Summary
| Year and # of summit | 2018 – Summit No. 6 |
| Dates of the summit | 16 to 18 September 2018 |
| City and country: | Buenos Aires, Argentina |
| Host think tank(s): | |
| Key contacts | |
| # of participating organisations and countries: | 78 organisations from 17 countries |
| # of recommendations | 20 |
| Landing page | t20argentina.org |
| Task forces |
|
| Policy briefs | Available here |
| Communiqué | T20 Argentina Communiqué (English) (Spanish) |
The list of participants and their organisations can be found here+. Also, you can find here a dataset with T20 recommendations.
Model and activities
1. Governance
CIPPEC and CARI hosted the T20 Argentina. The process had the following governance and structure:
The T20 Argentina process had a clear description of the roles and responsibilities of each participant.
A. T20 Chairs: Research institutions, research centres or think tanks designated and mandated by the G20 Presidency to preside over the T20 process for a year, following the yearly mandate of the G20 Presidency. They were in charge of:
- Overall coordination,
- Lead T20’s bodies of government,
- Decision-making,
- Topic and task force definition,
- T20 representation in events around the globe.
B. T20 Advisory board: Composed of high-level international experts that provide policy, content, media strategy, funding and public relations advice to the process.
C. T20 Steering Committee: Guided on key issues such as policy, objectives and resource allocation. It was composed of local experts and therefore enhances regional and international links.
D. T20 Team: Composed by:
- T20 Chairs
- Policy and research team: Content design and general supervision of the task forces.
- Institutional development team: Fundraising, project management, partnerships, alliances and external relations.
- Communications and media team: Communications strategy, managing the T20 website, blog and social networks, and positioning the T20 in local and international media.
During the Argentinian presidency of the T20, the T20 team met with the Steering Committee every six weeks.
E. Task Forces: These were composed of 2-6 Co-chairs appointed by the T20 Presidency who led the overall work roadmap and agenda. Members are senior representatives of research organisations invited by the Co-Chairs. They participate by providing evidence-based research and opinions and actively developing policy briefs and other documents. Task forces allow the exchange of evidence-based views and opinions to develop strategic policy recommendations for G20 leaders.
- Task forces are centred on policy-relevant topics identified as priorities by each G20 presidency or proposed proactively by the think tanks, independently from the G20 focus.
2. Activities
The T20 Argentina process had multiple spaces for engagement and discussion. Here’s an overview of key activities:
- Engagement during the T20 Germany Presidency through participation in Task Forces, participation in the Advisory Committee, panels and meetings with key actors.
- Transition meetings were held from October to December 2017.
- Regional meetings before the official launch: CIPPEC and CARI participated in “Think Tank LatAm” to contribute to a regional approach.
- Official Launch of T20 Argentina on December 1, 2017.
- Face-to-face meetings of Task Force members at the Council for Global Problem Solutions Event in Germany, May 2018.
- T20 Argentina Summit in Buenos Aires, September 2018.
- Transition meetings with Japan from October to December 2018.
- Engagements with the G20 Sherpa throughout the year.
Here’s the agenda for the Summit:
| Day 1 – Sunday 16 September | Day 2 – Monday 17 September | Day 3 – Tuesday 18 September |
|
|
|
In addition to the process, the T20 Chairs, Task Forces, or third parties organised several meetings that complemented the T20 process. Here’s the timeline of the events:
| Title | Date | Location | Organisers |
| Trade and Development Symposium | 11-13 December 2017 | Buenos Aires, Argentina | ICTSD, WHO |
| Inception Workshop: Vision & Strategies for 2018 | 1-2 February 2018 | Buenos Aires, Argentina | T20 |
| Think 20 Mumbai 2018 | 12 March 2018 | Mumbai, India | Gateway House: Indian Council on Global Relations and the Ministry of External Affairs |
| 5th GS Workshop Taipei on “Shaping the Future of an inclusive and digital society” | 28 March 2018 | Taipei | GES, Kiel Institute |
| T20 Task Force 3 on Food Security and Sustainable Agriculture workshop at IFPRI | 5-6 April, 2018 | Washington D.C., USA | T20, IFPRI, CARI, CIPPEC, GPS |
| IPSI T20 Workshop on Global Financial Architecture in Milan | 9 April 2018 | Milan, Italy | ISPI |
| Scaling Development Finance for the Sustainable Development Goals and the Paris Agreement | 23 April 2018 | Boston, USA | T20 Task Force “An international financial architecture for stability and development”, GDP Center and UNCTAD. |
| T20 and climate change: Planning, risks and response facing the emergency | 16 May 2018 | Buenos Aires, Argentina | T20, Univeristy of Defense |
| Contributions to the debate of financing quality education | 17 May 2018 | Buenos Aires, Argentina | Organization of Iberoamerican States (OEI), Commitment Group for Financing Education |
| Global Solutions Summit | 28-29 May 2018 | Berlin, Germany | GSI |
| Capacity building for infrastructure development in emerging economies | 30 May 2018 | Berlin, Germany | T20, Dialogue of Civilizations Research Institute |
| Gender Mainstreaming: Linking the G20 and the G7 agenda for concrete action | 12 June 2018 | Ottawa, Canada | T20 Gender Economic Equality Task Force |
| Panel Event at the International Association for Feminist Economics’ 27th Annual Conference | 20 June 2018 | New York, USA | T20 Gender Economic Equality Task Force |
| Expert Meeting of the Task Force Gender Economic Equality | 12 July 2018 | London, UK | T20 Gender Economic Equality Task Force |
| T20 Summit | 16-18 September 2018 | Buenos Aires, Argentina | T20 |
| International roundtable on territory, infrastructure, and sustainability | 27-28 July 2018 | Buenos Aires, Argentina | INTA |
| “Challenges of the convergence of the digital economy” forum | 17 August 2018 | Salta, Argentina | CoFEI |
