G7 2021 and civil society

We’re leading the Civil Society 7 (C7), a group of organisations responsible for engaging with the G7 on urgent civil society issues.

In June 2021, the leaders of the UK, Germany, Japan, USA, Canada, France and Italy will meet in Cornwall, UK for the G7 Leaders’ Summit. Throughout the year, the UK will also host a series of ministerial and official meetings, and coordinate joint statements on shared global challenges.

Bond has been appointed as lead of the C7 to coordinate dialogue between UK government and civil society organisations. We aim to inform and influence the outcomes of the 2021 G7 Summit, alongside our domestic and international partners. This includeded hosting the 2021 C7 Summit on civil society’s global challenges on 19-20 April, which you can find out more about here.

C7’s objectives

The decisions and actions governments taken as a result of the G7 Summit are critical to a sustainable and inclusive recovery from Covid-19. The G7 is also crucial to tackling fundamental global injustices affecting the world’s most marginalised people.

The C7’s main goals:

  • Influence the G7 declaration and commitments to build on the experience and input of the C7 and other engagement groups.
  • Ensure civil society and other engagement groups from the UK, the G7 and beyond create a lasting platform and partnerships to effectively advocate for sustainable development beyond the G7.

Policy recommendations for a transformative G7

As coordinators of the C7, Bond and our partner networks call on the UK to use its G7 leadership to take and promote the 25 actions laid out in our report, A transformative agenda for the G7: Recommendations from UK civil society.

These are 25 recommendations for the UK and G7 to make a giant stride towards building a better world by addressing the following priorities: health, climate and environment, sustainable economic recovery, open societies and civic space, education, food security and nutrition, and conflict and atrocity prevention. Download the report in English or French.

C7 Summit and communiqué for G7 leaders

On the 19-20 April, we organised the annual C7 Summit, hosting 100 organisations from the UK, G7, Africa and Asia. We welcomed government officials to plenary conversations on topics addressing civil society perspectives on “Building Back Better”, open and democratic societies, and civil society’s role in a successful G7.

The summit opened with words from the foreign secretary, Dominic Raab. We also heard from passionate civil society leaders and activists, including Lysa Johns of the Civicus Alliance, Mark Malloch-Brown of the Open Society Foundations, Coumba Toure of Africans Rising, and Mitzi Jonelle Tan, a climate justice advocate from the Philippines. In a range of breakout sessions, we heard perspectives from all participants. We also shared our initial findings directly with UK government in a live session with Jonathan Black, the UK G7 representative.

These discussions, alongside consultations completed before the summit, helped us develop our C7 communiqué. This document of priorities and recommendations will be shared directly with the G7 and become the core of our advocacy for the rest of this year.

In the communiqué, we make a collective call to action for transformative change on issues most relevant to the G7 agenda. This includes a call to “Build Forward” from the pandemic through a sustainable and inclusive recovery based on a new, green economic model. We also call for further action to protect the planet, such as making climate finance, including a 50% target for climate adaptation as a key priority for 2021.

More info and how to get involved

Bond has established a working group for Bond members to coordinate and share information on our advocacy plans for the G7 and the C7. Find out more and get involved.

You can also find independent information on previous G7s here.

For more information on the C7, contact us at [email protected].

G7 media centre

Find media briefings, press releases, C7 spokespeople and other media resources at our G7 media centre.