About CGP

 

Objectives

The Council for Global Problem-Solving (CGP) is a circle of world-class think tanks and research institutions committed to providing policy advice to the G20 and associated international organizations.

The CGP works outside the official processes of the G20 and related international fora, but it supports these efforts by providing information, analysis of policy proposals and monitoring progress on policy implementation.

By providing a stable organization for connecting the complementary analyses of eminent think tanks and research institutes dealing with G20 issues, the CGP can provide policy advice that is coherent across time and countries, considering past policy experiences and sensitive to global interdependencies. The CGP seeks to strike a balance between long-term thinking and relevance to the current agendas of the G20 and related fora.

 

Features of the CGP

The CGP includes leading think tanks, academic institutions, and policy making organizations (in their research and advisory capacities) from the G20 countries and beyond, with the common aim of identifying and addressing transnational problems in the spirit of global citizenship.

Council members are chosen with a view to mobilizing best thinking and best practice worldwide to work together in overcoming problems that we all share.

The members of the CGP fulfill the following membership requirements:

  • They are highly reputed in their countries for excellent research relevant to G20 problems.
  • They seek to provide policy advice to the G20, the G7 and other multilateral fora on a long-term basis.
  • They have access to relevant policy makers in their own countries, as well as at the international level.
  • They have a strong voice in the public debate on policy issues and can mobilize support for the implementation of policy proposals.
  • They have strong contacts to other think tanks, including those from the T20, enabling them to draw on research and policy expertise in diverse areas of specialization.

President:

Dennis Snower – Global Solutions Initiative

Contact:

Dennis Görlich  – Head, Global Challenges Center, Kiel Institute for the World Economy

Research Director:

Katharina Lima de Miranda –  Kiel Institute for the World Economy

Taken together, these features enable the CGP to support coherent, research-based policy advice from one G20 Presidency to the next, influence the relevant policymaking processes, and draw on wide networks of other leading researchers and decision makers. Thereby the CGP becomes a potentially valuable source of policy ideas to the G20 and other international fora.

The CGP is an accessible, permeable organization, open to all think tanks and research institutions that fulfill its ambitious requirements (see above).

 

Relation of the CGP to the T20 and Other G20 Groups

The CGP aims to work closely with the T20 organizing group of each successive G20 Presidency, in order to ensure that its agenda remains well-aligned to each G20 agenda as well as to long-term G20 policy concerns.

While the T20 brings together think tanks and research institutes from G20 countries in an independent, open network that is steered by the country annually chairing the G20, the CGP is meant to provide a base for long-term thinking on G20 challenges. Thereby the CGP aims to strengthen the T20 as an intellectual backbone of the G20.

In addition, the CGP will provide independent assessments of policy proposals arising from other work streams of the G20 and related international fora.

Membership

Each member of the CGP represents an institution satisfying the membership requirements above. Members serve on the CGP in a personal capacity, not committing their institutions to their views expressed in the CGP. Each member of the Council has a direct voice in determining in the future development and membership of the Council.

Members of the CGP are chosen to serve for a 3-year terms, renewable. The ongoing selection process to the CGP is open and flexible. Decisions on entry to and exit from the CGP will be taken on the basis of majority votes by existing CGP members. All think tanks and research institutions of the T20 can become members of the CGP, provided that they fulfill the ambitious membership criteria outlined above. Existing members who are no longer in a position to fulfill these criteria will leave the CGP once their term of office has expired.

Joining the Council implies no financial commitment. Council members may volunteer to host workshops and conferences or to organize sessions at the annual “Global Solutions Summit.”

The following graph gives an overview of the current CGP members by county:

The current members of the CGP are:

  • Argentine Council for International Relations (CARI), Argentina
  • Asian Development Bank Institute (ADBI), Japan
  • Bertelsmann Foundation, Germany
  • Brookings, Global Economy and Development, USA
  • Bruegel, EU
  • Centre for Economic and Financial Research(CEFIR) New Economic School (NES), Russia
  • Chongyang Institute for Financial Studies, Renmin University (RDCY), China
  • CIGI Centre for International Governance Innovation, Canada
  • Centre for the Implementation of Public Policy Promoting Equity and Growth (CIPPEC), Argentina
  • Centre for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), Indonesia
  • Council on Energy, Environment and Water (CEEW), India
  • Economic Policy Research Foundation of Turkey (TEPAV), Turkey
  • Economic Research Institute of ASEAN and East Asia (ERIA), Indonesia
  • Elcano Royal Institute, Spain
  • Ethos Public Policy Lab, Mexico
  • Fundação Getulio Vargas (FGV), Brazil
  • G20 Research Group, Canada
  • Gateway House, India
  • Hertie School of Governance, Germany
  • Institut Français des Relations Internationales (IFRI), France
  • Institute for Policy, Advocacy, and Governance (IPAG)
  • International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA), Austria
  • International Panel on Social Progress (IPSP), USA
  • Italian Institute for International Political Studies (ISPI), Italy
  • Kiel Institute for the World Economy (IfW), Germany
  • King Abdullah Petroleum Studies and Research Center (KAPSARC), Saudi Arabia
  • Korea Development Institute (KDI), Korea
  • Mercator Foundation, Germany
  • Observer Research Foundation (ORF), India
  • OECD, Policy Studies Branch, EU
  • Pew Research Center, USA
  • South African Institute of International Affairs, South Africa
  • Sustainable Development Solutions Network (SDSN)
  • University of Oxford – Blavatnik School of Government, Oxford Martin School and Institute for New Economic Thinking (INET), United Kingdom

Other leading institutions, primarily from G20 countries, are to be included in the future.

