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Recommendations Realized: From T20 to G20 2018

Brittaney Warren and John Kirton, G20 Research Group
March 12, 2019
[pdf]

Executive Summary

This report on the Think 20 (T20) recommendations realized identifies the impact of the policy recommendations that the T20 and its global network of think tanks made from its thematic task forces to the Group of 20 (G20) leaders for their Buenos Aires Summit, which took place on November 30–December 1, 2018. This report matches the 135 T20 recommendations made across 12 issue areas to the 128 collective, precise, future-oriented and politically binding G20 commitments made at Buenos Aires.

It finds that the T20 made 135 recommendations within its 20 overarching policy proposals. Thirty of these were on the future of work. This was followed, in turn, by trade with 20 recommendations, gender with 16, climate change with 15, sustainable development and food security with 11 each, governance and Africa with seven each, migration with six, financial stability with five, tax with four and the digital economy with three.

Of these 135 recommendations 33, or 24%, were either partially or fully matched, and thus realized, with the leaders' commitments made at the Buenos Aires Summit. The highest recommendation-commitment match was on the digital economy with a 66% match. This was followed in turn by financial stability with a 60% match, tax and gender with 50% each, Africa with 43%, the future of work with 33%, food security with 18% and trade with 15%. There was no match on climate change, sustainable development, governance or migration.

Yet it is of ultimately little value if these T20 recommendations are realized by G20 leaders as commitments in their summit communiqué but then do not lead to real results through effective implementation when these leaders return home after the summit ends. To predict the impact of the matched commitments on compliance, an analysis of the assessed priority commitments from the 2017 Hamburg Summit was conducted. It first matched the 89 2017 T20 recommendations to the 17 assessed Hamburg priority commitments.

It found that four assessed Hamburg commitments fully matched one or more of the 2017 T20 recommendations. These were on financial regulation (tax), the digital economy, development and gender. The weighted average of compliance of these four commitments was a very high 91%. Two Hamburg commitments partially matched — one on development and one on food security — with an average compliance of a still very high 86%. The 11 commitments that did not match any recommendation also averaged compliance of the same high 86%.

Thus although the gap is small (91% to 86%), this finding suggests that the G20's highest compliance with its assessed priority commitments from Hamburg came with the commitments that had the full weight of a T20 recommendation preceding them.

This 2018 Recommendations Realized Report makes several contributions. First, and most immediately, it provides evidence to encourage think tanks already involved in the T20 process and those not yet involved to increase or initiate their involvement, on the grounds that such investment appears to influence an important centre of global governance. Second, it builds an analytic and empirical foundation for the T20 to adjust its process to enhance its influence on the G20 summit. Third, it tests the hope expressed by some scholars that the G20 provides a valuable forum for a diverse array of transnational actors to exercise influence. Fourth, it contributes to a growing data set to identify how the G20 governors themselves can improve their compliance with their summit commitments through the selective use of proven, low-cost accountability measures that they control.

Introduction

This report on Think 20 (T20) recommendations realized identifies the impact of the policy recommendations that the T20 and its global network of think tanks made from its thematic task forces to the Group of 20 (G20) leaders for their Buenos Aires Summit, which took place on November 30–December 1, 2018 (T20 2018). This report matches the 135 T20 recommendations made across 12 issue areas to the 128 collective, precise, future-oriented and politically binding G20 commitments made at Buenos Aires. It does so using a method developed by the University of Toronto's Global Governance Program and first applied to summits on non-communicable diseases convened in 2007, 2011 and 2014 (Kirton, Kulik and Bracht 2016). In the current simplified version, it gives each of the 135 T20 recommendations a score on a three-point scale to track the degree of their match with G20 commitments. A score of −1 indicates no match, a score of 0 indicates a partial match and a score of +1 indicates a full match with one or more Buenos Aires commitment (see Appendix A).

This report finds that 24%, or 33, of the 135 T20 recommendations were either partially or fully matched and thus realized in the Buenos Aires commitments (see Appendix B). There were 14 fully realized T20 recommendations and 19 partially realized.

At first glance, these findings are higher than the match identified by the first T20 Recommendations Realized Report done by the G20 Research Group in 2017. That 2017 report found that 26%, or 23, of the 89 T20 priority recommendations made in 2017 partially or fully matched the 533 commitments made at the G20's 2017 Hamburg Summit (Kirton and Warren 2017). However, of these, only two were fully realized compared to the 14 that were fully realized from 2018.

In 2018, the T20 made the most recommendations on the future of work, making 30. This was followed, in turn, by trade with 20, gender with 16, climate change with 15, sustainable development and food security with 11 each, governance and Africa with seven each, migration with six, financial stability with five, tax with four and the digital economy with three.

The highest recommendation-commitment match for Buenos Aires was on the newer digital economy with a 66% match. This was followed in turn by financial stability with a 60% match, tax and gender with 50% each, Africa with 43%, the future of work with 33%, food security with 18% and trade with 15%. There was no match on climate change, sustainable development, governance or migration.

This corresponds fairly well with the G20's overall compliance by subject, which is highest on financial stability at 78%, followed by work at 75%, migration at 74%, food at 72%, climate change at 68%, development and trade at 65% each, and gender and the digital economy with 57% each.

Recommendations Made

In 2018, the T20 made 20 overarching policy recommendations, or proposals, to the G20 leaders at Buenos Aires (T20 2018). Within these, it made 135 specific recommendations across 12 subjects (see Appendix B).

The most recommendations were made on the subject of the future of work with 30. This was followed, in turn, by trade with 20, gender with 16, climate change with 15, sustainable development and food security with 11 each, governance and Africa with seven each, migration with six, financial stability with five, tax with four and the digital economy with three.

The Future of Work

Of the 30 future of work recommendations, 14 were on implementing and strengthening the flexibility of the G20's Menu of Policy Options for the Future of Work. The menu is a framework of policy options developed by the G20 Framework Working Group (2018) under the Argentinian presidency to "harness the opportunities" brought by "transformative technologies" to "ensure the benefits are shared by all." The benefits of these so-called transformative technologies are identified by the working group as new ways of doing business, new and better jobs, higher growth in gross domestic product and better living standards. The G20 leaders at Buenos Aires endorsed the Menu of Policy Options, and made politically binding commitments to implement various aspects of it. The T20's 14 recommendations regarding the menu largely addressed foreseeing and preparing for the likely inequitable impact of disruptive technologies. This included recommendations to monitor and measure the impacts of the digital economy, to provide adequate support to equip workers to transition to new or upgraded industries and to apply a gender lens when catalyzing the advancement of the digital economy.

Eleven recommendations on the future of work were on "big data" and artificial intelligence (AI). They centred on developing a framework for the workplace. Equality was again emphasized on recommendations on the rights of workers to their personal data and the fairness and inclusiveness of AI systems. These recommendations reflect concerns surrounding data privacy, and racial and gender biases that have emerged in the use of AI that reflect embedded prejudices in the humans that inform these systems (see, for example, Vanian 2018).

