G20 Sherpa track
The Sherpa track’s four-day conference, which kicked out in Udaipur on Sunday, kicked off its first official meeting on Monday with dignitaries from 40 different nations.
India highlighted the importance of the Global South and listed accelerated, inclusive and resilient growth and progress on the Sustainable Development Goals, particularly health and education, as top priorities of the G20 Summit as the first official meeting of the Sherpa track got underway in Udaipur on Monday.
India’s Sherpa Amitabh Kant referred to the country’s G20 presidency theme, “Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam (One Earth, One Family, One Future),” in order to develop strategies for green development, foster climate finance, technological transformation, and digital public infrastructure, prepare multilateral institutions for the twenty-first century, and place an emphasis on the three Fs (food, fuel, and fertilizers) in addition to the more general theme of women-led development.
According to our viewpoint, cooperation between developed nations, the Global South, and emerging markets should be mutually beneficial. It’s important that we use fresh ideas. Due to the fact that this is a unique platform with both developed and developing economies, we must develop strategies to advance the cause of the entire world on important international issues. Countless issues are being faced by the world; Kant noted in his introduction.
“The problems we face today can only be solved by working together through harmony, hope, and healing. Our first concern should be for those who are in the greatest need, thus we also need to pay attention to the Global South. According to our theme of “One Earth, One Family, One Future,” our G20 presidency will work to promote the oneness of all. Our priorities will also take into account the ambitions of the Global South, whose voice is sometimes ignored, as well as all of you, the G20 partners.
On Monday, dignitaries from 40 different nations began the four-day Sherpa track conference’s first official meeting. The Sherpa track, which will set the agenda for the G20 leaders in September of next year, will discuss issues from 13 working groups including energy, trade and investment, development, employment, tourism, agriculture, the digital economy, health, education, culture, and anti-corruption, as well as topics from the two new groups brought to the fore by India during its G20 presidency: the Disaster, Risk and Resilience Group and Startup20 Engagement Group.
According to Kant, debates on trade and investment will centre on robust global value chains, integrating small and medium-sized businesses, international trade, and trade for growth and prosperity.
The topics of development, data for development, accelerated achievement of sustainable development objectives, and environmentally friendly lifestyles will be covered. While the tourism working group will cover green tourism, digitalisation for transforming tourism, and skills for tourism, he noted, the employment working group will discuss solving the global skills gap, sustainable funding for social security, gig and platform economy, and social security.
The group on agriculture will discuss improving food safety and nutrition, environmentally friendly, sustainable agriculture, and ICT and digitalisation in agriculture. According to him, the future of the digital economy will depend heavily on public digital platforms, cybersecurity, and cyber safety.
We have concentrated on digital public infrastructure for the digital economy and a lot on our own expertise in creating digital identities for everyone and building bank accounts for everyone, which has enabled us to lift vast segments of the population above the poverty line through direct benefit transfers and fast payments,” he said.
We’ll talk about digital health for better service delivery and universal access, as well as fostering collaboration for the benefit of everyone’s health. On the health front vaccinations, treatments, and diagnostics. These are all the topics we discussed in our issue notes, and on the note we wrote on education, we discussed the importance of the future of employment, tech-enabled learning, enhancing research and innovation, and fundamental reading and numeracy.
Energy-related discussions will centre on affordable financing for energy transition, fuel for the future, or G20 cooperation on bioenergy, and the principles of green hydrogen, according to Kant, who added that it is “very important if you have to decarbonize the economy, and (for) universal access to clean energy.”
The G20 discussions take place at a time when the world economy is dealing with a number of challenges, including an increase in global debt, out-of-control inflation, and a slowdown in GDP, all of which will be covered in the Sherpa track. Two concurrent G20 meetings are divided into the Sherpa track and the Finance track, both of which are led by central bank governors and finance ministers. The president sets the G20 agenda for a year, up until the final summit in September of the following year.
The Group of Twenty (G20) is an intergovernmental organisation made up of the United States, the European Union, and 19 other nations, including Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Republic of Korea, Mexico, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Turkey, United Kingdom, and Canada. The G20 members account for nearly two-thirds of the world’s population, over 75% of global trade, and about 85% of the world’s GDP.
Prior to the final summit in New Delhi in September 2023, India will host more than 200 meetings in 50 locations, spanning 32 different workstreams, with the participation of ministers, government employees, and members of civil society. The summit’s timing is critical because it occurs just before the 2024 general elections.