At the end of July, financial leaders of the world’s major economies gathered in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil., For the G20 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors Meeting. In it, they pledged to collaborate for the first time to ensure that the super-rich are effectively taxed: attracted headlines in the global media.
This unprecedented declaration on wealth taxation formed part of a wider debate on sustainable finance and demonstrated the need for new answers to the urgent question of how to mobilize funds for sustainable development and climate action. This crucial question will be the main topic of the agenda at the G20 summit in Brazil in November.
This comes at a time when the world is facing multiple crises on several fronts: such as the tragic floods in Brazil Rio Grande do Sul Earlier this year, he highlighted the extent of the emergency. Bold action is needed if we want to prevent such crises: The G20 must unlock not just more finance, but better finance. This means catalyzing higher risk investments and securing funds reaching frontline communities.
Using the potential of philanthropy is an important step in this direction. In kind acknowledgment of this, Civil 20 (C20) – the body representing civil society participation within the G20 – this year included its first working group on philanthropy. Leads the C20 Working Group 9 on Philanthropy and Sustainable Development. International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED), along with a global philanthropic network WINGS and a Brazilian charity network GIVE IT.
As co-chairs of this task force, we convened more than 400 organizations to understand how philanthropy contributes to the G20’s commitment to improving the multilateral system and sustainable development. This process, but also in the presence of IIED F20 Climate Solutions Forum and the C20 Midterm Meeting provided useful insights into the contribution philanthropy can and should make to climate and social justice.
Charity: different sector
The role of philanthropy was highlighted at the third G20 Sherpas meeting in Brazil last month, where C20 representatives presented their proposals for the G20. C20s general recommendations The G20 included a call to “recognize and support the catalytic role of philanthropy in promoting sustainable development.” Underpinning this feedback from our C20 working group was a clear and encouraging goal: philanthropy must move beyond siloed, fragmented programming and support aligned, transformative policy actions.
During our C20 conversations, we were struck by how diverse the charity sector is. Although associated with large-scale donors, philanthropy takes many forms, including community and corporate foundations and networks. They are more than just financial providers: they act as powerful intermediaries between communities and government bodies, producing substantive knowledge, promoting innovative practices and fostering creative partnerships between business, civil society and the public sector.
Importantly, their know-how, political capital and flexibility enable them to take risks, better adapt funding schemes to the needs and capacities of local communities, and support policy areas that may be overlooked or contested by traditional actors.
Cross-sectoral mobilization
Stakeholders who participated in our C20 discussions on philanthropy demonstrated their commitment to improving democratic and inclusive governance both in society and in their own sectors. Participants did not call for philanthropy to replace the public sector, but rather to align its actions with broader systemic change and public policies that respond to the demands of inclusive, sustainable development. This, in their view, required both broader measures such as international tax cooperation and a common regulatory framework to guide philanthropy and ensure the transparency of philanthropy itself. Such a framework can give way to more effective partnerships, mobilizing all sectors – both public and private – towards common goals.
Brazil’s presidency of the G20 has also provided an opportunity to reflect on the role of philanthropy in the global South, which is often closer to the communities most affected by polycrisis. Participants at the C20 meetings explored how this unique position could enable them to tackle persistent inequalities, such as supporting a wealth tax, while grappling with their own histories of colonialism and discrimination. They spoke of the need to use their positions as funders, conveners and potential builders to enhance South-South cooperation through South Africa’s chairmanship of the G20 in 2025 and to improve the adequacy and accessibility of financial flows in both the global North and South.
The C20’s recommendations to the G20 speak to today’s most pressing issues, such as just transition, international tax cooperation and the imperative to combat wealth redistribution and shrinking civic space. This year’s G20 focus on poverty and hunger, the climate crisis and global governance reform is a unique opportunity to achieve these goals. We are inspired by our passion to be part of these efforts to create systemic change in the charity sector and develop fairness, equity and sustainability in their programmes.
Matters for further attention
Nevertheless, activities in various fields require additional attention in these multilateral spaces. IIED works with Southern partners on a range of issues where the G20 has the potential to drive policy changes that can support global sustainable development. These issues include solving the debt crisis in an innovative way debt for climate and nature exchangeand the need to ambitiously fill the International Development Association (IDA), the World Bank’s concessional financing window for the poorest countries.
Housing justice is another important topic that is often overlooked: the intersections of climate, inequality and exclusion are often absent from the conversation, despite being talked about. As IIED’s work shows, the prevailing housing model in most countries reproduces social and environmental injustices that threaten our ability to address the climate crisis, challenge colonial and racist legacies in public policy, and respond to rising living costs.
We believe that alternative, often locally driven, pathways to justice and urban equity in spaces like the G20, as well as the upcoming COP negotiations and the UN Future Summit – can improve policy coherence and mobilize funding for housing policy efforts that put people and nature before profit.
Ultimately, whether we address livelihoods, hunger, conflict or climate change, the path to sustainable finance requires a holistic approach – where inclusive, sustainable engagement is paramount, and where both traditional and new actors come together with a common mission. to provide meaningful change.
The process of co-chairing the C20 Working Group on Philanthropy for Sustainable Development has been an insightful experience and has shown that there is an appetite for more effective partnerships between both the private and public sectors. We can only hope that the G20 will respond to the call for new, fairer and truly sustainable economic structures and partnerships that will deliver the transformative change we urgently need.