The final T20 recommendation on the future of work was a call for the G20 to support the creation of a T20 digital platform to accelerate implementation of the future of work proposals.

Trade

On trade, the T20 made 20 recommendations. Fourteen of these centred on redesigning and reforming the rules-based multilateral trading system. To this end, the T20 recommended that boundaries be set for appropriate retaliation, that the burden of proof be lowered for complainants and that appellate body resolutions be sped up. On subsidies, the T20 recommended that information be gathered on subsidies and non-tariff barriers, and that the G20 reinforce its commitment to phase out agricultural export subsidies. The T20 also recommended that the G20 address digital trade through the World Trade Organization (WTO). The remaining six recommendations on trade were on promoting a trade system with mechanisms to compensate "losers" from trade.

Gender

On gender, the T20 made 16 recommendations. All related to unpaid care and domestic work to provide for greater flexibility to achieve the "25 by 25" goal, first made by G20 leaders at their 2014 Brisbane Summit (Kulik 2015). The 25-by-25 goal set a target to reduce the gap in labour force participation between men and women by 25% by 2025. Here specific measures recommended by the T20 include enacting legislation to ensure women's access to credit, land ownership and inheritance, to promote laws that guarantee equal pay for equal work, to prevent violence against women and girls, to invest in care services to reduce the burden of care and domestic work for women and to measure the real contribution of unpaid work on national accounts, and to support more women in traditionally male-dominated careers, such as science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM).

Other recommendations beyond these core 16 deal with gender equality but are categorized under a different core issue area. For example, the recommendation to "ensure the future of work also works for women" is categorized as the future of work.

Climate Change

On climate change, the T20 made 15 recommendations. Eight of these were on cities, including to empower cities to mitigate climate change, to develop governance mechanisms and to promote an ecologically-based urban agenda. Recommended measures included to promote collaboration between the G20 Sustainability Working Group and the G20 Development Working Group (DWG), and to ensure that cities have adequate financial resources to invest in low-carbon and climate-resilient infrastructure. These recommendations reflect the growing role of cities in contributing to climate change and in adapting to its impacts (C40 undated).

Seven of the 15 recommendations were on green fiscal reform to support the development and deployment of clean energy. These included ensuring that overall political and macroeconomic conditions are favourable for green fiscal reforms, developing reform plans that identify synergies and trade-offs with other policy areas and promoting transparency and stakeholder participation, including for women. In keeping with the theme of previous recommendation, the T20 also addressed equity. It recommended the design of compensation schemes that protect low-income households from the impacts of green fiscal reforms.

The remaining two recommendations also related to finance. One recommended that the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the World Bank and country-level plans on domestic financial markets should take explicit account of climate goals in their performance assessment methodologies. The other one recommended that the G20 support the Network of Central Banks for Greening the Financial System.

Sustainable Development

On sustainable development, the T20 made 11 recommendations. Four were on financing sustainable development. These were to align the financial system with sustainable development, to ask development financial institutions and multilateral development banks (MDBs) to scale up resources by 25%, to improve the functioning of MDBs, such as on collaboration, risk management and accountability, and to align the mandates of financial institutions with the 2030 Agenda on Sustainable Development by agreeing to a commonly agreed set of principles. It was recommended that these principles be developed through the G20, such as the G20 Eminent Persons Group on Global Financial Governance or the G20 Sustainable Finance Study Group.

Seven of the sustainable development recommendations were on G20 reporting of progress made on achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of the UN's 2030 Agenda. These included establishing systemic gap analysis and benchmarking of domestic trajectories, adopting action plans with new approaches to domestic implementation, regularly diagnosing the issue on which countries are off track, tasking the G20 Development Working Group to lead on incorporating this common template for reporting on the SDGs, and, to this end, organize the G20 Accountability Framework around the 2030 Agenda through the Development Working Group.

Finally, the T20 recommended that the G20 reports on its strategic priorities for collective action to achieve the SDGs at the UN's 2019 High-Level Political Forum on July 9–18, 2019. The forum will focus on the review of six of the 17 SDGs under the theme "Empowering People and Ensuring Inclusiveness and Equality" (UN Knowledge Platform undated).

Food Security

On food security, the T20 made 11 recommendations. Six of these centred on mobilizing global resources, improving measurements of agricultural productivity and climate-related parameters, and stimulating the transfer of technologies. On the climate-related commitments the T20 recommended to, in line with the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, improve guidelines and methods on estimating carbon sequestration by grasslands and other agriculture-related biomes. On the theme of equality, the T20 recommended supporting small farmers and family farmers to use sustainable intensification technologies.

Four recommendations were on food loss and waste, and nutrition. These included working with the private sector to establish principles that respond to consumer needs, promoting coordination between MDBs, regional banks and international organizations to effectively measure the reduction of food loss and waste, and aligning finance to achieve compliance with safeguards.

One recommendation was on trade. It suggested that the G20 create a group of systemically significant net exporter and net importer countries within the framework of the WTO to exchange information on production, consumption and trade-related policies to enhance confidence in the world trade system.

Governance

On governance, under the heading of global governance for social cohesion, the T20 made seven commitments. All recommended that the G20 improve global governance by adopting a bottom-up approach. Specifics included making global governance more participative and adaptive to the new digital economy and to political instability, and to raise support from non-state actors and sub-national governments. One recommendation was to seek voluntary agreements between governments rather than international treaties. The meaning of this recommendation is not clear, as previous recommendations included supporting the Paris Agreement on climate change, an international treaty, as well as supporting the multilateral rules-based trading system and the 2030 Agenda.

Africa

The T20 made seven recommendations on Africa. These were on supporting Africa through the G20 Africa Partnership and the Compact with Africa, launched at the 2017 Hamburg Summit under the German presidency (G20 2017). The T20 further recommended that the G20 integrate cooperation with Africa throughout all workstreams.

Migration

On migration, the T20 made six recommendations. They centred on encouraging cooperation between G20 members and international migration organizations. They included supporting refugee start-ups, ensuring access to education, promoting regional migration agreements, monitoring and providing international assistance to developing first asylum countries and putting diplomatic pressure on governments responsible for the forcible displacement of people from their settlements.

Financial Stability

On financial stability, the T20 made five recommendations. All were on promoting a stronger and more resilient global financial safety net. This included ensuring a better resourced, more effective, more representative IMF, and coordinating global policy meetings among central banks to focus on risks to global financial stability.

Tax

On tax the T20 made five recommendations. Here the T20 connected taxation with the digital economy. It recommended that an intergovernmental panel on taxation in the digital economy be established to produce technical reports to support the G20's work in this area. It also recommended agreeing to a common corporate tax base, and to promote improvements in the design of tax incentives for investment and comprehensive tax expenditure reports.

