and education. We invite other interested countries to join us in these commitments. Promoting the active role of women in STEM fields and careers We recognize that a critical determinant of global competitiveness is human talent, and that promoting the active role of women in STEM fields and careers broadens the talent pool and enhances creativity and innovation which leads to economic growth and productivity. We aim to improve women’s access to higher-paying jobs and to reduce gender wage gaps. Despite such benefits, while the number of women graduates in STEM fields is increasing, the share of women employed in STEM careers has shown little change in the last decade. We emphasize that, in addition to education and training, it is important to remove the gender bias that women encounter, promote institutional change and create legal and policy environments which effectively advance gender equality in those careers. In this light, we launch a G7 initiative, Women’s Initiative in Developing STEM Career (WINDS), to catalyze global momentum to promote the advancement of women in STEM fields and careers, in partnership with the OECD, UNWomen, and other international agencies and stakeholders. Making concrete progress in Women, Peace and Security We are appalled by the increase in gender-based violence in all its forms including sexual violence, in conflict and post-conflict situations, when fleeing a conflict or when migrating, as well as during and in the aftermath of natural disasters. We therefore reaffirm the importance of tackling all forms of gender based violence including in our societies, supporting those affected and holding perpetrators to account with the aim to address the culture of impunity, while making all efforts to prevent sexual and gender-based violence. We are also committed to work with the UN and others to advance the Women, Peace and Security agenda. In this connection, we call on all states to support full implementation of the UNSG’s zero tolerance policy towards sexual exploitation and of the UN Security Council resolution 2272. We highlight the importance of women’s active and meaningful participation in conflict prevention and resolution, mediation, peacekeeping, humanitarian response, peacebuilding and post-conflict reconstruction consistent with the UN Security Council resolution 1325 and its subsequent resolutions. We therefore call upon all states to implement the commitments they made at last year’s UN Security Council High Level Review of SCR 1325, and remain committed to supporting efforts by other countries, both financially and technically, to establish and implement National Action Plans on Women, Peace and Security or similar gender-equality related strategies. 14