The 3rd G20 Development Working Group Meeting Concludes, Urging The Importance Of Multilateralism And Development Funding Mechanisms

The 3rd G20 Development Working Group (DWG) Meeting in Bali, held between 10 August and 12 August, concluded on Friday (12/8) with the discussion and finalization of key G20 agreements. These include the G20 Roadmap for Stronger Recovery and Resilience in Developing Countries, Least Developed Countries, and Small Island Developing States, the G20 Principles to Scale Up Blended Finance in Developing Countries, the G20 Ministerial Vision Statement: Multilateralism for Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) Decade of Action, and the 2022 G20 Bali Update.

“The Development Working Group is a place for G20 member countries to come together, prioritize multilateralism, share solutions that promote growth, remap development plans, and achieve the SDGs targets. The G20 possesses the knowledge, expertise, and financial resources required to reverse trajectories that have gone off track. Thus, let’s make every effort to change direction ad build solid progress,” said the Minister of National Development Planning/Head of Bappenas Suharso Monoarfa.

These agreements will serve as the foundation for discussing development cooperation at the G20 Ministerial Meeting held in Belitung on 7-9 September 2022. The G20 DWG Meetings have been held three times in 2022, namely in Jakarta (24-25 February), Yogyakarta (24-25 May), and Bali (10-12 August).

The DWG discussed the G20’s strategies for mitigating the Covid-19 pandemic, improving the welfare of small-to-medium scale businesses (MSMEs), fulfilling the SDGs, improving global health infrastructure, accelerating digital transformation, and helping transition towards sustainable energy in developing countries. G20 DWG Chairman Scenaider C. H. Siahaan said that the DWG is also targeting to increase efforts to implement blended finance schemes. “That’s what Indonesia also proposed; formulating principles for blended finance. So, how to bring in funding, including from development funds, from philanthropy as well, and also from the private sector to complement the budgets of developing countries,” he said.

 

About the Development Working Group

The Development Working Group (DWG) is one of the working groups of the 2022 G20 Indonesia Presidency which aims to discuss development issues in developing countries, least developed countries (LDC) and island countries (Small Island Developing States/SIDS). The DWG was first formed at the 2010 G20 Summit in Toronto, Canada with the main task of discussing the G20 priority agendas in the field of development. The DWG identifies development challenges, and then formulates the best solutions to promote economic growth in developing and low-income countries as an effort to mitigate the global financial crisis.

During the Indonesian Presidency of the G20 in 2022, the DWG raised four priority issues, namely:
1) Strengthening Recovery from the Covid-19 Pandemic and Ensuring Resilience in Developing Countries, Underdeveloped Countries, and Archipelagic Countries through the three key pillars of MSMEs, Adaptive Social Protection, and Low-Carbon Green and Blue Economies
2) Increasing Private and Blended Financing in Funding Sustainable Development in Developing Countries, Underdeveloped Countries, and Archipelagic Countries
3) Renewing the Global Commitment to Multilateralism for Sustainable Development
4) Coordinating the progress of achieving the SDGs in the G20 and updating the G20 Development Commitments.

The DWG’s focal points, organized by the Ministry of National Development Planning/Bappenas, are the 1st DWG Meeting in Jakarta (24-25 February) and the 2nd DWG Meeting in Yogyakarta (24-25 May). A third DWG meeting will be held in Bali between 10 August to 12 August 2022. The G20 Indonesia Presidency will also hold the G20 Development Ministerial Meeting in Belitung on 7-9 September 2022.