Civil7 Summit

On Tuesday and Wednesday, 14 and 15 May, the Civil7 (C7) International Summit will take place in Rome at FAO Headquarters in the year of Italy’s G7 Presidency. The event is organised and coordinated by  GCAP Italy, the Italian Coalition Against Poverty that chaired the C7 in 2024.

We are only six years away from 2030 and the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals, and the world is facing several critical structural and systemic challenges. Large population groups such as women, children, youth, and the most marginalised bear the brunt of the current polycrisis.

The cumulative impacts of climate change, economic shocks, the consequences of pandemics, and the alarming increase in conflict and war have exacerbated already unacceptable social and economic inequalities. Gender inequalities are amplified, food security and even famine are increasing, fuelling forced migration and driving humanitarian needs to record levels. Prolonged public-private indebtedness is both a consequence and a further cause of the crisis. As an overall result, this complex situation is slowing down and even reversing previous progress in leaving no one behind.

More than 400 people from around the world are expected at the prestigious FAO headquarters for a two-day high-level meeting, both in terms of the depth of the topics to be covered and the depth of the speakers.

On Tuesday, 14 May, after the greetings and welcome by a video message from FAO Director-General QU Dongyu, the Summit will experience one of its most significant moments. In the first plenary session, C7 Chair Riccardo Moro and C7 Sherpa Valeria Emmi will present and officially hand over the C7 Communiqué to G7 Sherpa Ambassador Elisabetta Belloni. “The Communiqué is a report containing the C7 recommendations addressed to the G7 that have been collectively elaborated by the C7 Working Groups over the past months on different political priorities,” says Valeria Emmi. “It is a true manifesto that brings the excluded and the most vulnerable to the centre of the political debate and expresses the strong will of civil society, brought together in the C7, to play an active role and offer a concrete contribution to policymakers in addressing the protracted and growing crises we are experiencing, and the most urgent social, economic and environmental challenges of today and the future“ – concludes Emmi.

The second session is dedicated to policy coherence for development with a panel of keynote speakers including Laura Aghilarre, Deputy Director-General for Development Cooperation at MAECI, Maurizio Martina, Deputy Director-General FAO and Marina Ponti, Director of the UN SDG Action Campaign. The two plenary sessions will be interspersed with four parallel sessions featuring sectoral experts from various continents who will explore the themes of conflict in the Middle East, human mobility and migration, food justice and gender equity.

On Wednesday, 15 May, the proceedings will open with the third plenary session devoted to international financial and fiscal architecture, which will feature, among other prestigious speakers, the Director General of the Fiscal and International Relations Directorate of the MEF, Marco Iuvinale, representing the Minister of Economy and Finance, and, by remote link, Geeta Sethi, Advisor and Global Lead for Food Systems of the World Bank, Katherine Baer, Deputy Director, Fiscal Affairs Department, of the International Monetary Fund, Martin Fregene, Director of Agriculture and Agro-Industry of the African Development Bank, and Enrico Petrocelli, Head of International Institutional Relations of Cassa Depositi e Prestiti.

On the mid-morning of the 15th, the four parallel sessions will take place, addressing the topics of climate justice, nuclear disarmament, humanitarian assistance and global health. The two days of work will conclude with the fourth plenary session, during which the theme of peace will be addressed.

AIDOS has organized an event: The Right to Bodily Autonomy: A Right for achieving gender equality
(Austria Room)

Panellists:

Beatrice Mariottini, Aidos Italy
Monica Ferro, UNFPA UK
Meganne Lorraine Boho, Ivorian League for Women’s Rights
Carmen Ryan, Director of Institutional Development, Fundación Huesped

Moderator: Barbara Leda Kenny, InGenere magazine, Giacomo Brodolini Foundation