Digital Economy

On the digital economy, the T20 made three core recommendations. These were all on crypto-assets, an umbrella term that includes cryptocurrencies as well as other digital assets (Haeems 2018). These included designing a cross-border framework to put crypto-assets on the same "regulatory playing field" as other financial instruments and activities. This framework should include bringing crypto-assets under anti-money laundering and counter-terrorist financing standards, as well as monitoring the risks borne by users and investors.

Other recommendations related to the digital economy but were categorized under a different issue area.

Realizations

Of these 135 T20 recommendations 24%, or 33, were realized in the 128 commitments made by the G20 leaders at the Buenos Aires Summit (see Appendix B). There were 14 partially realized recommendations and 18 fully realized (see Appendix C).

The highest recommendation-commitment match for Buenos Aires was on the digital economy with a 66% match. This was followed in turn by financial stability with a 60% match, tax and gender with 50% each, Africa with 43%, the future of work with 33%, food security with 18% and trade with 15%. There was no match on climate change, sustainable development, governance or migration.

Digital Economy

Two of the three recommendations on the digital economy, or 66%, were realized. One of these was fully realized. It was on bringing crypto-assets under existing anti-money laundering and counter-terrorist financing standards. The other was partially realized. It was on monitoring the risks borne by users and investors regarding crypto-assets.

Financial Stability

Next came financial stability with three of the five recommendations realized, or 60%. The one broad recommendation that the G20 should work on strengthening the global financial safety net to ensure the prevention and mitigation of financial stability was fully realized. The remaining two were partially realized. These were to reform the IMF and to strengthen national policy capacities to manage financial stability, taking into account foreign exchange reserve accumulation, capital flow management measures and macroprudential regulations.

Tax

Two of the four recommendations on tax, or 50%, were realized. Both were partially realized. One recommended that G20 leaders discuss reform of tax systems to address companies' cross-border operations. The other recommended the G20 agree on a common corporate tax base and apply harmonized nexus and profit allocation concepts in line with digitalization.

Gender

Eight of the 16 recommendations on gender, or 50%, were realized. All eight were partially realized. These were to promote laws that guarantee equal pay for equal work, to prevent violence against women and girls, to develop digital infrastructure to support rural women entrepreneurs (with two recommendations), to support women in developing technical and vocational skills and training (with two recommendations), to foster women in traditionally male-dominated sectors, and to set specific targets for female enrollment in STEM university degrees.

Africa

Three of the seven recommendations on Africa were realized, or 43%. Two were fully realized. One was to establish regular and frequent cooperation between G20 and African economies and one was to guarantee continuity of G20 Africa initiatives such as the Compact with Africa. The third recommendation was also to ensure continuity on competition and cooperation initiatives with Africa across G20 summits. The G20 leaders at Buenos Aires made only one commitment on Africa, showing some continuity from summit to summit. However, past summits made more commitments on Africa across a broader range of issue areas. This recommendation was therefore regarded as only partially realized.

The Future of Work

Ten of the 30 recommendations on the future of work, or 33%, were realized. The seven fully realized ones included training in the workplace, providing job transition support, developing new methods of measurement for the digital economy, ensuring the future of work also works for women, addressing increasing care needs, enabling the creation of jobs for women in the digital economy, and reducing the digital and STEM divide between men and women. The three partially realized ones were to develop the Menu of Policy Options on the Future of Work to address the economic and social implications of technological change, to provide social protection mechanisms for workers in the gig economy and to track technological developments globally in a multidisciplinary and coordinated fashion.

Food Security

Two of the 11 recommendations on food security, or 18%, were realized. One was fully realized. It was to promote a global effort to develop a sustainable, efficient and nutritionally adequate food system. The partially realized was to promote a public-private dialogue to establish principles and rules to develop food systems that respond to consumer needs.

Trade

Three of the 20 recommendations on trade, or 15% , were realized. Two were fully realized and one was partially realized. The two fully realized ones recommended that the G20 recognize the need to strengthen the rules-based multilateral trading system and to promote reforms to international institutions that made plurilateral agreements possible. The third was that WTO reforms should include digitally enabled trade. The G20 leaders made a commitment to reform the WTO, but it did not explicitly connect this with the digital economy.

Climate Change, Sustainable Development, Governance and Migration

No recommendations made on climate change, sustainable development, governance or migration were realized in the 128 commitments made at Buenos Aires.

Results

It is of ultimately little value if the T20 recommendations are realized by G20 leaders as commitments in their summit communiqué but then do not lead to real results through effective implementation by these leaders and their governments when they return home after the summit ends. This section thus reviews how well the G20 has complied with its past commitments that matched the subjects the 2018 T20 made recommendations on.

G20 Overall Compliance: 2008–2017

Overall, on the subjects the T20 2018 made recommendations on, the G20's strongest compliance since 2008 has come on financial stability, with 78% (see Appendix B). Next is compliance with work-related commitments with 75%. This is followed closely by migration with 74% and food security with 72%. In the middle is climate change with 68%, and development and trade with 67%. At the bottom is gender with 65% and the digital economy with 57%. Compliance assessments with the G20's commitments on Africa, governance and tax are forthcoming.

The G20's overall compliance across these nine equally weighted issue areas is 69%.

Compliance with Matched Hamburg Commitments

A more specific look at the compliance with the priority commitments assessed from the 2017 Hamburg Summit reveals slightly higher compliance with those assessed commitments that fully matched the T20's recommendations for that summit in 2017.

The 2017 T20 made 89 recommendations to the 2017 G20 Hamburg Summit. Of these 89 recommendations 23, or 25%, matched the 531 commitments made at Hamburg (Kirton and Warren 2017). Two, on Africa and on marine litter, fully matched. Twenty-one, across various subjects, partially matched.

The G20 Research Group (2018) assessed 17 Hamburg priority commitments for compliance. Of these, four commitments fully matched one or more of the 2017 T20 recommendations (see Appendix E). These were on financial regulation (tax), the digital economy, development and gender. The weighted average of compliance of these four commitments was a very high 91%.

Two commitments, on development and on food security, partially matched, with an average compliance of, a still very high, 86%. Yet, the 11 commitments that did not match any recommendation also averaged compliance of the same high 86%.

Thus, although the gap is small (91% to 86%), this finding suggests that the G20's highest compliance with its assessed priority commitments from Hamburg came with the commitments that had the full weight of civil society, and particularly a T20 recommendation, preceding them.

From Buenos Aires to Osaka

This leads to the question of whether the Buenos Aires Summit commitments will likely have similar results. The G20 Research Group has selected 20 priority commitments to assess for compliance from the Buenos Aires Summit until the Osaka Summit on July 28–29, 2019.

Of these 20 commitments selected for assessment, 11 fully matched the 2018 T20 recommendations, four partially matched and five did not match (see Appendix E). The 11 fully matched commitments included four on the future of work, two on financial stability, and one each on sustainable development, gender, food security, trade and climate change. Of the partially matched commitments, two were on financial stability, one was on food security and one was on tax. Of the non-matched commitments, two were on energy, one was on corruption, one was on health and one was on the digital economy (cyber resilience).

