Civil society presents recommendations to the G20 at the Civil-20 Summit
We participated in the C20 Summit, which took place on August 6 and 7 in the city of Buenos Aires and where the final communiqué of the C20 was presented, with recommendations for the leaders of the G20 countries.
El Civil 20 (C20) es uno de los siete Engagement Groups o Grupos de Afinidad del Grupo de los 20 (G20) y constituye un ámbito en el que la sociedad civil de distintas partes del mundo puede contribuir a las discusiones y debates que se dan en el marco del G20, buscando incidir en las decisiones adoptadas por dicho foro. En los últimos años, el C20 adoptó como modalidad de trabajo la división en diferentes grupos de trabajo específicos, desde los cuales se abordan distintas temáticas en profundidad y se elaboran documentos de alto nivel que luego son presentados ante el G20. El resultado final de todo el trabajo del C20 se refleja en un comunicado final, el cuál es entregado al G20, cuya Cumbre de Líderes tendrá lugar el 30 de noviembre y 1 de diciembre en Buenos Aires.
Fundeps es co-coordinador del Grupo de Trabajo sobre Inversión e Infraestructura del C20, por lo que hemos participado activamente en la coordinación de las discusiones y debates del grupo, tanto a nivel virtual como presencial; y en la elaboración del policy paper del grupo, que se incorporó al documento de recomendaciones final del C20. A su vez, el 6 y 7 de Agosto pasados participamos de la Cumbre del C20 en la ciudad de Buenos Aires, donde se presentó el documento con recomendaciones de políticas de los grupos de trabajo, el cuál fue además entregado al Presidente Mauricio Macri durante su participación en la apertura del evento.
The document summarizes the recommendations for the leaders of the G20 countries of each of the 8 C20 Working Groups: 1) Anticorruption 2) Architecture of the International Financial System 3) Education, Employment and Inclusion 4) Environment, Climate and Energy 5 ) Gender 6) Investment and Infrastructure 7) Local2Global 8) Global Health.
In the case of the working group that we coordinate (Investment and Infrastructure), the Policy Paper includes the main points and recommendations of the two thematic sub-groups in which the work was divided: Infrastructure Financing and Responsible Business Conduct. In particular, it proposes a series of 12 recommendations, among which are:
- Promote the transparent and impartial tools necessary to evaluate what type of financing is the most appropriate for a given project.
- Adopt and promote a set of criteria for sustainable infrastructure and quality to ensure compliance with the Sustainable Development Goals.
- Decisions about projects should be guided by national development strategies and priorities, and adopted through participatory processes to identify, mitigate and manage the environmental and social impacts of projects.
- The guidelines on contractual provisions for Public-Private Partnerships (PPPs) should take into account public policy considerations and should not favor the interests of private investors over the contracting authorities.
- Promote radical improvements in the transparency and accountability of infrastructure projects, whether with public or private funds.
- Implement and complement the standards that establish responsible business conduct; Ensure significant participation in investment decisions, guaranteeing access to information and participation of communities in projects, from their design, according to their own times and priorities, defending the right to free, prior and informed consent; and protecting human rights defenders and informants.
- Guarantee access to effective remediation for communities impacted by business activities, strengthening judicial and non-judicial mechanisms and in accordance with the United Nations Guiding Principles on business and human rights and the OECD guidelines for multinational companies.
After two days of debates and exhibitions by representatives of the C20 and other affinity groups, the C20 Summit closed echoing the commitment of President Mauricio Macri himself, who said that the Argentine presidency of the C20 would put people at the center of your policies. However, as expressed in the final communiqué of the C20, “speeches are not enough, genuine commitment is required through action”.
The Summit of G-20 leaders will take place at the end of November in Buenos Aires and until then, it will be the responsibility of the civil society organizations that participated in this process to bring these recommendations and claims not only to the rest of the civil society interested; but also to the affected communities and to the governmental representatives and political leaders not only of the countries that make up the G20, but of the whole world. In that sense, during the next four months we will continue coordinating the Investment and Infrastructure group, seeking to bring the recommendations reflected in the group’s policy paper to as many actors as possible.
More information:
Policy Pack: Recomendaciones del C20 al G20 de 2018
Documento del sub-grupo sobre Financiamiento de Infraestructura
Documento del sub-grupo sobre Conducta Empresarial Responsable
El C20 entregó sus recomendaciones a Mauricio Macri – G20 – 06/10/2018
La sociedad civil se reunió en el C20 – FUNDEPS – 17/04/2018
Contact:
Gonzalo Roza / Coordinador del Área de Gobernabilidad Global
