By: Dionísio Babo Soares (personal opinion)
The Outcome Document of the 6th g7+ first ever Foreign Ministerial Meeting in Dili Timor-Leste on 13-14 of March 2025 marks a significant milestone in the collective journey of conflict-affected nations toward peace, resilience, and sustainable development. It articulates shared aspirations, commitments, and a call for action. To translate vision into reality, the g7+ must pursue tangible, strategic actions that address the root causes of fragility while building inclusive institutions and advancing economies. Apart from appointing a special envoy and recommending that its permanent representatives at the UN voice and represent their voices, the key strategies in the final document should be translated into the call for action to catalyze long-term peace and development across member states.
Strengthening Conflict Prevention and Mediation Mechanisms
For countries navigating the aftermath or ongoing reality of conflict, early intervention is the difference between a crisis averted and a tragedy endured. Preventing violence before it erupts requires foresight, preparedness, and collaboration. The outcome document called for establishing a g7+ Conflict Early Warning Network, enabling real-time data collection and analysis across fragile contexts helping predict and prevent violent outbreaks. Integrating information from national databases, civil society reports, and community networks into a coordinated system can flag early signs of instability.
In this context, collaboration is key. Partnerships with regional bodies such as the African Union (AU), ASEAN, and ECOWAS would provide intelligence-sharing frameworks and reinforce regional stability. Crucially, those closest to the risks—local observers, community leaders, and grassroots organizations—must be trained and empowered to detect and report tensions before they escalate.
When conflict does emerge, g7+ must be ready to respond. A dedicated mediation corps, supported by the members, should be deployed swiftly to facilitate peace dialogues in high-risk areas.
Sustainable peace also requires healing past wounds. Supporting truth and reconciliation commissions—drawing inspiration from Timor-Leste or South Africa’s post-apartheid model—can offer a framework to confront historical grievances and promote restorative justice. Lasting reconciliation hinges on unity in diversity. Inter-ethnic and inter-religious dialogues, tailored to each context, should be promoted to reduce tensions and foster social cohesion.
Peace is not sustainable without inclusive processes. In alignment with UN Security Council Resolution 1325, the g7+ should mandate at least 30% representation of women in all peacebuilding activities.
Often portrayed as victims or perpetrators, youth must instead be seen as peacebuilders. Through tailored leadership and negotiation training programs, young people can become agents of stability and change.
Boosting Economic Recovery and Inclusive Growth
Peace cannot endure without opportunity. Economic recovery must go hand in hand with inclusivity, ensuring that all citizens can rebuild their lives with dignity.
Many g7+ countries shoulder unsustainable debt burdens that inhibit recovery. The group has called for easing debt relief, but it must advocate forcefully for debt cancellation, particularly for post-conflict states, echoing the success of the HIPC Initiative. The newly appointed special envoy, Dr José Ramos-Horta, and other international figures have been calling for debt cancelation in poor countries for some time. So far, such calls have fallen on deaf ears, and nothing much has been done.
Innovative solutions such as Debt-for-Development swaps must be sought as they can turn liabilities into progress, redirecting repayments toward education, healthcare, and infrastructure.
To directly support local economies, creating a g7+ Development Fund, jointly financed by members and donors, would provide vital support to small businesses, especially in underserved areas in each member state.
Women are the backbone of fragile economies but often lack access to credit and markets. A g7+ Women’s Economic Empowerment Initiative would offer microloans, vocational training, and mentorship to female entrepreneurs. Regional women-led trade networks should also be fostered, facilitating cross-border commerce and cooperation in fragile and post-conflict zones.
As food insecurity often exacerbates fragility, investing in climate-smart agriculture—including drought-resistant crops, irrigation systems, and farmer education—g7+ countries can build sustainable, self-reliant food systems. A regional food reserve system, modeled after ASEAN’s Emergency Rice Reserve, would help cushion against future crises, ensuring no community is left to face famine alone.
Enhancing Peer Learning and Institutional Capacity
No nation should face fragility in isolation, and fragility cannot be equated with marginalization. The g7+ is uniquely positioned to harness the power of Fragile-to-Fragile (F2F) cooperation, sharing lessons and support between states that understand the complex terrain of recovery. Therefore, a g7+ Knowledge Hub in New York or Lisbon can serve as a central repository of good practices in governance, post-conflict reconstruction, and anti-corruption reform. To make it work, regular ministerial exchanges—where leaders from more stable members like Sierra Leone, Timor-Leste, and others could mentor counterparts from the crisis-stricken nation. This would facilitate solidarity-driven progress rooted in mutual experience.
Strong institutions are the bedrock of resilience. The g7+ must prioritize support to anti-corruption bodies, offering technical assistance and funding to build accountability systems, similar to Liberia’s reforms post-conflict. Furthermore, decentralized governance should be promoted to give historically marginalized regions a more excellent voice in national development.
Building robust institutions promotes good governance, accountability, and transparency. This can be achieved through supporting and empowering anti-corruption agencies to investigate and prosecute corruption cases, ensuring accountability and integrity in government, and providing technical assistance and funding to build capacity and strengthen institutions, similar to Liberia’s post-conflict reforms. Promoting decentralized governance can help give historically marginalized regions a more excellent voice in national development. This can be achieved through decentralization governance.
The success of institutional strengthening and decentralized governance initiatives depends on contextual factors, including each country’s political, social, and economic context.
Mobilizing Global Support and Advocacy
The challenges of fragility are global, and so must the response. The g7+ has a critical role in reshaping international systems to serve conflict-affected nations better.
The global governance architecture must evolve. The g7+ should push for permanent representation of African and Small Island States and Less Developed Countries on the UN Security Council, ensuring the realities of fragile states are heard and addressed. Moreover, international financing mechanisms must acknowledge the unique needs of conflict zones. A “Fragility Premium” in climate and development finance would prioritize grants over loans, providing breathing space for countries with limited fiscal capacity.
Diplomacy is a powerful tool for change. A high-profile g7+ Summit during the UN General Assembly would spotlight the urgency of debt relief and peace building. A dedicated g7+ advocacy group would coordinate lobbying efforts and influence global policy agendas to sustain momentum.
Ensuring Follow-Up and Accountability
Clear commitments and transparency must support bold declarations. Monitoring progress ensures that words translate into action. Establishing a g7 + Implementation Review Mechanism would allow for systematic peace and development milestones tracking. Regular reporting can spotlight successes and identify areas for improvement. A publicly available Fragility Index, ranking member states on stability, governance, and economic performance, would provide an evidence-based foundation for reforms and policy interventions.
The g7+ Secretariat must be fortified to coordinate these expansive efforts. Increased funding will allow it to expand its mediation teams, conduct more robust research, and respond rapidly to emerging crises. Opening regional hubs across Europe, Africa, and the Pacific would enhance proximity, responsiveness, and tailored support.
A Roadmap for Lasting Change
The g7+ was founded on a promise—to speak with one voice, to act with solidarity, and to champion the cause of countries that too often fall through the cracks of global attention. Today, that promise must become action. By investing in early warning systems, championing economic justice through debt relief, and empowering women and youth as peace builders, the g7+ can convert fragility into resilience. Through peer learning, good governance, and principled diplomacy, member states can create a new model of recovery—one led by the people and for the people.
The world must not forget conflict-affected states. Moreover, the g7+ must not wait for permission to lead. The future of peace and development lies in the hands of those who have lived through conflict and choose to rise above it—together. (*)
