Australian 2014
Australian C20
C20 Colleagues,
Thank you for your ongoing support of the work of the Australian C20.
The contributions made to our policy development process, our engagement with the G20 working groups and meetings, and those of our many delegates and speakers at the Summit, have all helped deliver our Summit communique and formulate our key recommendations to the G20. We particularly appreciated the presence of many of our friends who made the long journey from overseas to join us in Melbourne.
We presented our key messages to the meeting of the G20 sherpas and deputy finance ministers the day following the Summit.
An international delegation of C20 members presented our communique to the Australian Prime Minister.
This email provides a quick update on the Australian C20 Summit as we move swiftly into our advocacy activities between now and the Leaders Summit in November.
Our Key Outcomes
1. International civil society has endorsed a set of key messages and recommendations to take to G20 governments, expressed in our Communique.
2. Consistent messages and ongoing engagement are important to achieve our outcomes. Our key messages are presented below.
3. Our advocacy phase is just as important as our policy development. Civil society must work collaboratively to ensure the G20 delivers on inclusive and sustainable growth.
C20 Policy Documents are published on our website under Resources
Attached is a short background paper with our key messages. As we enter our advocacy phase, we would like you to use this document, together with the communique, in your conversations with colleagues, in your communities of interest, and with your members of parliament, to encourage the governments of all G20 nations to adopt our position. We have demonstrated why it is so important that the G20 delivers on inclusive and sustainable growth, and we have proposed workable solutions to achieve results through country’s comprehensive growth strategy.
The Australian C20 is also working with Turkey civil society as they form their Turkey C20. For continuity and to help in their international outreach, we would like to provide your contact information to the Turkey secretariat. Please tell us (via reply email) if you would NOT like you contact information to be provided.
For further information, to listen to podcasts and speeches from the Summit, or to view our photo library, please visitwww.C20.org.au.
Joanne Yates
C20 Sherpa
Driving inclusive and sustainable growth, creating jobs and increasing global living standards
C20’s key messages to G20 Leaders
Civil society wants global growth to be inclusive so that all people, especially the world’s poorest, share in its benefits. Growth should not be an end in itself, but should be jobs-rich. Growth should not come at the expense of the environment or communities, but needs to be sustainable. Government, the corporate sector and communities must to work together to achieve this common purpose.
1. Inclusive growth that is jobs-rich. The global economy remains fragile. The task is to support economic resilience, build steadily the rate of economic growth in order to create real, quality jobs to lift living standards around the world.
2. G20 can pursue this goal. The G20 is the primary forum to coordinate the action and build the momentum necessary to achieve sustainable, inclusive global growth.
3. Support for the growth target. The G20 ambition to lift collective GDP by two percent above current targets over the next five years is entirely appropriate. But the target must include measures that improve the income levels of the bottom twenty percent of households, proving that those most in need benefit from the projected growth target.
4. C20 has developed key policies to support an inclusive, sustainable growth agenda. Civil society examined a number of key policy questions and recommends that the G20 focusses on improvements in the participation rate and economic independence of women, young people and others in job creation strategies. Changes to international tax regulation and capital flows would immediately improve the global economic outcomes, particularly for developing nations. Tackling climate change, through a price on carbon, ending fossil fuel subsidies and investing in tomorrow’s energy supplies provides the industry innovation required for investment and job creation. Strong and transparency regulation and decision making, particularly in supply chains and procurement will also foster and promote stronger economies and restore trust in government and corporate decision making.
5. C20 recommendations for the G20. The C20 has developed 18 recommendations for action within or policy themes to promote sustainable and inclusive economic growth. These require agreement by the G20, and if implemented as intended, each member country will receive broad support by civil society.
June 2014
The G20 comes together because global economic reform and inclusive growth cannot be achieved without such collaboration. The G20 allows countries to focus on collective action to deliver inclusive and sustainable economic growth, create real and quality jobs and drive improvements in global living standards. Growth is necessary for nations to provide the types of services – health, education and social support – that citizens require of them. Alleviation of the most extreme global poverty will only be achieved through an inclusive, shared and sustainable economic growth agenda.
The Australian C20 Steering Committee is charged with the responsibility of bringing to the attention of G20 leaders, key and pressing concerns of those who comprise civil society, within Australia and elsewhere across the globe.
We are concerned that the global economy remains fragile and extreme and growing inequality remains a feature of many nations. Recovery from the global financial crisis is not guaranteed and global growth remains stubbornly lower than expected. The decision of the G20 to create a global growth target is commended, but must include concrete, ambitious and realistic measures for achieving strong, sustainable and inclusive economic growth. Poverty alleviation needs to be a key target, delivering improved income distribution, especially for the bottom 20 percent of households.
Civil society supports the development of country growth strategies and the articulation of employment strategies contained within. Our recommendations are drawn from our four policy themes considered critical to delivering inclusive, sustainable, economic growth.
C20 Recommendations
The C20 has focussed on four key themes that would be contribute to the G20’s global growth agenda and which provide the best opportunity for civil society input. Our four key themes were inclusive growth and employment, infrastructure, climate change and resource sustainability, and governance. Through international outreach and a structured working group arrangement, we drafted four policy papers. These, were discussed through our C230 Summit, held at the University of Melbourne in June 2014, from which we developed 18 recommendations for action by the G20. We believe the implementation of these recommendations will enable G20 nations to deliver inclusive, sustainable growth of benefit to whole communities, both within G20 nations and in developing economies.
Inclusive growth that is jobs-rich
o Improving women’s participation and investment in the industries were women’s employment is concentrated would be sufficient to achieve two percent growth targets
o 2 percent increase in income levels of the bottom 20 percent of households as a measure inclusiveness
o Employment Action Plan to include strategies targeting our most at risk and marginalised (women, youth, indigenous, long term unemployed, those with a disability, older workers) and create jobs through active labour markets programs linking skills and training
Sustainable growth through commitment to take action on climate change at 2015 UNFCCC
o Ending government subsidies for fossil fuels to help tackle climate change;
o Developing a Climate Finance Roadmap to be adopted in 2015;
o Re-balancing investments in agriculture to support small-scale farming.
Infrastructure project approvals that do not limit investment to transport, energy or trade facilitation, but rather is viewed as ‘productive’.
o Investment approvals must be based on publicly available cost-benefit analyses, within appropriate regulatory frameworks and risk assessment procedures
o Infrastructure is to be funded through a value-for-money approach (rather than a bias towards PPPs)
o Protections and safeguards include those relating to social, economic and environmental outcomes and with governance arrangements that are transparent, fit-for-purpose and which include the community’s involvement across the entire project
Strong governance through anti corruption measures and a commitment to a fair international taxation system that ends tax havens and secrecy jurisdictions. Encourage business to conduct themselves responsibly, and in accordance with OECD principles and standards in supply chains, procurement and international trade.
o Public registers of ‘beneficial ownership’, or the real owners of companies
o Greater international tax transparency, including country by country reporting and automatic exchange of tax information (that includes capacity building in developing nations)
o Curbing corruption by increasing transparency in the extractives industries and combating foreign bribery
C20 Advocacy
Our focus now is on advocacy. This will have three streams:
• Domestic and international civil society organisations using the C20 recommendations as a basis for discussions on policy reform with their home and with other G20 leaders
• Australian Steering Committee members, Summit delegates and members of the C20 community acting as champions of C20 recommendations in meetings with their governments and communities
• The C20 Chair, Steering Committee members, Working Group co-chairs, and the C20 Sherpa using their prominent roles to discuss C20 recommendations within their communities, government leaders and other engagement groups
CivilBRICS GlobalNet 