By Lisandra Paraguassu
BRASILIA (Reuters) – Brazil will propose adding a civil society wing to the G20 group of the world’s largest economies when it takes over as president next week, to add the voices of society to summit meetings, a Brazilian minister said on Monday.
Messages from society to the G20 leaders have mainly come through street protests, sometimes violent ones, but they rarely make it to the negotiation table.
“What the president wants is a sort of social trail that will run parallel to the work of sherpas and finance groups. People from these 20 major economies will thus be able to influence G20 decisions,” Marcio Macedo, who is President Luis Inacio Lula da Silva’s minister responsible for government relations with civil society told Reuters.
Since it was first created in 1999 as a platform of finance ministers and central bank governors to counter the effects of the Asian financial crisis, the G20 has added discussion groups on subjects from business, labor, women and youth issues, but their input has been limited to round tables.
Brazil wants to organize the demands of such social groups so their proposals can serve to put pressure on the leaders to take practical measures, Macedo said in an interview.
“We are trying to build a new agenda, so that G20 decisions are not so distant from what people really want,” he said.
At next year’s summit, the leaders will meet on Nov. 18 and 19 in Rio de Janeiro. Two days earlier, Brazil will host the G20 Social Summit to draw up conclusions to be presented to the leaders, he said.
Macedo said Brazil’s idea has been well received, mainly by the G20 countries that have strong civil society organizations.
(Reporting by Lisandra Paraguassu, editing by Anthony Boadle and Marguerita Choy)
