Introducing the g7+
Of the 7 billion people in the world, 1.5 billion live in situations of conflict and fragility.
The g7+ group is the country-owned and country-led global mechanism to monitor, report and draw attention to the unique challenges faced by fragile states.
The g7+ was formed to work in concert with international actors, the private sector, civil society, the media and the people across countries, borders and regions to reform and reinvent a new paradigm for international engagement.
At a crucial time in global dynamics when fragility is seen in both the developed and developing world driven by global financial shocks, concern at climate change, rising commodity prices and citizen discontent, the g7+ aims to influence global policy through the founding principles of peacebuilding and statebuilding.
You can download a brochure that introduces the g7+ in English here and in French here
The goal of the g7+ is to stop conflict, build nations and eradicate poverty through innovative development strategies, harmonized to the country context, aligned to the national agenda and led by the State and its People.
Through a substantive and transformative program assisting and engaging with international actors, the g7+ has facilitated dialogue on urgent reforms to the way aid interventions are managed, designed and delivered.
The landmark global policy guiding the transitions from fragility to sustainable development is the New Deal for Engagement in Fragile States, endorsed by over 40 countries and organizations; a testament to the strength and determination of the g7+ willingness to define country-owned and country-led plans to build peaceful states.
“We, the member countries of the g7+, believe fragile states are characterized and classified through the lens of the developed rather than through the eyes of the developing.”
g7+ Statement, 7 April 2010, Dili, Timor-Leste
Despite diverse and varying regional, political, historic cultural, religious and social fabrics, the g7+ have discovered innumerable commonalities that bond their unified vision. Through peer sharing and lessons learned, their successes and failures inform a new and better understanding of their own conditions and necessary steps for transitions. Adaptive and innovative aid modalities and policies to overcome unique and rapidly shifting challenges are emerging from the forum to guide international actors for result-based outcomes.
“You are all rich countries, rich in resources. Now is the time to transform that into tangible benefits for your people.”
Judy Cheng Hopkins, Assistant Secretary - General for the Peacebuilding Support Commission
Though many of the g7+ countries are rich in resources, they remain the poorest and most vulnerable to internal and external shocks, have the lowest indicators of all developing countries and have yet to achieve one MDG
A core objective in peacebuilding and statebuilding is to transform resource wealth into tangible benefits for the people of these countries through best practice international systems and models of governance prioritizing inclusive politics, security, justice, strong economic foundations and good resource and revenue management as integral steps to sustainable development.
Though each national trajectory will differ, priorities and agendas change, each unique country-owned and country-led plan should be grounded in these five basic principles adapted to their national context