 

Work Program and Output of the CGP

The work of the CGP is organized around thematic themes, in which its members and their collaboration partners work together to produce and discuss new research. These themes are i) demand-driven, being determined by the current or past G20 presidency’s agenda or ii) supply-driven longer-term issues, going beyond the immediate G20 agendas and determined by the CGP members. Around the thematic themes working groups of reputed international scholars from the CGP, along with other relevant experts, where necessary, are formed. These typically support a T20 Task Force and hence also collaborate with the wider T20 communities.

Thematic Themes: The work of the CGP is organized around thematic themes related to the G20.

  • Demand-driven themes, being determined by the current or past G20 presidency’s agenda, in particular as defined by the current T20. In 2021 the T20 Italy defined the following Task Forces (TF): TF 1 – Global Health and Covid-19, TF 2 – Climate Change, Sustainable Energy & Environment, TF 3 – Trade, Investment and Growth, TF 4 – Digital Transformation, TF 5 – 2030 Agenda and Development Cooperation, TF 6 – Social Cohesion and the Future of Welfare Systems, TF 7 – Infrastructure Investment and Financing, TF 8 – Multilateralism and Global Governance, TF 9 – International Finance, TF 10 – Migration, TF 11 – Reforming the T20
  • Supply-driven longer-term themes, going beyond the immediate G20 agendas and determined by the CGP members. Currently, these are: Measurement of economic performance, Digital governance, Measurement of business performance, Health-wealth policy, The great realignment, The future of multilateralism

The CGP supports the Task Forces of the T20 and other G20 groups to produce Policy Briefs, which are submitted to the relevant policy makers of the G20 and related international fora. The Policy Briefs comprise Recommendations and Visions. The Recommendations identify major global challenges and articulate concrete, implementable policy proposals for the G20 governments to address these challenges. These Recommendations are supplemented by research-based analyses. The Visions articulate conceptual frameworks for guiding policy making and help policy makers communicate their broad policy approaches to the public.

Provisional policy proposals and underlying research in progress by the CGP are disseminated on the CGP website, which is meant as a discussion platform for CGP members. The Policy Briefs as finished products can be published on the Global Solutions Initiative’s website and G20 Insights at any time. Scholarly articles on G20 topics are published in the Global Solutions Papers series in the Economics E-Journal.

Policy Briefs: The primary outputs of the networks are Policy Briefs.

A Policy Brief can take one of two forms:

  • Recommendations are significant, implementable policy proposals for specified G20 decision makers or related international fora.
  • Visions are conceptual frameworks to help policymakers develop promising approaches policy formation and communicate these approaches to the public.

 

Meetings

At least once a year all GCP members meet at the Global Solutions Summit in Berlin. The Global Solutions Summit is an international conference aimed at addressing key policy challenges facing the Group of Twenty (G20) and other global governance fora. Distinguished experts from think tanks, research organizations, governance, business, and civil society come together each year in the middle of every G20 Presidency to work on concrete policy solutions. Global Solutions is focused on the most important recommendations and visions generated by the T20 Task Forces and the CGP networks, plenary speeches and discussions by major international decision makers and thought leaders, and participation of “Young Global Changers,” who conduct an intergenerational dialogue with leading decision makers on solution proposals to shape the future. Global Solutions also includes a multi-stakeholder community containing leaders from business, policymaking, academia, media and civil society. The main recommendations from Global Solutions are to be submitted to policy makers of the G20 and related international fora.

Due to the Coronavirus Pandemic, the 4th Global Solutions Summit was held online with some 220 speakers and over 800 contributions. 36 Global Tables, with keynotes, panel discussions and vision statements, tackled the T20 and G20 agenda under the Saudi Arabian Presidency as well as generated policies in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. The next Global Solutions Summit will be held May 27th and 28th 2021 in Berlin, Germany.

In addition, CGP members are invited to host activities throughout the year and to contribute to conferences and workshops on an ongoing basis. Often this is done in collaboration with the Global Solutions Initiative. Workshops and conferences are organized in various countries devoted to “deep dives” on special topics that require concentrated attention by specialized groups of researchers and policy makers.

 

Dissemination

In addition to the communication channels of its members, the CGP offers the following avenues to disseminate policy proposals and underlying analyses:

  1. The CGP website: On www.cgp-council.org, CGP Members can float new ideas, debate underlying issues, and publicize their policy work in progress. It should focus on Recommendations and Visions generated by CGP members and permits an exchange of views among these members. The CGP website reflects a longer-term advice-giving perspective, intent on consistency and coherence from one G20 Presidency to the next.
  2. The G20 Insights Platform: G20-Insights.org is the platform for the finished products, in the form of Policy Briefs, where the recommendations are embedded in the current policy framework, including relevant G20 initiatives (e.g. commitments, agreements, policies, and monitoring reports) as well as background analysis. The G20 Insight Platform includes important proposals from the CGP as well other think tanks and research institutions, pertaining to current and past G20 agendas. The Policy Briefs are clustered into thematic policy areas.The G20-Insights Platform complements the G20 Information Centre by the Munk School of Global Affairs, University of Toronto, the leading source of information on official G20 documents on each G20 Summit. It aims to become a significant source of policy analysis to support G20 policy making, and to inform the global public on challenges, policy options and policies adopted by the G20 to address global challenges.
  1. Global Solutions Papers: Policy analyses may be published in Global Solutions Papers) and research results can be published in Special Issues of the open-access, open-assessment e-journal Economics.
    The CGP members retain the copyright to their contributions to the CGP website, the G20 Insights Platform, and Global Solutions Papers, and these contributions can thus be disseminated through other channels as well, including academic articles in scholarly publications as well as the traditional and social media.