A 1.5 day meeting and workshop of global advocates to analyse and strategise on how to make progress in changing global order.
Overview
The multilateral system that has underpinned global development progress for decades is showing serious strain. Recent G7 and G20 summits reveal a decision-making architecture struggling to deliver: the 2024 G7 in Italy produced fragmented commitments on development finance amid geopolitical tensions, while the 2024 G20 in Brazil saw significant disagreements on core development priorities, resulting in watered-down communiqués and limited concrete action on education, health, and nutrition. Trade disputes, competing priorities, and domestic political pressures within member states are increasingly undermining consensus-building on critical issues. For development advocates, this faltering global order presents urgent practical challenges—traditional advocacy pathways are yielding diminishing returns, funding commitments are stalling, and policy momentum is fragmenting. As we look ahead to the French G7 presidency in 2026, followed by the United States in 2027 and the United Kingdom in 2028, the advocacy community must candidly assess what is and isn’t working, explore alternative forums and innovative approaches, and develop new collaborative strategies to achieve meaningful outcomes for the world’s most vulnerable populations.
Focus Areas
The forum will concentrate on development, women and gender equality, education, health, agriculture, and nutrition—recognizing that robust forums already exist for climate advocacy in this space.
This will not be a policy development forum for the French G7 or US G20. Any joint policy work will be coordinated by the C7/W7/Y7 etc or the C20/W20/Y20 etc organising groups respectively.
Objectives
The event will convene experienced advocates to confront these challenges head-on and chart a more effective path forward. Specifically, the forum will:
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Assess the impacts of a changing global order in the most recent G7 and G20 summits
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Identify opportunities and constraints within the evolving political landscape of host countries
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Discuss possible approaches for the 2026-2028 summit cycle
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Strengthen networks among advocates working on shared priorities
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Build capacity for engaging with multilateral decision-making processes
Outcomes
The primary outcomes are:
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An understanding of the changing global policy environment
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Shared examples and case-studies of successful or promising new strategies
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Up-dates on the French G7, the US G20 and a look ahead to the UK G7
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Design of possible tools to help track and capture sucessful advocacy initiatives to inform the sector
The secondary outcomes are:
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Increased awareness of the sectoral priorities (health, climate, rights etc).
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Greater trust between groups and sectors.
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Informal networks and collaborative groups that can work together throughout the year.
The full agenda is being built and will be shared with the participants in early January.