UNESCO Senior Advisor, Sherpa Charaf Ahmimed, gave an exclusive interview about UNESCO's contributions to the Brazilian G20 presidency as a guest organization. Topics such as inequality, gender equality, and governance of Artificial Intelligence (AI) are among the priorities for action.
At a recent G20 Sherpa meeting, UNESCO Senior Advisor to the Director-General and Sherpa Charaf Ahmimed gave an exclusive interview to the G20 Brasil Communications team and spoke about the role of the United Nations agency during the Brazilian presidency. For the first time, the organization is actively participating in the Sherpa Track, contributing to practically all Working Groups.
Charaf highlighted the priorities the organization shares with the Brazilian G20 presidency-such as combating inequality, promoting gender equality, and the ethical governance of Artificial Intelligence. He supported the Brazilian initiative to integrate civil society into G20 discussions and emphasized the importance of the Global Alliance against Hunger and Poverty, to be launched in November during the Summit of Heads of State and Government.
At the initiative of the Brazilian presidency, UNESCO is contributing to the work of the G20 as a privileged partner for the first time. What is UNESCO's role in this process?
For the first time in our history, we are participating in the Sherpa Track and contributing to working groups, task forces, engagement groups, and initiatives. It is both a privilege and a responsibility for UNESCO to collaborate with the priorities of the Brazilian presidency in task forces, coalitions, and working groups-and also to work with the engagement groups.
UNESCO has selected some priorities for action that contribute to the G20 discussion, such as disinformation, combating inequalities, and gender issues in the technology field. We have traditionally supported the G20 on issues referring to education and culture, but we are promoting new areas of intervention, such as the governance of Artificial Intelligence (AI), both in the ethics of AI governance and in the regulation of social platforms.
We are working with new data regarding harassment against women online. This is a very important field of our work, not only in terms of providing data but also of supporting the presence of more women in research and increasing accessibility to science, technology, engineering, and mathematics for women and girls.
How does UNESCO position itself and propose solutions to the problems of inequality-one of Brasil's priorities at the G20?
Inequality is a broad issue that touches all areas of society, education, and culture. It is part of our mandate to support the fight against inequalities in education, culture, science, communications, and information. We have a full range of published works in science, technology, and information, developing recommendations for a more inclusive and equitable science that leads to the fight against inequalities in this area.
We are also supporting the work of the Alliance to Combat Hunger and Poverty to combat inequalities, supporting our school needs coalition, and providing recommendations on policies that support the fight against inequalities in education.
Another example is related to climate change. We are very concerned about the loss of biodiversity, which is occurring at a rate a thousand times faster than the natural rate. We have a great initiative called the Man and the Biosphere Programme. We are supporting, for example, eight biosphere reserves in the Amazon in countries such as Brasil, Bolivia, Peru, and Ecuador, supporting local communities and indigenous peoples in the development of income-generating ecological activities and ecotourism. This is an example of the actions we have in the Amazon and that we will take to the G20 to share best practices and expand this type of action and cooperation here in Brasil and elsewhere.
UNESCO participated as a knowledge partner in both the Sherpa Track and the Engagement Groups that give voice to civil society. How do you assess the initiative of the Brazilian G20 presidency in receiving proposals from civil society?
We must congratulate the Brazilian presidency for bringing civil society closer to the G20 process. We have noticed throughout the year that the general public, schools, and also civil society were much more involved with the G20 process than in the past.
Bringing the Engagement Groups (EG) closer to the official tracks is a very important and very welcome initiative, which we hope future G20 presidencies will maintain. We will listen to the groups about their recommendations, and this is happening at the right time.
Brasil's other priority issue is the global governance reform, which includes multilateral organizations such as UNESCO itself. How does the organization perceive this issue?
UNESCO is part of the United Nations system and we have been following this discussion very closely, which has been focused mainly on the Bretton Woods institutions and the reform of the Security Council.
We have used this space to raise concerns about the global financial architecture and funding for education, for example. I had the opportunity, during the Sherpa meeting, to raise concerns about the heavy debt of many countries and the low level of investment in education.
How do you perceive the discussions and progress in the G20 debates under the Brazilian presidency, and the importance of the commitments for humanity that you believe the countries will undertake in November in the Leaders' Declaration?
I believe that there has been a lot of progress on the topics that were presented at the beginning of the presidency. Brasil is in a position to be a leader in different forums, such as the United Nations, G20, BRICS, and others.
One of the advances is the Global Alliance to Fight Hunger and Poverty, which will be launched in November. Regarding UNESCO, we have some important announcements and concrete actions. For example, Brasil is launching an initiative on information integrity and climate change and has invited UNESCO to serve as the secretariat of a global fund that will promote the training of journalists in covering climate change, and also combat disinformation on environmental issues in the media.
[...] Brasil is launching an initiative on information integrity and climate change and has invited UNESCO to serve as the secretariat of a global fund that will promote the training of journalists in covering climate change, and also combat disinformation on environmental issues in the media.
How do international organizations participate in G20 meetings and what is the importance of their participation?
Each presidency invites a select number of countries and international organizations, based on their expertise, to implement the G20 presidency. This year, there are around ten international organizations at the table, under the Brazilian presidency.
For the presidency, it is important to have the support of the United Nations system and specialized agencies to fulfill specific mandates. And vice versa: it is equally important for international organizations to be part of a governance structure such as the G20, where we have almost 80% of the world economy and almost 80% of the world population represented by its political leaders.
It is an important forum that is increasingly inclusive, for example, with the integration of the African Union as a permanent member. Africa is a global priority for UNESCO, as is gender equality.
Participation in a forum such as the G20 allows us to propose new approaches, support G20 members, but also seize any opportunities to support developing countries, least developed countries, small island states, and other countries that may need the support of the G20 and UNESCO.
