The Group of Seven (G7) is an informal political forum of Canada, France, Germany, Great Britain, Italy, Japan, and the United States of America. Their heads of states come together at an annual summit to discuss global issues and coordinate their decisions. In 2024, Italy will take over the annually rotating Presidency following Japan.
An important part of the G7 process is the dialogue with various interest groups, called Engagement Groups. Civil 7 (C7) is one of the official Engagement Groups of the G7 and represents positions from the international Civil Society, to address critical global policy concerns, yet making another ambitious step forward in the scope and scale of the responses that are urgently required.
The C7 sees itself as a platform through which civil society organisations and actors worldwide can collaborate in order to enter into a dialogue with the G7. The aim is to channel the voice of civil society bringing forth proposals and demands to protect the environment, promote social and economic development and well-being for all, ensure healthy lives, gender equality, human rights and the principle of leaving no one behind in order to influence the G7 positions and contribute positively to its work in the economic, environmental and social fields.
The C7 has the responsibility to strengthen and ensure the impact of its work, as well as build effective cooperation with Civil Society Organizations (CSOs), also, and in particular, from the Global South, in order to reinforce the structured dialogue with the G7 and realize the ambitious Joint Agenda.
STRUCTURE AND PRINCIPLE OF WORK
The C7 process under Italian Presidency is coordinated by the Italian civil society coalition GCAP-Global Call to Action against Poverty Italy with the widest representation of the Italian Civil Society Organizations. With the goal to support advocacy initiatives aimed at mobilizing political support and facilitate the strategic positioning of the C7, an international Steering Committee was set up. It is composed of the two coordinators (national and international) of each C7 WG, a gender expert to ensure the gender mainstreaming approach, representatives of the regional coalitions of the Global South and representatives of the National Platforms of the G7 countries to ensure the engagement and dialogue with all G7 countries during the process.
C7 offers all interested national and international civil society actors the opportunity to get involved in Working Groups and shape the process. The Working Groups are led by coordinators from Italian and international organisations. Recommendations and demands for the G7 are drawn up within the Working Groups. A joint political declaration (Communiqué) is composed across all Working Groups and is officially presented to the governments of the G7.
For the past Civil 7 websites, please visit: