C20 Summit was held on 15-16 September 2015 at Boğaziçi University with the participation of more than 400 civil society representatives from 52 countries. C20 Summit became a significant platform for national and international civil society to share their experiences and recommendations with regard to the current global issues. At the end of the C20 Summit, the C20 Communiqué that finalised following the discussion sessions of the Summit was presented to the Deputy Prime Minister Cevdet Yılmaz, Former Deputy Prime Minister Ali Babacan and G20 Sherpa Ambassador Ayşe Sinirlioğlu.

C20 Turkey Steering Committee Chair and IKV Vice-President Zeynep Bodur Okyay gave the opening speech of the C20 Summit. During her speech, Okyay underlined that civil society organisations have an important role to correct the injustices in a world where inequalities have been on the rise for the last 30 years and where the gap between the “haves” and “have nots” is growing day by day. In this process, she mentioned, that the C20 Turkey Steering Committee acts as a facilitator to bring together the experiences, wealth of knowledge and expertise of civil society organisations from around the world. C20 Chair Okyay further underlined that C20 Summit creates an opportunity to accumulate all the efforts and to finalise the C20 Communiqué that would convey the message of civil society to the G20 leaders.

Following the opening speech of C20 Steering Committee Chair Zeynep Bodur Okyay, the participants of the C20 Summit shared their experiences and recommendations on the four thematic areas of C20 Turkey which are inclusive growth, gender equality, governance and sustainability. Participants of the Summit, in more than 50 discussion sessions for two days, developed common policy positions and recommendations on different issues ranging from support measures for women’s businesses to long term decarbonisation goals; from exploring causes of inequality and ways to fight against poverty and inequality to the role of civil society in the implementation of Sustainable Development Goals.

In the second day of the C20 Summit, the participants came together with the representatives of G20 engagement groups namely B20, W20, L20, T20 and Y20 to discuss common issues on the agenda. In addition, Dr. Sare Davutoğlu also gave a speech on improving people’s lives within G20 and beyond and addressing global challenges with a particular focus on refugee crisis. During her speech, Davutoğlu mentioned that guaranteeing economic stability and decreasing inequalities prevalent in almost every society through integrating inclusive growth at the centre of growth strategies. Dr. Davutoğlu further underlined that the root causes of the current refugee crisis that affects Turkey and European countries are also the non-implementation of policies that have inclusive growth at their centre.

At the second day of the C20 Summit, Professor of Economics of Massachusetts Technology Institute (MIT) Daron Acemoğlu, who is among the 10 most-cited economists in the world, gave a speech on the relationship between democracy, economic growth and civil society. Underlining the findings that economic growth increases by 25 percent in the following years after democratization of countries, Acemoğlu highlighted that democratization also leads to increasing the welfare of the disadvantaged, decreasing child mortality and encouraging market reforms. While, underlying that democracy-on its own- is not enough for ensuring equality in the society, Acemoğlu mentioned that inclusive political institutions are essential for effective distribution of political power within which civil society has a significant role.  

At the closing ceremony of the C20 Summit, C20 Communiqué which was finalised with the contributions of participants during the Summit was presented to the Deputy Prime Minister Cevdet Yılmaz, Former Deputy Prime Minister Ali Babacan and G20 Sherpa Ambassador Ayşe Sinirlioğlu. Reflecting his comments on the C20 Communiqué, Deputy Prime Minister Cevdet Yılmaz underlined the importance of democratization both at the national and international level to tackle global injustices. During his speech, Former Deputy Prime Minister Ali Babacan mentioned that the growth policies following the global financial crisis are not inclusive and the current global economic growth is a result of monetary expansion rather than structural reforms. In this respect, he mentioned that G20 Turkish Presidency identified priority areas as inclusiveness, innovation and implementation. Finally, G20 Sherpa Ambassador Ayşe Sinirlioğlu underlined that G20 Turkish Presidency puts inclusive growth at the centre since inequality is the major impediment for economic growth.

The C20 Communiqué: Civil Society Recommendations to G20 Leaders

The C20 Communiqué which was developed on the basis of policy recommendations of the C20 Working Groups and finalized at the C20 Summit conveys the message of civil society to G20 leaders. In this respect, the C20 Communiqué calls upon G20 leaders to address the multi-faceted inequalities facing the world today by integrating inclusive growth, gender equality, sustainability, anti-corruption and tax justice into all aspects of its work, and finding solutions that create a world economy that works for all. With regard to inclusive growth, the C20 Communiqué calls upon G20 leaders to devise strategies that target decreasing inequality and fight against poverty as well as committing to tackle the multidimensional nature of inequality by way of facilitating access to social protection and public services.

With regard to anti-corruption, the C20 Communiqué asserts that G20 leaders should ensure transparency in procurement processes through disclosure of awarded contracts; ensuring legal right to access public information; and to implement the Los Cabos High Level Principles on Asset Disclosure by Public Officials. On international taxation, the civil society calls upon G20 leaders to commit to a multilateral mechanism for automatic exchange of information including Beneficial Ownership information; to collect and publish annually statistics on the aggregate sums passing through their financial systems; and to reaffirm that the aim of international tax rules should be to ensure that multinational enterprises are taxed.

With regard to gender equality, the C20 Communiqué asserts that G20 leaders should recognize and reduce women’s unpaid work; to create gender-responsive policies and legislation; and to monitor commitments made by G20 by setting up a national monitoring mechanisms and systematically measuring progress in gender equality and empowerment.

On sustainability, the C20 calls upon G20 leaders to agree on a fair and equitable long-term emission reduction and decarbonisation goal; to commit to a 100 percent renewable energy future by 2050; to make energy efficiency and renewable energy an infrastructure investment priority; and to take action to phase out fossil subsidies by 2020.

The C20 Communiqué is available online on www.c20turkey.org.