Ashraf Nehal is currently a Second Year student at Delhi University pursuing a degree in English Literature. He’s aspirant to make a career in diplomacy and has walked miles ahead in gaining an upper edge in it. He serves as the Delhi Secretary of Asia Africa Youth Foundation and also enjoys an executive position in Global Youth and India Brazil Youth Forum. He has been selected for World Sustainable Development Summit and Model CHOGM where he has been subjected to the taste of International Diplomacy. With a cultural inclined soul, he believes Diplomacy will get him the better side of himself.
India | June 27, 2020 | Student Essay
The Group of Twenty, or the G20 is an organisation with both developed and developing nations across the continents for international economic cooperation. It can be termed as a juncture where frequent discussions are carried out to discuss financial and socioeconomic issues and all the member nations have equal say and the efficiency of it can be better analysed with the fact that the representation of G20 consists of 80% of the world’s economic output, two-thirds of global population and three-quarters of International trade.
Background of Germany’s Role
Though there’s a fair representation from all the power blocks but Germany has set it’s own way of excellence. Germany has been significant in Ensuring Stability of the Global Economy, considering the sufferings it has had undergone and recently is undergoing due to Covid-19. Germany promotes dynamic economic growth by involving instrumental structural reforms in finance, employment, trade and investment.
Germany is also set with the vision towards Improving Viability for The Future setting the standardized belief that Good Global Governance should understand and apply the essential to achieve sustainable development. Germany is one of the key actors in advocating, ‘how Sustainable Development will benefit and ensure long-term preservation of the planet. Germany is determined and set to work towards making the economy more fit for the future by addressing various key issues; viable energy and climate strategies, digitalization, better healthcare and management of health crisis and empowering women in the economy. In fact out of so many Global Actors it’s only Germany that has prioritised ensuring that the goals of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the Paris Agreement on climate change are achieved.
Germany has also projected itself in G20 as a Nation Accepting Responsibility and is inclined towards strengthening the G20s role as a forum of collective responsibility. Germany is among the few countries who is looking East towards achieving sustainable economic development in Africa. Germany has also shown it’s firm and positive effort oriented response in addressing issues like Migration, terrorism, corruption and money laundering.
Germany’s G20 Presidency
Prior to Saudi Arabia, the Presidency of G20 was with Germany and Germany held it high with the motto, “Shaping an interconnected world”. Germany hosted the G20 Summit at Hamburg on 7 and 8 July 2017. The focus areas of Germany’s G20 Presidency were as mentioned above: ensuring stability, improving viability for the future, accepting responsibility. Successes were not only achieved in regard to International economic cooperation, empowering women and the G20 Africa Partnership.
Germany delivered certain more intensive outputs in the process of G20: there were several specialist ministerial meetings and conferences which ministers took part in. For the first time in Germany’s Presidency health ministers had their own specialist meeting. The working groups also met to address topics such as “development”, ”digitalisation” and “fighting corruption”.
An upper hand to Germany’s Presidency is considered to be the dialogue with Civil Societies. Seven Forums were held on women, trade unions, youth, non-governmental organisations, think tanks, business and science with the aim of discussing new ideas and recommendations and involve it in the negotiations.
Under German Presidency the G20 also agreed to support the UN’s planned compacts for refugees and migration and to address the root causes of displacement and expulsion and the heads of state and government also adopted guidelines for fair and effective integration drawn by the G20 labour ministers. They also commissioned an annual monitoring report on flight and migration.
The EU representation in the G20
The European Union is itself a member of the G20 alongside three of its member states: France, Germany and Italy. The European Union is the second largest economic power at the table representing 18.5% of total gross domestic product, behind the United States which accounts for 24% of Global Gross Domestic Product.
Conclusion
The German government included development issues beyond the usual subject matter like the Climate Change, Global Health, Partnership with African countries and the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. German officials said that the agenda was designed to reflect what Chancellor Angela Merkel’s government saw as the most critical development challenges, as well as issues that did not receive enough Global Attention like – resilience, sustainability and responsibility and goals like improving pandemic preparedness, using digital technology to empower women and girls and improving access to financial services for the world’s poorest people.
Germany’s commitment ranged from restatement of efforts to pursue the 2030 Agenda to a vow to fight climate change to specific financing pledges for disease surveillance systems. The German government also made huge effort to have a serious dialogue with inconsistent and namesake stakeholders and the alliance processes and Germany played a really crucial role in aligning the member nations towards climate change after US President Trump announced his withdrawal from the Paris Agreement on Climate Change.
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References:
- https://g20.org/en/about/Pages/whatis.aspx
- https://whatsupgermany.de/germanys-g20-presidency/
- https://www.bundesregierung.de/breg-en/news/the-g20-in-germany-time-to-take-stock-46294
- https://ec.europa.eu/info/food-farming-fisheries/farming/international-cooperation/international-organisations/g20_en
- https://www.devex.com/news/germany-pushes-development-for-upcoming-g20-summit-90548/amp
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