The G20 Development Working Group (DWG) held its fourth and final meeting under the Turkish Presidency from 14 to 16 September 2015 in Antalya. DWG members discussed and agreed a substantial set of outcomes to be submitted to the consideration of G20 Sherpas at their fourth meeting in Ankara on 13-14 October 2015. The DWG’s forward work programme was also discussed.
In 2015, the DWG has made good progress on its five priority areas: Infrastructure, Domestic Resource Mobilization (DRM), Financial Inclusion and Remittances, Food Security and Nutrition, and Human Resource Development (HRD). This year, the DWG has also taken forward work on inclusive business.
At the final DWG meeting this year in Antalya, members discussed and agreed the main outcomes for 2015 in the five DWG priority areas and in the work on inclusive business, and also discussed the principal elements of the DWG forward work programme.
The Presidency updated DWG members on progress in efforts this year to strengthen policy coherence on development across G20 work streams. In accordance with G20 Sherpas’ guidance, increased attention has been given to this issue. Stronger linkages have been established with the finance track, in particular on infrastructure, DRM, financial inclusion and remittances. Significant steps have been taken to build policy coherence with the G20 Employment Working Group (EWG) on Human Resource Development. Development has become a cross-cutting theme with various work streams, including the access to energy agenda of the Energy Sustainability Working Group (ESWG), the SMEs and GVCs agenda in trade, and better financing instruments for SMEs under the finance track. The DWG agreed to continue its efforts on improving policy coherence on development across the G20 agenda.
The Presidency delivered a presentation to DWG members on the principal outreach activities held this year and the main outcomes that emerged from those meetings. In particular, the Presidency informed DWG members about the high-level side event on the G20’s contribution to the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) that it organized at the UN Summit for the adoption of the post-2015 development agenda in New York in late September. Members welcomed the Presidency’s initiative to organize this high-level event and stressed the importance of having an early debate on this topic, which could help inform forward work to support the implementation of the SDGs.
A “Workshop on Quality Infrastructure Investment” was co-organized by the World Bank Group, Australia and Japan back-to-back with the Fourth Meeting of the DWG, focusing on key aspects of inclusive growth through infrastructure development (summary report on behalf of the co-organizers)
