BCF Participates in T20 Global Solutions Think Tank in Berlin

Berlin— Blue Chip Foundation , represented by founder  Jennifer Gross , was part of the T20 Global Solutions Think Tank in Berlin on May 29 and 30, 2017. Gross, who serves on the leadership council of the Sustainable Development Solutions Network , found the event a tremendous success.

“The real challenges in the world are beyond the capacity to solve through any one of the participants in the G20. This not about the members of the G20 and their personal desires or political schemes,” says Gross. “This is truly about our children and our grandchildren and the T20 attempt to bring that realization to the forefront. The environmental challenges that we are facing in terms of energy and biodiversity are staggering, and we have an unstable geopolitical situation with arms. The SDGs are our best hope in the path to solving the problems we are facing in our future and the best hope for moral and virtuous solutions in what could be the salvation of the world our children and grandchildren will live in.”

The T20, chaired by Dennis J. Snower, president of the Kiel Institute for the World Economy, and Dirk Messner, director of the German Development Institute (Deutsches Institut für Entwicklungspolitik), develops policy recommendations for the G20.

The two-day Global Solutions summit involved more than 1,000 participants, including politicians, business magnates, academics and members of civil society who came together to discuss the policy proposals drawn up by each task force.

Main themes at the event involved digitalization, efforts to build a stable, sustainable and resilient global economy, and climate policy. Poverty, inequality, and the management of forced migration were also hot topics for attendees, as well as the 2030 Agenda—a universal framework for human development and shared prosperity.

“The T20 is a network of research institutes and so-called ‘think tanks’ from the G20 countries, and it provides research-based policy advice to the G20,” says Gross. “The organization also makes it possible for its members to communicate with policymakers, and it communicates issues of global importance to the general public.”

At the summit, the T20 called on the G20 to collaborate on employment and education policies for the digital age, as well as to promote the leveraging of market forces to support low-carbon growth. Additionally, the T20 asked the G20 to consider a full and permanent seat for the African Union Commission in the G20.