Thus the two subjects (work and financial stability) with the highest number of fully matched commitments are also the two subjects with which the G20 has had the highest compliance overall (since 2008). This suggests that these similar 2018 Buenos Aires commitments will be well complied with too.

In addition to T20 and civil society influence, other factors influencing compliance should be considered. Here issue areas of note include the digital economy, gender and climate change.

On the digital economy, although it is not matched, suggesting lower compliance, this issue is the central theme of the G20 Osaka Summit (Government of Japan undated). It has been rising in importance on the G20 agenda since the 2016 Hangzhou Summit (Kirton and Warren 2018). Moreover, Japan will host a joint pre-summit ministerial meeting on the intersection of trade and the digital economy within the 2018–2019 compliance period that could have a positive effect on countries' compliance with their digital economy commitments from Buenos Aires (Kirton and Larionova 2017).

The rising prominence of gender as a "mainstream" issue on the leaders' agenda, starting under Canada's leadership at the G7 Charlevoix Summit in 2018, continuing at the 2018 G20 Buenos Aires Summit and set to be taken up at both the 2019 G7 and G20 summits hosted by France and Japan respectively, also indicates that higher compliance, relative to the G20's low overall compliance of 65% since 2008, should come on this fully matched subject.

That climate change is fully matched suggests that compliance with this Buenos Aires commitment may be higher than the overall average of 68%. Yet, on this subject, contention is high among G20 leaders, with longstanding rifts on burden sharing still present and with U.S. president Donald Trump weakening an already inadequate multilateral Paris Agreement. Moreover, one factor is the level of ambition of the commitment being assessed, which states that the G20 (minus the United States) will "fully implement" the Paris Agreement. It does not say how or how quickly, leaving much room for any country to achieve high compliance while exerting little effort.

Conclusion

There are thus several factors in determining how well the G20 will comply with its priority commitments from the Buenos Aires Summit. One key factor worth further research is the quality/ambition of the commitments made, and, in particular, how well civil society's recommendations are listened to and what impact that has on compliance. Further research here would signal to the G20 to align its commitments more closely with non-state actors to improve its compliance and to ensure that it is governing global issues in a way that capitalizes on the expertise of those working on these issues daily. Such research would further the recent recommendation of Sören Hilbrich and Jakob Schwab (2018, p. 8) that "If given sufficient access to the relevant information, Engagement Groups such as the T20 (Think 20) could play a vital role in providing credible and informed independent evaluation of G20 policies. This would be a particularly promising way forward in the context of the 2030 Agenda, as the agenda will require common efforts by both policymakers and society for its successful implementation."

A more complex matching analysis, developed and used for an evaluation of the UN's High Level Meeting on Non-Communicable Disease, also charts the breadth of the match, according to the number of commitments containing all of the components in the recommendation. Further work could measure the novelty or iteration of the match by asking three questions: Did the matched recommendation repeat one previously made by the same source? Did the recommendation largely repeat a commitment made by a previous summit and thus induce the T20 to recommend it, thereby reversing influence? Was the matched recommendation also made by other engagement groups or individuals, thus indicating the distinctiveness of match? Moreover, T20 recommendations could be matched with the commitments made by the growing array of G20 ministerial commitments, especially given the accumulating evidence that such ministerials improve G20 summit compliance (Marchyshyn 2018).

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References and Recommended Reading

C40 (undated). “Why Cities? Ending Climate Change Begins in the City,” https://www.c40.org/ending-climate-change-begins-in-the-city.

G20 2017. “Annex to G20 Leaders Declaration G20 Africa Partnership,” Hamburg, July 8. https://www.g20.utoronto.ca/2017/2017-g20-annex-partnership-africa.html.

G20 Framework Working Group (2018). “G20 Menu of Policy Options for the Future of Work,” July 12. https://www.g20.utoronto.ca/2018/g20_menu_of_policy_options_for_the_future_of_work_0.pdf.

G20 Research Group (2018). “2017 Hamburg G20 Summit Final Compliance Report,” November 29. https://www.g20.utoronto.ca/compliance/2017hamburg-final.

Government of Japan (undated). “G20 Japan 2019,” https://www.japan.go.jp/g20japan/.

Haeems, Adam (2018). “What is a Crypto-Asset?” Medium, April 27. https://medium.com/babb/what-is-a-crypto-asset-1f0fcc517887.

Hilbrich, Sören and Jakob Schwab (2018). “Towards a More Accountable G20? Accountability Mechanisms of the G20 and the New Challenges Posed to Them by the 2030 Agenda,” International Organisations Research Journal 13(4): 7–28. doi: 10.17323/1996-7845-2018-04-01.

Kirton, John, Julia Kulik and Caroline Bracht (2016). “Report on Objective Six: Impact of the Port of Spain Summit on Regional and Global Institutions” (Global Health Diplomacy Program, University of Toronto).

Kirton, John and Marina Larionova (2017). Accountability for Effectiveness in Global Governance. (Abingdon: Routledge).

Kirton, John and Brittaney Warren (2017). “G20 Insights: T20 Recommendations Realized,” November 3. https://www.g20.utoronto.ca/analysis/t20-2017-recommendations-realized.html.

Kirton, John and Brittaney Warren (2018). “G20 Governance of Digitalization,” International Organisations Research Journal 13(2): 16–41. doi: 10.17323/1996-7845-2018-02-02.

Koch, Madeline (2016). “Connecting G20 Summitry with Citizenry,” May 16. Presentation prepared for the Shanghai International Forum. https://www.g20.utoronto.ca/biblio/koch-engagement.html.

Kulik, Julia (2015). “G20 Gender Equality Performance in Antalya: Meagre Action, More Accountability,” December 3. https://www.g20.utoronto.ca/analysis/151203-research-gender.html.

Marchyshyn, Maria (2018). “G20 Performance of Trade,” in John Kirton and Madeline Koch, eds., G20 Argentina: The 2018 Buenos Aires Summit, pp. 120–121 (London: GT Media). https://www.g7g20summits.org/opinions/g20-performance-on-trade/

Slaughter, Steven (2017). “The G20 and Climate Change: The Transnational Contribution of Global Summitry,” Global Policy 8(3): 285–203. https://doi.org/10.1111/1758-5899.12442.

T20 (2018). “T20 Communiqué,” T20 Argentina, September 18. https://t20argentina.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/Communiqué-T20-Argentina.pdf.

UN Knowledge Platform (undated). “High-Level Political Forum on Sustainable Development,” UN Knowledge Platform. https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/index.php?menu=4444.

Vanian, Jonathan (2018). “Unmasking A.I.’s Bias Problem,” Fortune Magazine, June 25. https://fortune.com/longform/ai-bias-problem/.

