G20 meetings enter final stretch ahead of Leaders' Summit

An intense week of negotiations began on Tuesday, October 29, with four simultaneous meetings aimed at addressing the world's most pressing challenges. Representatives from the world's largest economies are gathering in Rio de Janeiro, Fortaleza, and Belém to discuss topics including health, health and finance, education, and disaster prevention, all in pursuit of integrated solutions to issues impacting billions worldwide.

EDUCATION — The third and final stage of the G20 Education Working Group began today (29) in Fortaleza. The group will participate in technical and ministerial meetings to discuss topics such as teacher recognition, strategies for sharing effective teaching practices among member countries, and initiatives related to environmental sustainability, digital content, and school-community engagement.

HEALTH — The G20 Health Ministers' Meeting will take place in Rio de Janeiro between October 29 and 31. The Brazilian presidency established “building resilient health systems” as the theme of the Health Working Group and defined four priorities. The event’s program includes topics that were widely discussed in previous meetings of the Health Working Group which took place in Brasília, Salvador, and Natal.

Ministerial summit topics include combating health disinformation; the response to Mpox; discussions to establish a commitment to a climate declaration; tackling inequalities; and preparing for future pandemics. The program for Tuesday began with the debate “Combating Health Disinformation: Challenges and Solutions”, in which the unprecedented one-year survey by the Health with Science [Saúde com Ciência] project to combat health disinformation was presented.

FINANCE AND HEALTH — The Joint Ministerial Meeting on Finance and Health will take place on October 31, also in Rio de Janeiro, to discuss ways to strengthen health systems and ensure financing for countries to deal with upcoming health emergencies.

DISASTER RISK REDUCTION — Completing the week's agenda, Belém will host the High-Level Meeting and the Ministerial Meeting on Disaster Risk Reduction, also between October 31 and November 1. The event is of special relevance in view of the growing concerns about climate change and its socioeconomic impacts, towards establishing common guidelines to prevent and respond to the natural disasters that have become more intense around the world.

The Working Group adopted six priorities to guide Brazil’s actions and contributions from member countries: combating inequalities and reducing vulnerabilities; global coverage of early warning systems; resilient infrastructures to disasters and climate change; financing strategies for disaster risk reduction; recovery, rehabilitation, and reconstruction in the event of disasters; and nature-based solutions.

FINAL STRETCH — G20 Brasil has reached the final stretch of technical and ministerial meetings ahead of the events that close the Brazilian presidency of the forum. Between November 12 and 16, Rio de Janeiro will host the Sherpas’ meeting; November 14 and 16, the G20 Social Summit; and November 18 and 19, the G20 Leaders' Summit.