Leaders of 20 of the world's developed and developing economies have drawn up what they call a new "development consensus" calling for "inclusive, sustainable and resilient growth" to reduce poverty, but have also recognized that foreign aid "remain(s) essential to the development of most low-income-countries."
In a joint communiqué released at the end of their 2010 summit in Seoul, South Korea, the G20 nations, the leaders also said they had identified "nine key pillars" which required action to remove bottlenecks to growth in developing countries.
They identified these pillars as: "Infrastructure, human resource development, trade, private investment and job creation, food security, growth with resilience, financial inclusion, domestic resource mobilization and knowledge sharing."
South Africa is the only African country which is part of the G20 group, but Africa was also represented by leaders including President Bingu wa Mutharika of Malawi, chair of the African Union.
The section of the G20 communique comprising the leaders' statement on what they branded as the "Seoul Development Consensus for Shared Growth" follows:
46. The crisis disproportionately affected the most vulnerable in the poorest countries and slowed progress toward achievement of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). As the premier economic forum, we recognize the need to strengthen and leverage our development efforts to address such challenges.
47. At the same time, narrowing the development gap and reducing poverty are integral to achieving our broader Framework objectives of strong, sustainable and balanced growth by generating new poles of growth and contributing to global rebalancing. We are therefore using our best efforts for a rapid increase in the share of global growth and prosperity for developing countries, LICs [lower-income countries] in particular.
48. We commit to work in partnership with other developing countries, LICs in particular, to help them build the capacity to achieve and maintain their maximum economic growth potential. We have thus developed a consensus for the G20's contribution to global development efforts in line with our Toronto mandate.
49. We endorse today the Seoul Development Consensus for Shared Growth (Annex I) and its Multi-Year Action Plan on Development (Annex II).
50. The Seoul Consensus and the Multi-Year Action Plan are based on six core principles:
• First, an enduring and meaningful reduction in poverty cannot be achieved without inclusive, sustainable and resilient growth, while the provision of ODA [overseas development assistance], as well as the mobilization of all other sources of financing, remain essential to the development of most LICs.
• Second, we recognize that while there are common factors, there is no single formula for development success. We must therefore engage other developing countries as partners, respecting national ownership of a country's policies as the most important determinant of its successful development, thereby helping to ensure strong, responsible, accountable and transparent development partnerships between the G20 and LICs.
• Third, our actions must prioritize global or regional systemic issues that call for collective action and have the potential for transformative impact.
• Fourth, we recognize the critical role of the private sector to create jobs and wealth, and the need for a policy environment that supports sustainable private sector-led investment and growth.
• Fifth, we will maximize our value-added and complement the development efforts of other key players by focusing on areas where the G20 has a comparative advantage or could add momentum.
• And finally, we will focus on tangible outcomes of significant impact that remove blockages to improving growth prospects in developing countries, especially LICs.
51. The Seoul Consensus also identifies nine key pillars where we believe actions are necessary to resolve the most significant bottlenecks to inclusive, sustainable and resilient growth in developing countries, LICs in particular: infrastructure, human resource development, trade, private investment and job creation, food security, growth with resilience, financial inclusion, domestic resource mobilization and knowledge sharing.
The Multi-Year Action Plan then outlines the specific, detailed actions to which we commit in order to address these bottlenecks, including to:
a) Facilitate increased investment from public, semi-public and private sources and improve the implementation and maintenance of national and regional infrastructure projects in sectors where there are bottlenecks. We agree to establish a High-Level Panel (HLP) to recommend measures to mobilize infrastructure financing and review MDBs' policy frameworks. We will announce the Chair of the HLP by December 2010;
b) Improve the development of employable skills matched to employer and labor market needs in order to enhance the ability to attract investment, create decent jobs and increase productivity. We will support the development of internationally comparable skills indicators and the enhancement of national strategies for skills development, building on the G20 Training Strategy;
c) Improve the access and availability to trade with advanced economies and between developing and LICs. Our action plans on trade are discussed in paragraphs 42 to 45 above;
d) Identify, enhance and promote responsible private investment in value chains and develop key indicators for measuring and maximizing the economic and employment impact of private sector investment;
e) Enhance food security policy coherence and coordination and increase agricultural productivity and food availability, including by advancing innovative results-based mechanisms, promoting responsible agriculture investment, fostering smallholder agriculture, and inviting relevant international organizations to develop, for our 2011 Summit in France, proposals to better manage and mitigate risks of food price volatility without distorting market behavior. We also welcome the progress of the Global Agriculture and Food Security Program, as well as that of other bilateral and multilateral channels, including the UN Committee on World Food Security, and invite further contributions;
f) Improve income security and resilience to adverse shocks by assisting developing countries enhance social protection programs, including through further implementation of the UN Global Pulse Initiative, and by facilitating implementation of initiatives aimed at a quantified reduction of the average cost of transferring remittances;
g) Increase access to finance for the poor and small and medium enterprises (SMEs). Our action plans for financial inclusion and associated implementation mechanisms are discussed in paragraphs 55 to 57 below;
h) Build sustainable revenue bases for inclusive growth and social equity by improving developing country tax administration systems and policies and highlighting the relationship between non-cooperative jurisdictions and development; and
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i) Scale up and mainstream sharing of knowledge and experience, especially between developing countries, in order to improve their capacity and ensure that the broadest range of experiences are used to help tailor national policies.
52. We commit to and prioritize full, timely and effective implementation of the Multi-Year Action Plan, understanding its high potential to have a positive transformative impact on people's lives, both through our individual and collective actions and in partnership with other global development stakeholders. We will continue to work closely with relevant international organizations to push these actions forward.
53. We reaffirm our commitment to achievement of the MDGs and will align our work in accordance with globally agreed development principles for sustainable economic, social and environmental development, to complement the outcomes of the UN High-Level Plenary Meeting on the MDGs held in September 2010 in New York, as well as with processes such as the Fourth UN LDC Summit in Turkey and the Fourth High-Level Forum on Aid Effectiveness in Korea, both to be held in 2011. We also reaffirm our respective ODA pledges and commitments to assist the poorest countries and mobilize domestic resources made following on from the Monterrey Consensus and other fora.
54. We further mandate the Development Working Group to monitor implementation of the Multi-Year Action Plan, so that we may review progress and consider the need for any further steps at the 2011 Summit in France. Development based on the Seoul Consensus will therefore be an enduring part of future G20 Summits. What we promise, we will deliver.
