INTRODUCTION
The G20 Development Working Group (DWG) falls under the Sherpa track of the G20 and is the key G20 forum for the discussion of a wide range of issues that directly affect developing countries, especially Low-Income Countries (LICs). Until recently, South Africa was the permanent core chair of the DWG. Shared development was elevated as a key concern of the G20 during the Seoul Summit with the adoption of the Seoul Development Consensus for Shared Growth in 2011. As an international cooperation forum, the G20’s development discussions are still guided by the following principles: inclusive economic growth, development partnership, addressing systemic weaknesses requiring joint cooperation, private sector participation, complementarity of development efforts, and tangible outcomes.
The G20, as a premier forum for international economic cooperation, has always complemented the efforts of aid donors, the United Nations (UN) system, multilateral development banks (MDBs), and other agencies and pledged to assist developing countries to achieve global development priorities first articulated as the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and later Sustainable Developmental Goals (SDGs). This commitment to drive development was evident even in the G20 2010 Toronto Summit where leaders pledged to meeting the MDGs, including through the use of official development assistance. It is further reflected in the adoption of the G20 Action Plan on the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development in 2016, which outlines the high-level principles of the implementation and G20 collective actions for achieving sustainable development. Thenceforth, each G20 Presidency has carried out the mission to mainstream the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.
Even though the G20 does not have an enforcing mechanism for decisions taken, it is influential as it works to address major issues related to the global economy, such as international financial stability, climate change mitigation, and sustainable development. The accountability matrix monitors the implementation of decisions, programmes, and interventions adopted at the summit level over the years.
South Africa’s G20 Presidency should revitalise and catalyse the drive towards achieving the SDGs, particularly since the developmental gains have been eroded by the COVID-19 pandemic and recovery is slow. This should be done through ensuring that the achievement of the SDGs remains at the centre of international financing discussions; that long outstanding commitments are met; and that new, at-scale, affordable and accessible funding is mobilised to support sustainable development.
PRIORITIES
PRIORITY 1: HIGH-LEVEL PRINCIPLES ON GLOBAL PUBLIC GOODS AND GLOBAL PUBLIC INVESTMENT
DELIVERABLE
Research and launch a major initiative aimed at the construction of a new architecture of international cooperation that firmly rests on two main pillars, namely: international cooperation in support of Global Public Goods provision and development assistance.
PRIORITY 2: MOBILISING FINANCE FOR DEVELOPMENT AND MOBILISING MEANS OF IMPLEMENTATION
DELIVERABLE
The G20 is to take forward the initiative to strengthen regulatory frameworks at all levels in accordance with international standards and to further increase transparency and accountability of financial institutions and the corporate sector, as well as public administrations.
PRIORITY 3: BUILDING RESILIENCE BY INTRODUCING SOCIAL PROTECTION FLOORS
DELIVERABLE:
Derived from the International Labour Organisation Recommendation 202, a voluntary framework for a social protection floor can be adopted at leaders’ level.
This framework encourages all members to, in accordance with national circumstances, establish as quickly as possible and maintain their social protection floors comprising basic social security guarantees and to popularise the framework such that it is implemented globally. The guarantees of a social protection floor should ensure, at a minimum, that over the life cycle, all in need have access to essential health care and to basic income security, which together secure effective access to goods and services defined as necessary at the national level and should include:Â
- access to a nationally defined set of goods and services constituting essential health care, including maternity care, which meets the criteria of availability, accessibility, acceptability and quality;
- basic income security for children, at least at a nationally defined minimum level, providing access to nutrition, education, care, and any other necessary goods and services;
- basic income security, at least at a nationally defined minimum level, for persons in active age who are unable to earn sufficient income, in particular in cases of sickness, unemployment, maternity, and disability; and
- basic income security, at least at a nationally defined minimum level, for older persons.
The establishment of a Task Force to develop a Global Alliance Against Hunger and Poverty, announced by President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva in November 2023, bears resonance with the 2021 UN Recommendation for a Global Fund for Social Protection arising from the report of the Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights.