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Appendix A: Recommendations Realized Methodology

The Recommendations Realized Reports identify the impact of policy recommendations made to G7 and G20 leaders by formal and informal engagement groups and others in the lead-up to their annual summits. It does so by matching the recommendations made by a given institution/organization/individual, such as the Think 20 (T20), with the collective, precise, future-oriented, politically-binding commitments the G7/20 leaders make in the official documents produced at their summit. It uses a method pioneered by the University of Toronto's Global Governance Program, first applied to summits on non-communicable diseases (NCD) convened in 2007, 2011 and 2014 (Kirton et al. 2014).

It has since been applied to recommendations made in the G7/20 "background books" published by the G7 Research Group and G20 Research Group, the Young Entrepreneur's Alliance and now by the Think 20.

In the more simplified version employed here, each recommendation made is given a score on a three-point scale. A score of −1 indicates no match with a commitment, a score of 0 indicates a partial match and a score of +1 indicates a full match. The following explanation of the assessment of the degree of match can also be applied to scoring commitments, rather than recommendations, on the same three-point scale (i.e., does the leaders' commitment fully, partially or not match with a previous recommendation made?).

Degree of Match

Full Match

In order for a recommendation to receive a score of +1, all components of that recommendation must match with at least one commitment. It is not required that all components of the recommendation are found in a single commitment; a full match can occur if all components of the recommendation are split between more than one commitment.

For example, in 2017 the T20's thematic task force on the 2030 Agenda made a recommendation to the G20 ahead of its Hamburg Summit on July 7–8, 2017, for the G20 to "lead global cooperation through both protection and restoration measures for coastal and marine ecosystems and a careful approach to sustainable exploitation of marine resources."

Parts of this recommendation were realized across several commitments the G20 made in the Hamburg Action Plan on Marine Litter. These included, but are not limited to:

Partial Match

In order for a recommendation to receive a score of 0 for a partial match only one or some of its components need to be realized in any number of commitments. For example, the T20's thematic task force on digitalization recommended that the G20 "measure and standardize digital literacy across the G20." This recommendation was partially realized in the following commitment:

No Match

In order for a recommendation to receive a score of −1 for a non-match, either no part of the recommendation matches any commitment made or there is no match with the core focus of the recommendation. For example, the T20 thematic task force on climate policy and finance recommended that the G20 "use transformative sovereign wealth funds to leverage climate protection investments and support workers, regions and sectors in adjusting to structural change driven by decarbonization by adopting proactive employment, training, and industrial policies." Although the G20 at Hamburg made 57 environment and 22 climate change commitments, none of these referenced sovereign wealth funds.

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Appendix B: Recommendations Realized

Subject Number of recommendations made Percentage of recommendations Number of recommendations realized in G20 summit commitments Average degree of match G20 overall compliance with similar commitments 2008–2017
Vision/Introduction
Climate change 7 4.7% 1 (14%) −0.85 +0.36
Future of work 3 2.0% 3 (100%) +0.66 +0.49
Gender 2 1.4% 1 (50%) 0 +0.29
Trade 1 0.7% 1 (100%) 0 +0.33
Subtotal/Average 13 9.4% 6 (46%) −0.05 +0.37
Policy recommendations
Future of work 30 21.9% 10 (33%) −0.46 +0.49
Trade 20 14.6% 3 (15%) −0.75 +0.33
Gender 16 11.7% 8 (50%) −0.50 +0.29
Climate change 15 11.0% 0 −1.00 +0.36
Sustainable development 11 8.0% 0 −1.00 +0.34
Food security 11 8.0% 2 (18%) −0.72 +0.44
Governance 7 5.1% 0 −1.00 n/a
Africa 7 5.1% 3 (43%) −0.28 n/a
Migration/refugees 6 4.4% 0 −1.00 +0.47
Financial stability 5 3.6% 3 (60%) −0.16 +0.56
Tax 4 2.9% 2 (50%) −0.50 n/a
Digital economy 3 2.2% 2 (66%0 0 +0.14
Subtotal/Average 135 91% 33 (24%) +0.38
Overall total/Average (N=2) 148 100% 39 (26%) +0.38

Notes:
G20 compliance: "future of work" is "labour and employment"; "sustainable development" is "development"; "financial stability" is "financial regulation."

n/a = not available.

N=14 recommendations were fully realized.

N=19 recommendations were partially realized.

Vision/Introduction: refers to the recommendations repeated in the introduction of the T20 2018 communiqué. As these were not found within the 20 policy proposals, these introductory recommendations are not reported in the preceding recommendations realized report.

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Appendix C: Partially and Fully Realized T20 2018 Recommendations in G20 Buenos Aires Commitments

Fully Realized Recommendations

N=14

1.2: reinforce training in the workplace (future of work)

1.3: provide job transition support (future of work)

1.7: develop new methods of measurement for the digital economy (future of work)

1.10: ensure that the future of work also works for women (future of work)

1.11: addressing increasing care needs (future of work)

1.12: enabling the creation of jobs for women in the digital economy (future of work)

1.13: reducing the digital and STEM divide between men and women (future of work)

9.1: We recommend that the G20 promotes a global effort leading to the development of a global food system that is sustainable, efficient, and responsible for the nutritional needs of consumers (food security)

12.1: We recommend that the G20 explicitly recognizes the need to strengthen the rules-oriented multilateral trade system and, at the same time, starts a process for redesigning some of the rules and institutions of the global trading system (trade)

12.5: promote reforms to international institutions that make plurilateral agreements possible (trade)

15.1: The G20 should work on strengthening the GFSN and thus ensure the prevention and mitigation of financial instability (financial stability)

16.2: This involves keeping close scrutiny of CA's linkages with the real economy and the existing conventional financial infrastructure and bringing CA under the normal anti-money laundering (AML) and counter-terrorist financing (CFT) standards (digital economy)

19.1: Establishes regular and frequent cooperation between G20 and African economies (Africa)

19.5: Guarantees continuity of G20 Africa initiatives such as the CwA (Africa)

Partially Realized Recommendations

N=18

1.1: We recommend that the G20 develops its menu of policy options for the Future of Work to address the economic and social implications of technological change bearing in mind that the impact of technology and the future of work will not look the same everywhere and for everyone. (future of work)

1.5: provide social protection mechanisms for workers in the gig economy (future of work)

1.6: track technological developments globally in a multidisciplinary and coordinated fashion (future of work)

9.2: promoting a global public/private dialogue to establish agreed principles and rules for the development of food systems that respond to consumer needs, which could include the strengthening of global platforms for benchmarking, harmonization and coordination of private sector voluntary standards, like the United Nations Forum on Sustainability Standards (UNFSS) (food security)

11.5: Promote laws that guarantee equal pay for equal work (gender)

11.7: Prevent violence against women and girls in all contexts, including the workplace (gender)

