The third meeting of the G20 Development Working Group (DWG) beginning in Goa on Tuesday will set up development outcomes which will be taken up at the final ministerial meet scheduled to be held in Varanasi, a senior central government official has said.

Addressing a press conference on Monday, Nagaraj Naidu Kakanur, Joint Secretary (G20), Ministry of External Affairs, said, "The meeting in Goa is a very important element because we are at that stage of negotiations wherein we are discussing the text (of the earlier discussion) with all the G20 members." It is a challenging process and there will be a lot of “give and take” between the countries, "but we are hopeful that DWG will come out with substantiate outcome," he said.

The first two sessions of DWGs were held in Mumbai and Kerala.

"The meeting (scheduled between May 9 and 11) in Goa will work towards setting up development outcomes which will be taken up for the final ministerial meeting at Varanasi," Kakanur said.

He said DWG is a fulcrum of G20 as it addresses the development mandate, which is very crucial in the current scenario.

“The whole world is looking at accelerating the progress, particularly to achieve the sustainable development goals," he added.

Kakanur said the world has witnessed one crisis after the other beginning with the COVID-19 pandemic and up to the current geo-political situation. “What we were calling the decade of action starting from 2021 to 2030, has converted into a decade of recovery".

"How soon the planet will recover is a question. We are in the year 2023 and seven more years to go before 2030. All countries had originally agreed that they will meet their SDG goals by then,” the official said.

He said it is a challenging time, particularly for countries in the south.

“The COVID (pandemic) has impacted the economic growth. The issues pertaining to debt have played out heavily. They are experiencing debt distress. The DWG is looking at how we can accelerate the progress towards the SDG. In this regard, we are aiming at very bold actionable outcomes,” he added.

Kakanur further said the DWG is also looking at how they can accelerate the transition as the world is looking at the digital revolution. "We are also looking at enhancing our global climate ambitions. If a developing country in global south has to accelerate its pace to achieve climate ambition, it needs assistance in terms of financing and technology,” he said, adding that DWG is also looking at how can women-led development contribute to this transition.

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