What are Priority Commitments?

Priority commitments are commitments that are determined a “priority” in the sense that they together best capture what the G8 or G20 summit as a whole did on the decision-making dimension of its global governance. They are therefore measured for compliance during the subsequent year. Due to the vast number of commitments that appear in a communiqué, it is impossible to measure every commitment for compliance. Therefore, it is important to be able to choose commitments that best capture the essence of the summit communiqué and do so in a reasonably representative way. The G8 Research Group and the G20 Research Group determine how many commitments it will be able to measure for the upcoming year (based on the number individuals available as compliance assessors, access to reliable information and other available resources). Once this number has been determined, a number of interested parties, including the G8 Research Group Executive, the G8 Research Group Student Executive, the G20 Research Group Executive and the G20 Research Group Student Executive, including the Compliance Chair(s) from the University of Toronto, the G8/G20 Research Group Administrators, G8 and G20 Research Group affiliate members from the Higher School of Economics in Moscow, Tor Veta University in Italy, and the Shanghai International Studies University in China, members from Civil Society Groups such as the Canadian Council of Churches and Green Cross, and government officials who choose to participate, select and rank commitments which they believe are a priority from the standpoint of their particular purposes for the year’s summit overall.

The following provides a set of guidelines for how to choose priority commitments on a primary, secondary, and tertiary basis. Other considerations may also be applied, especially in relation to civil society and government groups who may tend to choose commitments that reflect their own interests. These guidelines cover both the composite set of priority commitments selected and the individual commitments that make them up.

How to Choose Priority Commitments Primary Selection Criteria

Priority commitments should be chosen in terms of their importance in the summit, the G8, the G20 and the world at large. At least two commitments should be chosen from each of the priority themes from the summit being assessed. Priority commitments should, collectively, be comprehensive. They should come from the economic, global and political-security domains. At least one should come from each part of the traditional, built-in agenda (i.e. finance, macroeconomics, microeconomics, trade, development, environment/climate change, energy, crime and drugs, terrorism, arms control and proliferation, regional security, international institutional reform). There should be balance amongst the priority commitments. Priority commitments should be selected from each of the separate documents issued at the summit (that contain commitments). The number of priority commitments selected from each document should roughly reflect the percentage of overall commitments from that document at the summit as a whole. For example, if twenty percent of the commitments come from the growth and development document, then approximately twenty percent of the priority commitments should come from that same document. Priority commitments should include those that reflect current crises as well as preventative measures, and long term change. Priority commitments should include commitments that affect the G8 and G20 members, non-G8/G20 members and the world as a whole. At least one priority commitment should reflect domestic intrusiveness within distant countries such as Kosovo, Sudan, Zimbabwe or Iran. There should be a range of levels reflected amongst the priority commitments of analysis from individual country action to the structure of global governance as a whole. They should take into account the preparatory process of the summit. They should take into account past commitments, so that comparisons and extended compliance can be monitored. They should also consider the priority themes for next years summit, when they have already been announced by the host for that year. They should take into consideration current scientific research, such as compliance catalysts mentioned in the previous section.