C20 Policy Pack 2024 is out now

Download the C20 Policy Pack 2024 here.

Below is a message from Henrique Frota (C20 Brazil Chair) and Alessandra Nilo (C20 Brazil Sherpa).

The G20 is an intergovernmental forum made up of the world’s largest economies. The G20 countries represent about 80% of global GDP and 75% of global trade, in addition to two-thirds of the planet’s population. Emerging at the end of the 1990s as a space for economic consultation, over the decades it began to expand its scope of action, including new topics in its agenda, such as the climate agenda, energy transition, the new global financial architecture, health, and women’s rights, among others.

Undoubtedly, once more, in Brazil, the C20 reaffirmed its role among the major contributors to the G20 process, given that, besides acting as a monitoring actor, it has shown that civil society is the home of innovators and experts on technology, sustainable development, gender equality, climate emergency, health, education, and all G20-related themes, being able and always ready to provide cutting-edge solutions and innovative ideas to the G20 governments on the key issues of our time.

While the G20 has long attempted to address economic crises (in fact the reason for its creation in 1999), it has failed to effectively address systemic economic risks and fostered unsustainable, extractive, and exclusionary production and consumption models that have led us to existing inequalities and to climate emergencies. Nowadays, the G20 countries are responsible for 80% of polluting gas emissions on the planet. Also, only a few of them sit on the boards of international and multilateral financial institutions and hold global decision-making power, including in the UN Security Council. It is not by chance, therefore, that the G20 failed to prevent and end wars and has not been able to support countries when they need it most, as in the case of Haiti.

The world is getting very close to a tipping point. The increased levels of hunger and poverty, the risk of new pandemics, the loss of biodiversity, and the exponential increase in human rights violations are all aspects of the same planetary crisis, all made worse by the climate emergency. The costs of this polycrisis are incalculable, especially affecting communities in the most vulnerable situations.

In this context, a significant number of countries in the Global South are exposed to extreme weather events and are facing high levels of hunger and poverty, but cannot take adequate action because they are being forced to allocate a significant part of their resources to debt servicing due to pressure from the oligopoly of credit rating agencies, thus hindering their access to more funding.

This is the global scenario in which the G20 landed in Brazil in 2024. Under the slogan “Building a Just World and a Sustainable Planet,” the Brazilian Presidency chose three priorities: 1) Fighting hunger, poverty, and inequality; 2) Environment, sustainable development, and energy transition; 3) Global governance reform.

Despite its informality and not being part of the multilateral system, in recent years the G20 has gained more space within the international community, and Civil Society, through the Civil 20 (C20), has played an important role in urging them to be accountable and to speed the implementation of key agreements. The C20 was made official as an Engagement Group in 2013. Since then, C20 has grown stronger in its role of ensuring that world leaders listen to the recommendations and demands of organized civil society, looking to protect the environment and promote social and economic development, human rights, and the principle of leaving no one behind.

In Brazil, the C20 was chaired by the Brazilian Association of NGOs (ABONG), having the CSO Gestos – Seropositivity, Communication, and Gender as Sherpa, under the motto “Civil Society for a Sustainable World.”

This year, the C20 gathered more than 1,760 organizations and social movements from 91 different countries. Among its working groups, which were co-facilitated by 30 organizations, 62 online meetings were held to agree on proposals. In addition, three large hybrid meetings were held in Brazil (one in the city of Recife and two in the city of Rio de Janeiro), where civil society interacted with high-level authorities.

The C20’s recommendations to the G20 were developed across ten thematic working groups, taking human rights, gender equity (including LGBTQIAPN+ rights), anti- racism, and people with disabilities in all their diversity as strategic themes. This year, as a result of the Brazilian government’s commitment to open more spaces for CSO engagement, a summary of the recommendations was officially handed over during the 3rd G20 Sherpas meeting, held on July 4th, in Rio de Janeiro. The C20 working groups officially engaged in several Ministerial Meetings of the Sherpa Track – such as Health, Education, Environment and Climate Sustainability, Energy Transition, Digital Economy, Anti-Corruption – and of the Finance Track. It’s also important to highlight the strategic role of the C20 in the debates on the Global Alliance Against Hunger and Poverty.

Undoubtedly, once more, in Brazil, the C20 reaffirmed its role among the major contributors to the G20 process, given that, besides acting as a monitoring actor, it has shown that civil society is the home of innovators and experts on technology, sustainable development, gender equality, climate emergency, health, education, and all G20-related themes, being able and always ready to provide cutting-edge solutions and innovative ideas to the G20 governments on the key issues of our time.

All these amazing achievements were not possible without the hard work of the C20 members, led by the co-facilitators of the working groups, the Steering Committee, and the International Advisory Committee. We could not close this chapter of the C20 without thanking everyone who was involved, especially our tireless staff of the C20 Secretariat, Abong, and Gestos, as well as all our sponsors.

Together, we have made it possible to deliver the C20 Policy Recommendations Package that this publication contains, and we hope that it can serve as a reference for the path ahead in South Africa. There, we know that the C20 will continue to seek a fairer and more sustainable world, demanding that G20 decisions reflect the public interests, are worthy of people’s trust, and really promote fairer, peaceful, and equitable societies where, one day, no one – and no country – will be left behind.

Henrique Frota (C20 Brazil Chair) Alessandra Nilo (C20 Brazil Sherpa)