Civil20 is one of the official engagement groups of G20 that provides a platform for Civil Society Organisations (CSO) around the world to voice people’s aspirations to the world leaders of G20 countries.
Under C20 India – December 2022 to November 2023 – our Founder and Executive Director has been appointed on the Steering Committee of 5 individuals from across the country along with the Sherpa, Sous Sherpa of C20 and the Troika. This committee is the executive body of the C20 responsible for ensuring that the C20 is an open and diverse space that facilitates the transmission of a broad range of civil society views to the G20 India.
C20 India has 16 working groups with the most recent historic addition of a stand alone Working Group on Disability, Equity, Justice. Never before in C20 has disability found an exclusive space.
Creation of this Disability, Equity, Justice Working Group is a historical step for the disability community within G20 processes, giving us the necessary space and focus to sustain the efforts to leave no one behind!
At its ongoing #Bhubaneswar meeting, @C20EG has announced the decision to mainstream #disability and establish a separate Working Group to focus on Disability, Equity, Justice (DEJ), with dedicated attention to #disabilityrights, a first ever in any #C20 process!#G20India pic.twitter.com/AEjKzcDQlo
— G20 Brasil (@g20org) April 23, 2023
Nidhi Ashok Goyal, Founder and Executive Director, Rising Flame led the working group and the efforts to mainstream disability in this space. She is supported by Risnawati Utami, Founder, Ohana Indonesia and former CRPD committee member.
Disability, Equity, Justice (DEJ) Working Group
We as the coordinators of Disability, Equity, Justice Working Group from April to July 2023 organised consultations, round tables, and conferences to bring together experiences and expertise of disabled and non-disabled civil society to advance a practical vision of economic development that is accessible, just, sustainable, and inclusive.
This working group organised consultations and dialogues in multiple forms, the outcomes, and recommendations from these were compiled and policy brief and White Paper were developed with relevance across disabilities to advance disability equity and inclusion through inclusive and accessible planning, implementation, and systems change. These papers covered the thematic areas of education, employment and livelihoods, health, environment, climate and disaster responses, sustainable development, social protection and poverty and inclusive societies and cultures.
Watch our announcement video:
Engagements during the presidency
In total 10 engagements were organised under the Disability, Equity, Justice Working Group. In this process, we engaged with over 2500 persons with and without disabilities from across 35 countries.
Read in-depth about all our engagements here
Engagements with other working groups
Members of our Working Group also participated in events organised with other working groups ensuring cross cutting engagement. Through this work, outreach has been over 3000 individuals.
Our Voices is a video compilation of inputs from experts and participants from our consultations from around the world. Watch below:
Policy Brief
The purpose of advocating for a standalone working group was to have an opportunity and space to voice specific disability related concerns and solutions in the final Civil 20 policy pack which is handed over to G20 leaders collectively by C20.
Civil 20 policy pack on G20 website can be found here
Accessible DEJ policy brief can be downloaded here.
White Paper
To capture the full data from the consultations with and participation of over 2,500 persons with and without disabilities, nonprofit organisations, Organisations of Persons with Disabilities, disability rights experts, officers from multilaterals and disability rights allies from across 35 countries, we drafted the white paper as an extension of the policy brief. It comprises of voices that were captured through in person and virtual consultations/ round tables and conference but also through online direct channels opened up for receiving recommendations and suggestions.
C20 Closing Summit
The Civil 20 Closing summit took place in Jaipur from July 29 to July 31, 2023. The Disability, Equity, Justice Working Group was present at the summit to share our findings and continue our advocacy towards building a disability inclusive world. We organised 2 side events at the Civil20 India closing summit to reiterate the issues and way forward for the Disability, Equity, Justice Working Group.
The first side event by the Disability, Equity, Justice working group was organised on July 29, 2023 from 2pm to 3 pm where over 40 people attended the event. The panel had persons across disabilities presenting the concerns of the community along with the recommendations of the same. Nikita Sarah Singh from The Leprosy Mission Trust India, Shruti from Sense International India, Kavya M., Job Coach, v-shesh, Rupmani Chhetri from SignAble Communications and Taha Haaziq from Goa State Commission for Persons with Disabilities. Nidhi Ashok Goyal moderated the discussions at this session and presented the journey of the Disability, Equity, Justice working group as the lead coordinator. Read excerpts from the panel in our Linkedin post.
The DEJ Working Group also co-organised a side event with SDG 16+ Working Group at C20 Summit, on July 30, 6 pm to 7 pm where over 50 people attended the event. The panel had Nuning, Ah Maftuchan, Apoorv Kulkarni, Barsha Banerjee, Priti Sridhar and Jyotsna Mohan. The panel focussed on the international community’s collective agenda and recommendations to foster just and inclusive societies. Read excerpts from the panel in our Linkedin post.
On the last day of the C20 summit, Nidhi Ashok Goyal was invited to the valedictory plenary to felicitate the Brazilian C20 representative, Athayde Motta.
At this summit the collective policy pack was released and the Civil 20 flag was officially handed over to Brazil, who will hold the next presidency.
C20 Inception
The C20 inception meeting took place in Nagpur on March 20 and 21 seeing delegates from more than 50 countries participate at the event. Rising Flame participated at the inception meeting. The inception meeting saw plenaries from all the working groups formed under C20 setting the stage and our collective agenda for the road ahead. Nidhi Goyal, Founder and Executive Director of Rising Flame was part of the Third Plenary Session on day 2 of the CIVIL20 India 2023 at Nagpur. The panel was on the theme ‘Role of Civil Society in Promoting Human Development’. The session covered the following Working Groups of Civil20 India 2023: Gender Equality and Disability (GED); SDG 16+ and Promoting Civic Space, and Delivering Democracy – Retrospect and Prospect. The session was chaired by Nivedita Bhide, All-India Vice President of Vivekananda Kendra, Kanyakumari. Speakers in the session included Gabriella Wright, co-founder, Never Alone, Dr R. Balasubramaniam. Founder and Chairman of Grassroots Research and Advocacy Movement (GRAAM), Meg Jones, Chief, Economic Empowerment at UN Women and Pedro Bocca, International Advisory Member of CIVIL20 India 2023.
The coordinators of the working groups also spoke in the session. They were Prof Bhavani Rao, UNESCO Chair for Gender Equality, Nidhi Goyal, Founder and Executive Director, Rising Flame, Jyotsna Mohan, Regional Coordinator (Asia), Asian Development Alliance and Dr Basavaraju R Shreshta, Executive Director of Grassroots Research And Advocacy Movement (GRAAM).
Nidhi highlighted during her speech, “It is important for us to focus on disabled people and inclusion of their experiences every step of the way to have our rights included and prioritised. We need to look at accessibility and reasonable accommodation. When we know that the world is constructed for a certain body and a certain kind of person. We often shift to say that the disabled person is to blame when the environment is not accessible.”
Nidhi ended with saying that we needed “to move from a space where we only have people with disabilities as part to seeing people with disabilities as leaders, as those who have inherent dignity and rights.”
Watch her full video here
Gender Equality and Disability (GED) Working Group
(National co-coordinators January to Mid April 2023)
More details available in the link.