| Present and future of digital education in Latin America | 29 August 2018 | Buenos Aires, Argentina | EduLab of CIPPEC, Fundación Ceibal, supported by IDRC |
| The T20 Summit and the 14th World Congress of Mediation and Culture of Peace: Integrating Approaches | 30 August 2018 | Buenos Aires, Argentina | Virtual Educa, T20 |
| “Bridges to the future of education: policy recommendations for the digital age” | 30 August 2018 | Buenos Aires, Argentina | T20, Congress of Mediation and a Culture of Piece |
| T20 and its policy proposals on fiscal policy and tax matters: Tax competition and expenditure | 20 September 2018 | Buenos Aires, Argentina | T20 Task Force on Trade, Investment and Tax Cooperation |
| Pathways to global tax governance. Perspectives from the Netherlands and the Think 20 network | 7 November 2018 | The Hague, Netherlands | T20 |
| Dialogue on the recommendations for the implementation of the 2020 Agenda and the Climate Action in Cities of the G20 framework | 11 October 2018 | Boston, USA | T20, MIT |
The T20 Argentina process structured itself around Task Forces commissioned to produce policy briefs. The TF should produce at least one policy brief comprising recommendations and visions. +.
After developing the policy briefs, the Task Forces submitted the documents for peer review early in the process (May 2018). Afterwards, the T20 Argentina consolidated policy recommendations in the final communiqué, launched in September. Policy briefs are available here. Policy briefs are available here.
Key lessons about the organisation of the T20
The T20 Argentina steering committee identified the following good practices. These ideas were first compiled in “The Think 20 (T20) process: Good practices”.
1. Lessons and recommendations from the overarching strategy and task force composition
- Principles: Establish and follow overarching principles that guide the implementation of the engagement group. The principles outlined by the T20 Argentina are:
- Gender balance is essential when selecting task force co-chairs, advisory board, and steering committee experts, alongside experts and authors and panel composition.
- Geographical balance to include all regions.
- Socioeconomic balance with adequate representation from developing and developed countries.
- Practicality: Establish at most 10 task forces and build upon material and knowledge already produced in past T20 efforts.
- Establish clear roles for the task force co-chairs. In the T20 Argentina process, the task forces were led by a group of co-chairs. The co-chairs were experts on each TF topic. Each Co-chair should:
- Determine the work agenda and roadmap for each TF.
- Oversee the outreach to policymakers, external researchers and interested parties.
- Work with other G20 workstreams to identify research questions and time frames and ensure that policy-makers consider recommendations.
- Actively organise panels and sessions on their leading topics during the T20 summit.
- Diverse composition of the TF: In addition to the diversity principles established above, it is recommendable that the TF composition take into account the following criteria.
- Geographical: At least one of the Co-chairs of each TF should be from the country that presides over the G20 (and, therefore, the T20) process that year. This means that they will (have to) be in touch with the authorities leading up to and after the G20 process.
- Continuity: Maintain some Co-chairs from previous years to build on the work done, facilitate knowledge transmission and strengthen the T20 community.
- Rotation: The rotation of co-chairs is encouraged to prevent the T20 from becoming a “closed club of think tanks.”
- Experts from think tanks based in a G20 country become TF members by invitation from co-chairs or by their initiative.
- In principle, there should be no reason to restrict the participation of an expert from a think tank based in a G20 country.
- Experts should include stakeholders from academia, the public and private sectors, international organisations, universities, and civil society in G20 and non-G20 countries.
- TF members are expected to pa
2. Lessons and recommendations for policy advocacy dynamics
- The T20 should strengthen its role by contacting relevant policymakers in G20 circles to promote the group’s policy recommendations and collaborating with other engagement groups.
- The T20 work plan must match the track meetings of the G20 Working Groups.
- Finally, developing a communication strategy to disseminate the T20 Policy Recommendations to a broader audience and the media will be crucial for knowledge sharing and the relevance of the outputs created. These involve organising T20-associated events to discuss, elaborate on, and disseminate policy recommendations in different countries. Individuals, think tanks, and/or organisations within the T20 community, and the official T20 organising committee and chairs can manage these events. The T20 chairs will provide institutional and communicational support to the event.
3. Lessons and recommendations from the management of the T20
- Fundraising and partnerships:
- The private sector is an ally in supporting the T20 process as sponsors. They can provide in-kind donations in exchange for brand visibility during official events. In-kind contributions can include merchandising and digital and printed material, among others. By accepting in-kind support, the T20 can also ensure its independence in agenda setting.
- Knowledge partners are great contributors to content development and experts on panels.
- Establish clear guidelines for the role and input of partners and sponsors during each presidency.
- Communications and media: Developing an effective communications strategy to disseminate the T20’s work is essential.
- Therefore, the T20 should create official social network accounts that are handed over to each president to maintain and grow the audience each year.
- Each presidency should create and manage a T20 website that consolidates policy briefs, events calendar, relevant news, and a blog or op-ed section to publish faster evidence-based entries about ongoing challenges.