Held at the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization headquarters in Rome on May 14 and 15, the 2024 Civil 7 (C7) Summit was a space for representatives from civil society, government, and multilateral organizations to exchange ideas, concerns, and high-level solutions to the world’s most pressing challenges (agenda). The C7 is a Group of 7 (G7) engagement group with the aim of putting forward a set of coherent recommendations to influence G7 policies and the multilateral political processes.
The recommendations were collected in a C7 Communiqué and authored via a set of working groups, consisting of civil society from G7 countries and the Global South. The contents of the C7 communiqué were crafted to resonate with G7 leaders and other high-level decision-makers. This document aims to raise accountability to commitments made by the G7 and to present global civil society’s relevant priorities. The specific working groups change every year depending on the agenda set by the host country, and the priorities of the civil society chair organization. In 2024, the working groups focused on:
- Climate, energy transformation and environmental justice
- Economic justice and transformation
- Global health
- Principled humanitarian assistance
- Peace, common security and nuclear disarmament
- Human mobility and migration
- Food justice and food systems transformation
This Communiqué was then presented to the personal representative of the Italian Prime Minister to the G7 – or Sherpa – at the C7 Summit. This momentous occasion was the culmination of months of work bringing together civil society to identify key issues and bring forth solutions to global challenges that are inclusive, just, and sustainable. Despite consensus being reached on most key issues, discussions around the responsibility for allocating the required resources to tackling these problems were not always fully conclusive.
“We need to stop talking about ‘political will’ and start talking about ‘political responsibility’.” Anabella Rosenberg, C7 Climate Justice, Climate Action Network International.
Darron Seller-Peritz, Policy Analyst and Program Officer at Cooperation Canada, provided the closing remarks, highlighting the importance of connecting globally across civil society. He also expressed Cooperation Canada’s enthusiasm to assume the C7 presidency in 2025 and, building on Italy’s work this year, to step into a leadership role for civil society around the world, including convening partners from the Global South in the context of the C7 in Canada.
There are still some important milestones in the 2024 G7 process, including the Summit on June 13-15 and the ministerial meeting on development on October 24-25, and Cooperation Canada aims to keep its members well informed and involved for 2025. Whether that be on G7 and C7, political engagement and elections, or other thematic areas of importance, next year will be momentous for Canada and its global engagement.
