Communiqué of Civil Society 20 China 2016

8. Given that the impoverished population in developing and the least developed countries disproportionately concentrate in rural areas, efforts shall be made to improve agricultural productivity and food security. Concrete steps shall be taken to develop a more inclusive approach to protect agricultural interests, smallholder farmers in particular, support agricultural innovation, promote investment accountability in agriculture, improve social services in the agricultural sector, and encourage integrated development of agriculture and other industries. Access to financial services, loans and credits shall be expanded for smallholder farmers and women. Investment in rural infrastructure shall be scaled up. Stronger measures shall be taken to stabilize global food prices. Urban poverty shall be brought into focus. Measures shall be taken to balance urban and rural development, promote a new-type of urbanization system, enhance rational and effective allocation of public service resources and help migrant workers integrate into their host society and enjoy equal social services as city residents.

9. Efforts shall be made to provide equal access to education, achieve inclusive and quality education for all and promote lifelong learning. More education resources shall be allocated to less developed regions to eliminate illiteracy and enroll a greater proportion of students from low-income families in higher education, particularly women and girls. Vocational education with more useful majors of distinctive features shall be set up to equip the impoverished, particularly refugees, persons with disabilities and other vulnerable groups, with professional skills. Life-long learning education programmes shall be developed for the elderly and so shall programmes relevant with the aging population and the "silver economy".

10. High attention shall be placed on child development and rights. We call for all governments to reinforce assistance for families and children living in poverty, increase investment in early childhood development and primary education, protect each and every child from all forms of violence and abuse, oppose child marriage and encourage children to participate in related public affairs and policy-making.

11. Medical security system shall be improved. Insurance schemes against critical illnesses shall be instituted and improved to ensure that nobody falls into poverty because of illness. Closer international communicable disease-response cooperation programs shall be developed for the prevention and treatment of communicable diseases, such as malaria, tuberculosis and HIV-AIDS infection and other common diseases like heart disease, diabetes and cancer. The overall quality and accessibility of public healthcare shall be upgraded. The global system of development and pricing of medicine shall be improved to make appropriate and affordable drugs available to each and every individual.

12. Greater efforts shall be made to promote gender equality, facilitate employment and entrepreneurship for women, conscientiously eliminate gender discrimination and ensure equal pay for equal work between men and women. Women's federations, specialized organizations and women's grass-roots organizations shall be developed and more opportunities shall be made available for women to engage in government policy-making process and the supervision thereof.

13. Intergovernmental agreements on economic cooperation projects need to take into account the immediate interests of the local people with tangible improvement of their living standards in mind. Cooperation projects shall prioritize medical and health care, labour and employment as well as education and training.

Unity of Knowing and Doing in Green Development

14. Today, there is an increasingly serious conflict between the pace of development and constraints in population, resources and environment. We need to bring about changes in real terms, both conceptually and practically. The philosophy of ecological civilization shall be fostered. Following the principle of "respecting, adapting to and protecting the nature" and taking into account both development and protection, there shall come about an ecological pattern that calls for green, low-carbon, circular and sustainable development in which man coexists harmoniously and shares destiny with the nature, one another and the society.

15. We call on governments of countries across the world, in particular G20 members, to take effective actions in response to climate change and strive for earliest possible ratification and entry into force of the Paris Agreement. As is stipulated in the Paris Agreement, each government shall formulate and communicate at the earliest possible date its national long-term low greenhouse gas emissions development strategies, regularly renew its ambition for nationally determined contribution (NDC) and strive for the goal of holding the increase in the global average temperature to well below 2 °C above pre-industrial level and pursue efforts to limit the temperature increase to 1.5 °C above pre-industrial levels.

16. The efforts to address climate change shall follow a fair and reasonable path of win-win cooperation and common development and conform to the principle of "equity" "common but differentiated responsibilities", and "respective capabilities". Developed countries shall shoulder greater responsibility and make bigger contribution by providing the developing countries with strong support in finance, technology and capacity building. Developed countries shall meet the commitment to mobilizing $100 billion per year by 2020 to support climate adaptation and mitigation in developing countries and providing additional sources for climate finance, ensuring that at least 50% of the Green Climate Fund is devoted to enhancing the adaptive capacity of the groups particularly vulnerable to the adverse impacts of climate change.