CIPPEC and CARI are now officially co-chairs of the T20, the G20 think tanks group. The leadership handover event took place last Tuesday at the Embassy of the Argentine Republic in Washington D.C. Among the attendees were representatives of the German Development Institute (DIE as per the acronym in German) and of the Kiel Institute for the World Economy (IfW), both German institutions that co-chaired the T20 earlier this year, as well as Pedro Villagra Delgado, Argentina’s G20 sherpa.

At the ceremony, Peter Wolff, President of DIE’s World Economy and Development Financing Department, and Dennis Snower, President of the IfW, handed the T20 leadership over to Julia Pomares, CIPPEC’s Executive Director, and to Félix Peña, member of CARI’s Board of Directors.

After the leadership handover event, there was a working meeting between CIPPEC and CARI and their German counterparts, DIE and IfW, and also a meeting with Argentina’s G20 sherpa, Pedro Villagra Delgado. Moreover, a conference called ‘Building a Policy Bridge from the German to the Argentine G20 Presidency’ was also held, featuring speeches by Pomares, Villagra Delgado, Peña, Wolff and Snower.

‘We want to further the achievements of the T20 and also include new topics such as women and education in the agenda’ said Pomares, who also highlighted the importance of the participation of think tanks in the debate. Chairing the T20 is ‘a great responsibility given the international context and Germany’s legacy’ which strengthened the T20, she added.

CIPPEC and CARI will support Argentina’s G20 presidency by chairing the T20, a think tanks network which formulates research-based policy proposals for the G20. The T20 policy recommendations – developed by 347 authors and compiled in 85 policy briefs – informed and influenced the negotiations at the G20 Hamburg summit held in early July.

‘Supported by the T20 network, the G20 under Germany’s presidency made a shift in the ultimate purpose of the group towards realigning economic and social progress and shaping globalization to benefit all people. We are now happy to hand over the T20 leadership to our Argentine partners who already started to set up their own ambitious agenda for the T20 in 2017/18’ said Dennis Snower, President of the IfW, institution which co-chaired the T20 during Germany’s presidency.

On the other hand, last Wednesday T20 representatives discussed G20-related issues at an event organized by CIPPEC, CARI, DIE, IfW and the Brookings Institution based in Washington D.C. Some of the points on the agenda were Argentina’s G20 presidency, the United Nations 2030 Agenda and the G20 Compact with Africa.