11.8: Develop infrastructure (e.g. internet access) to enable non-urban entrepreneurs to access the market, raise funds, participate in online training programs, and build and maintain social networks (gender)

11.9: Implement technical and vocational training and skill development programs…to improve women´s access to the market (gender)

11.11: [Implement]…infrastructure [to improve women´s access to the market.] (gender)

11.13: Break the glass walls by fostering women in traditionally male-dominated sectors (gender)

11.14: implement vocational training and skills development in emerging fields and support women and girls' enrolment (gender)

11.15: and set specific targets for female enrolment in STEM university degrees (gender)

14.1: We ask G20 leaders to engage in a strategic debate on a reform of tax systems to address the issue that many companies operate across borders, but are managed as one single entity (tax)

14.2: An important step in this direction would be to agree on a common corporate tax base (CCTB), applying harmonized nexus and profit allocation concepts in line with the exigencies of digitalization (tax)

15.2: better resourced, more effective, and more representative IMF that coordinates with more extensive central bank currency swap lines (financial stability)

15.4: strengthened national policy capacities to manage the financial stability of their economies, taking into account that the coordinated use of different policy tools such as foreign exchange reserve accumulation, capital flow management measures, and macro-prudential regulations as key for an effective and coherent approach (financial stability)

16.3: Risks borne by users and investors — and possible systemic risk — deserve thorough examination while giving technology space to develop its genuine potential (digital economy)

19.6: In the light of several Africa initiatives of G20 countries, competition on cooperation with African economies is on the increase. Guaranteeing continuity and implementation of decisions of the G20 summits are thus crucial (Africa)

Not Realized

N=103

1.4: link entitlements to individuals rather than to jobs

1.8: harmonize occupational taxonomies

1.9: develop new sources of data and indicators at the international level

1.14: investing in gender-focused, context-specific evidence on the impacts of new trends such as the gig economy and automation, recognizing that the trends will play out differently for men and women (future of work)

2.1: We urge the G20 to work towards the development of a framework that fosters workforce digitalization in a manner that ensures respect for the human integrity of workers and is done under a framework of accountability (future of work)

2.2: workers — be they employees or contractors, or prospective employees and contractors — must have the right to know what data is being collected on them by their employers, for what purpose and from what sources (future of work)

2.3: workers, ex-workers and job applicants must have access to the data held on them in the workplace and/or have means to ensure that the data is accurate and can be rectified, blocked or erased if it is inaccurate or breaches legally established rights to privacy (future of work)

2.4: that the data collected on present or prospective employees or contractors should be proportional to its purpose — the right data for the right purposes, to be used by the right people and for the appropriate amount of time (future of work)

2.5: data should be anonymized where possible (future of work)

2.6: employees and contractors should be fully informed when internal and/or external data has been used in a decision affecting their career (future of work)

2.7: data collection and processing should not be allowed to develop into broad scale monitoring of employees or contractors, monitoring of the workplace by employers should be limited to specific positive purposes (future of work)

2.8: Human control of AI should be mandatory and be testable by regulators (future of work)

2.9: AI systems should be fair and inclusive, i.e., make the same recommendations for everyone with similar characteristics or qualifications (future of work)

2.10: AI systems should guarantee privacy and security: data and algorithms must be protected against theft and employers or AI providers need to inform employees, customers and partners of any breach of information, especially personally identifying information as soon as possible (future of work)

2.11: people and corporations who design and deploy AI systems must be accountable for how their systems are designed and operated (future of work)

3.1: We call on G20 countries to support the creation of a T20 digital platform for accelerating the jobs of the future (future of work)

4.1: We recommend G20 leaders to encourage G20 countries to develop an International Standard Classification of Education (ISCED) level and create ISCED curriculum committees that should work in partnership with teachers, labor unions and the education sector to ensure that they are providing cohesive educational experiences for skills development and learning across all levels of education (future of work)

4.2: Such committees should allow the alignment and fostering of curriculum redesign processes, teacher professional development, and evaluation mechanisms (future of work)

4.3: We also recommend stimulating the diversification of public supply of educational resources in G20 countries through non-formal learning and preparing young people for the labor market, democratic participation, and wellbeing (future of work)

4.4: To encourage non-formal learning, G20 countries should ask international organizations and national governments to provide more flexible ways of recognizing prior qualifications and assess how education formal systems promote, update and recognize so-called 21st-century skills in curricular frameworks and implementation of resources (platforms, courses, printed books, teachers' guides, and training, etc.) (future of work)

5.1: We call G20 leaders to scale up development finance and align the financial system with sustainable development commitments endorsed by G20 leaders (sustainable development)

5.2: We recommend that G20 leaders ask development financial institutions (DFIs), such as member countries' development banks and the MDBs of which G20 countries are members, to commit to scaling up resources by 25%, to orient their efforts to maximize the development impact and minimize associated risks of their projects. (sustainable development)

5.3: In addition to scaling up resources, MDBs must collaborate as a system with a common aim of providing needed public goods, developing common standards and platforms for project preparation, as well as the appropriate governance, risk management, accountability and other technical instruments necessary to ensure that increased global public investment is done in an effective manner. (sustainable development)

5.4: We recommend advancing a systemic approach to align the mandates of institutions governing the financial system with the 2030 Agenda, mainly through the elaboration of a commonly agreed set of principles developed through the G20 (e.g. based on the work of the G20 Eminent Persons Group on Global Financial Governance, and the G20 Sustainable Finance Study Group) to which these institutions should adhere. (sustainable development)

5.5: Performance assessment methodologies applied by the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the World Bank, and domestic financial market development plans should take explicit account of climate goals and the 2030 Agenda. (climate change)

5.6: The Network of Central Banks for Greening the Financial System exemplifies progress in this sphere and should be encouraged and supported by the G20. (climate change)

6.1: To encourage climate action, we recommend that the G20 recognizes the role of urban areas and local authorities as leading actors in climate action and promotes the participation of cities in international forums and formalize an urban affinity group. (climate change)

6.2: we recommend that the G20 pushes for the development of metropolitan governance mechanisms to promote and manage resilience more effectively. (climate change)

6.3: Governance mechanisms should promote multi-sector and multi-stakeholder coordination in a given territory beyond its jurisdictional limits to overcome administrative gridlocks (climate change)

6.4: We underline the necessity to promote further collaboration between the G20 Climate Sustainability Working Group (CSWG) and the G20 Development Working Group (DWG) with the aim of stressing the benefits of the development of metropolitan governance bodies capable of carrying out plans for adapting to climate change, and new, long-term investment mechanisms in low-carbon infrastructure. (climate change)

6.5: we encourage the development of a new ecologically based urban model to tackle climate change:   compact in its morphology, complex in its organization, metabolically efficient and socially cohesive. (climate change)

6.6: work in accordance with the Paris Agreement and the SDGs (climate change)

6.7: explore the benefits of a planned and climate—ecologically urban development model and share experiences related to the climate benefits of compact and connected cities (climate change)

