Deputy Minister of Women, Youth and Persons with Disabilities, Mmapaseka Steve Letsike has called on civil society organisations represented at the C20 South Africa launch in Sandton to make sure their voices are heard.

Letsike who delivered her message to the C20 South Africa launch virtually with a message directed at women, children and persons with disability said no one should be left behind in ensuring that South Africa’s hosting of the G20 Summit later this year is a success.

C20, which is a gathering of various civil society organisations across 14 working groups, tasked with developing policy proposals to be presented to government comes just over 23 weeks before South Africa is set to be the first African country to host the G20 Summit

Women and gender equity, people to people interaction and solidarity, poverty alleviation and food sustainability, democratic governance, civic space, anti-corruption and access to justice– are some of the key working groups tasked with policy development ahead of the summit.

“I stand before you honoured that South Africa is set to host the G20 Summit later this year. For South Africa, this is not a box-ticking exercise. It is an opportunity to reshape the global landscape, and we must adopt a spirit of no compromise…Our G20 presidency is guided by strong principles, and we must leave no one behind in our bid to restore dignity of our people and be the moral centre of multilaterism.

“We must be the dreamers and doers, not in abstract terms but in concrete terms and our dreams must be translated into concrete actions across all the working groups, “she said.

With an emphasis on inclusivity and gender equality, Letsike  also called on the working groups to make meaningful contributions in order to shape policy development on the global stage.

The C20, a collective of diverse civil society organisations based across 14 working groups, aims to develop policy proposals for submission to the government as South Africa gears up to host the G20 Summit.

“The disability inclusion stream and all these working streams are not intended to be for box-ticking exercise as we believe that those closest to the pain must be the closest to power and the C20 South Africa must bring solutions that bring integrated response to these communities.

“In essence, we must move from paper to power and ensure the tG20 budget is inclusive and leaves no one behind… We must track this budget and demand accountability on violence against children and women and ensure civil society is not consulted but co-governs,” she said.

siyabonga.sithole@inl.co.za

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