6.8: ensure that financing challenges do not constrain city-level decisions for investing in low-carbon and climate-friendly infrastructure (climate change)

7.1: To meet the 2ºC scenario target, countries should develop low-carbon strategies, with G20 members assuming a leading role in the development of such strategies (climate change)

7.2: ensure that the overall political and macro-economic conditions are favorable for green fiscal reforms (climate change)

7.3: develop comprehensive reform plans that identify synergies and trade-offs with other policy areas and include all relevant government bodies (climate change)

7.4: design compensation schemes that protect low-income households from the impacts of reforms (climate change)

7.5: promote transparency and stakeholder participation (including women) (climate change)

8.1: We recommend that the G20 organizes and supports a globally coordinated effort to achieve food security in a sustainable manner (food security)

8.2: the organization of a major global effort for the development and global transference of technologies related to sustainable intensification strategies (food security)

8.3: the creation of a project-preparation facility to define and structure financial projects with small and family farmers that use sustainable intensification technologies (food security)

8.4: the promotion within the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) the need to improve guidelines and methods on estimating carbon sequestration by grasslands and other agriculture-related biomes with regionally relevant parameters for those estimations (food security)

8.5: The Consultative Group for International Agricultural Research (CGIAR) and the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) should serve as a secretariat for the coordination of these activities (food security)

8.6: an international consortium to monitor agricultural total factor productivity at the global level to provide international comparisons and track performance over time (food security)

9.3: requesting help from IFIs by blending public and private sector funding to reduce risks and tying loans and grants to compliance with safeguards (food security)

9.4: promoting the coordination between MDBs, Regional Banks and International Organizations through the technical platform on measurement and reduction of food loss and waste launched by IFPRI and FAO as result of the Turkey G20 on December of 2015 (food security)

10.1: We recommend that the G20 facilitates, within the framework of the World Trade Organization (WTO), the organization of a special group of systemically relevant countries — made up of Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, New Zealand, Thailand, and the USA as main net exporters; and China, Korea, Japan, Russia and Saudi Arabia as main net importers and India as a top trader — to exchange relevant and timely information on production, consumption, and trade-related policies to avoid shocks to global markets and erode confidence in the world trade system (food security)

11.1: To relax constraints on women's time and facilitate their labor market participation, we invite G20 countries to adopt policies that recognize, reduce, and redistribute unpaid care and domestic work (gender)

11.2: Abolish discriminatory policies, laws, and regulations that prevent or restrict women's agency (gender)

11.3: G20 development donors should require reform in the legal framework governing women's economic participation as a condition of official development assistance (gender)

11.4: Enact legislation to ensure women's equal access to assets and resources, including credit, land ownership and inheritance (gender)

11.6: Reform inequitable laws and regulations and ensure legal protection and non-discrimination (gender)

11.10: [Implement] … incubators and accelerators to foster start up and scale up of operations … [to improve women´s access to the market] (gender)

11.12: Ensure social security protection and family policies (e.g. family leaves) for the self-employed (gender)

11.16: Promote investment to provide quality care services to reduce the burden of care and domestic work and measure the real contribution of unpaid work on national accounts (gender)

12.2: operate as a forum for a debate about how to adapt the system to changes in the new economic and world power realities (trade)

12.3: find a balance among global and regional agreements to strengthen the rules of the multilateral system (trade)

12.4: elaborate proposals to redesign the WTO, as the best way to invigorate trade and solve controversial issues between partners, such as consensus voting (trade)

12.6: facilitate information gathering about subsidies and non-tariff barriers that are in general not being address in WTO settlement (trade)

12.7: set the boundaries for appropriate retaliation (trade)

12.8: lower the burden of proof for complainants (trade)

12.9: speed up Appellation Body resolutions (trade)

12.10: ratify the commitment to phase out agricultural export subsidies established in the WTO 2015 Ministries Declaration (trade)

12.11: respond to the digitalization of the global economy with a priority focus on a G20 Buenos Aires memorandum for cooperation on digitally enabled trade (trade)

12.12: reaffirm the facilitating role of the WTO in global governance on digitally enabled trade (trade)

12.13: encourage a dialogue to agree to gradually phase out predetermined non-tariff barriers (trade)

12.14: [encourage a dialogue to] promote transparency and reciprocity on investment rules among country members, forbidding unwritten rules to impose technological transfers, limiting the obligation to form joint ventures to invest in certain sectors and instituting the Guiding Principles for Global Investment Policymaking (trade)

13.1: We recommend that G20 leaders minimize trade disruptions by promoting measures that mitigate adjustment costs of trade integration (trade)

13.2: Measures should take into account differences in the economic structure, culture and societal preferences among trading partners (trade)

13.3: adopt gradualism in trade liberalization combined with preemptive measures to strengthen competitiveness when mitigating adjustment costs are needed (trade)

13.4: ask international institutions — such as the World Bank and the OECD — to propose a set of mechanisms that can enhance factor mobility, promote growth (trade)

13.5: International Institutions should also analyze disruption and adjustment costs that would result from trade shocks (unilateral restriction and liberalization processes) (trade)

13.6: implement a reporting and/or a peer-learning mechanism to improve domestic adjustment policies (trade)

14.3: Comprehensive tax expenditure reports and improvements in the design of tax incentives for investment must be promoted to minimize the generation of windfall profits and negative spillovers within and across countries (tax)

14.4: The G20 should set up an intergovernmental panel on taxation in the digital economy, bringing together experts from taxation, technology, industry, law, economics, and political science. This panel should produce technical reports allowing G20 leaders to come up with holistic solutions to this crosscutting issue (tax)

15.3: a parallel and stronger set of RFAs that deploy a variety of lending approaches and conditions (financial stability)

15.5: We recommend global policy meetings among Central Banks focusing on risks to global financial stability, the international dimension of monetary policy, and central bank coordination (financial stability)

16.1: We propose the design of a cross-border framework to put CAs on a level regulatory playing field with other competing financial instruments and activities (digital economy)

17.1: We recommend that the G20 uses a bottom-up governance model to organize global collective action and address global challenges (governance)

17.2: We propose the G20 to implement this new model, to reinforce and complement intergovernmental or supranational governance (governance)

17.3: More specifically, we urge the G20 to make global governance more participative, more adapted to our digital times and more resilient to political instability (governance)

This can be achieved by

17.4: seeking voluntary agreements between governments rather than international treaties (governance)

17.5: raising support from non-governmental actors and subnational governments to reinforce such agreements (governance)

17.6: following up on implementation through multi-stakeholder coalitions (governance)

17.7: The bottom-up mode of organizing global collective action has been successful in addressing certain global challenges and should be reinforced (governance)

18.1: Establish systematic gap analysis and benchmarking of domestic trajectories (sustainable development)

18.2: adopt action plans with new approaches to domestic implementation of the 2030 Agenda (sustainable development)

18.3: diagnose the issues on which their countries are off track, either as a whole or in part, systematically and regularly (sustainable development)

18.4: Adopt a common review system for reporting on the 2030 Agenda that aligns the G20 annual reporting and its comprehensive accountability report with the 2030 Agenda (sustainable development)

18.5: The G20 DWG should lead the initiative to discuss and incorporate this common template for reporting on the SDGs, link it with other work streams (sustainable development)

18.6: [The G20 DWG should] organize the G20 Accountability Framework around the 2030 Agenda (sustainable development)

18.7: Report collectively on strategic priorities for collective action at HLPF 2019 and emphasize their commitment to achieving the SDGs and to the provision of global public goods (sustainable development)

19.2: G20 cooperation with Africa should not be considered in an isolated way and as a stand-alone 'issue.' Instead, debates on the effects of G20 countries' policies should become an integral dimension of all G20 work streams beyond the DWG (Africa)

19.3: Implementing the 2030 Agenda in cooperation with Africa and supporting the Agenda 2063 require policy coherence across G20 work streams (Africa)

19.4: [Implementing the 2030 Agenda in cooperation with Africa and supporting the Agenda 2063 require] coordination with other international and regional organizations (Africa)

19.7: We ask the G20 to integrate the private sector into the monitoring framework since it is critical to the CwA's success and integrating its perspective will go a long way (Africa)

20.1: Support and standardize data collection in order to produce key performance indicators to monitor integration of migrants in the host countries, taking into account fundamental dimensions, such as gender, ethnic group, and education (migration)

20.2: develop monitoring mechanisms that support refugee start-ups through business incubation and acceleration services (migration)

20.3: ensure that migrant children have the same right of access to education as local children, regardless of their status or place of origin (migration)

20.4: promote regional migration agreements since they can be suitable instruments for sustainable migration management and thus, support safe, orderly and regular migration (migration)

20.5: develop a supporting and monitoring platform to provide international assistance to developing first asylum countries (migration)

20.6: exert collective diplomatic pressure on countries and governments forcibly removing inhabitants from their settlements, and advocate and popularize the use of the latest technologies to provide legitimate identification to refugees without any credible IDs. (migration)

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Appendix D: G20 Buenos Aires Priority Commitments by Degree of Match with 2018 T20 Recommendations

Fully Matched Commitments

N=11

2018-6: We endorse the Menu of Policy Options for the Future of Work which we will draw on, considering individual country circumstances, to: harness technology to strengthen growth and productivity (future of work)

2018-28: [To maximize the benefits of digitalization and emerging technologies for innovative growth and productivity], we will promote measures to … improve … digital infrastructure. (ICT and digital economy) (future of work)

2018-57: Signatories to the Paris Agreement, who have also joined the Hamburg Action Plan, commit to its full implementation, reflecting common but differentiated responsibilities and respective capabilities, in light of different national circumstances (climate change)

2018-80: We will step up efforts to ensure that the potential benefits of technology in the financial sector can be realized while risks are mitigated (financial stability)

2018-97: We therefore support the necessary reform of the WTO to improve its functioning (trade)

2018-12: [We remain committed to building an inclusive, fair and sustainable Future of Work by promoting … vocational training and skills development, [including reskilling workers and improving labour conditions in all forms of employment, recognizing the importance of social dialogue in this area, including work delivered through digital platforms, with a focus on promoting labour formalization and making social protection systems strong and portable, subject to national law and circumstances.] (future of work)

2018-31: We will continue our work on artificial intelligence (future of work)

2018-35: Building on the G20 Food Security and Nutrition Framework, we reaffirm our commitment to tackling the challenges of food security, which is crucial to achieving a world free of hunger and all forms of malnutrition (food security)

2018-41: We commit to promoting women's economic empowerment, including by working with the private sector, to improve labour conditions for all, such as through access to quality and affordable care infrastructure and parental leave, and reducing the gender pay gap (gender)

2018-51: We reaffirm our commitment to leading the transformation towards sustainable development and support the 2030 Agenda as the framework for advancing this goal and the G20 Action Plan (sustainable development)

2018-112: We reaffirm our commitment to further strengthening the global financial safety net with a strong, quota-based, and adequately resourced IMF at its centre (financial stability).

Partially Matched Commitments

N=4

2018-34: To address the persistent infrastructure financing gap, we reaffirm our commitment to attract more private capital to infrastructure investment (financial stability)

2018-36: We will promote dynamism in rural areas and sustainable agriculture, conscious of the importance of sustainable soil, water and riverbanks management supported by individual countries voluntarily, taking into consideration the specific needs of family and small-holder farmers (food security)

2018-83: We will continue our work for a globally fair, sustainable, and modern international tax system based, in particular on tax treaties and transfer pricing rules (tax)

2018-95: To help fulfil our goal of securing strong, sustainable, balanced and inclusive growth, we will continue using all policy tools at our disposal — monetary, fiscal and structural — individually and collectively (financial stability)

Non-Matched Commitments

N=5

2018-27: We reaffirm the need for stronger health systems providing cost effective and evidence-based intervention to achieve better access to health care and to improve its quality and affordability to move towards Universal Health Coverage (UHC), in line with their national contexts and priorities (health)

2018-63: We will promote energy security, sustainability, resilience, efficiency, affordability and stability, acknowledging that there are varied sources of energy and technological advances to achieve a low emissions future (energy)

2018-9: We will further explore the links between corruption and other economic crimes and ways to tackle them, including through cooperation on the return of persons sought for such offences and stolen assets, consistent with international obligations and domestic legal systems (corruption)

2018-58: We encourage energy transitions that combine growth with decreasing greenhouse gas emissions towards cleaner, more flexible and transparent systems (energy)

2018-109: We are also committed to enhancing cyber resilience (digital economy)

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Appendix E: G20 2017 Hamburg Assessed Priority Commitments Matched with T20 2017 Recommendations

Subject Number of commitments Compliance
Scientific Percentage
Fully Matched
Financial regulation (tax) 2017-384 +0.95 98%
Digital economy 2017-39 +0.90 95%
Development 2017-197 +0.75 88%
Gender 2017-88 +0.70 85%
Average N=4 +0.82 91%
Partial Match
Development 2017-81 +0.75 88%
Food security 2017-168 +0.70 85%
Average N=2 +0.72 86%
Non-Match
Financial regulation 2017-49 +1.00 100%
Financial regulation 2017-56 +1.00 100%
Health 2017-62 +0.95 98%
Energy 2017-222 +0.85 93%
Macroeconomic policy 2017-215 +0.80 90%
Environment 2017-329 +0.80 90%
Climate change 2017-475 +0.65 83%
Climate change 2017-73 +0.60 80%
Trade 2017-11 +0.55 78%
Corruption 2017-104 +0.40 70%
Migration 2017-100 +0.35 68%
Average N=11 +0.72 86%
Overall Average N=17 +0.75 87%

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