For the first time in the history of the G20 Summit, people from around the world are invited to share their views with world leaders.

Launched in mid-January by the G20 Civil Secretariat of Russia and UNDP, acrowdsourcing project called The Civil20 Dialogue is allowing global citizens to influence key policy recommendations that will be presented to the leaders during the G20 Summit, taking place in Saint-Petersburg, Russia, in September 2013.

The platform collects recommendations and suggestions from civil society and citizens on topics such as:

Environmental sustainability and energy

Financial inclusion and financial education

Food security

Global financial architecture

Jobs and employment

Anti-corruption

Post-2015 future development agenda

"The platform allows people to join, discuss solutions, provide key recommendations and vote on the final resolution involving an open crowdsourcing approach," said Alena Peryshkina, Head of the G20 Civil Secretariat in Russia.

"This will allow more transparent and inclusive development of policy recommendations submitted by civil society to the leaders of the G20 Summit.”

The crowdsourcing project also marks the beginning of preparations for the G20 Civil Summit to be held in Russia for the first time in June 2013, which aims to establish a productive dialogue between civil society and decision-makers about the agenda of the G20 Summit.

"The platform is an example of both an effective citizen involvement and crowdsourcing tool, already tested by the United Nations in the run-up to the Rio+20 Summit in 2012, and of a new partnership UNDP has with Russia as a global player and donor, this year focusing on Russia’s role as the G20 President,” said Cihan Sultanoğlu, who heads UNDP’s Regional Bureau for Europe and the Commonwealth of Independent States.

The G20 Civil Secretariat of Russia consists of Oxfam Russia, Greenpeace, Higher School of Economics, Higher School of Economics (HSE) International Organizations Research Institute, AIDS Infoshare Russia, the World Wildlife Fund, and civil society organizations based in Russia.

The online dialogue is available in five languages (English, French, Portuguese, Russian, and Spanish) and has been developed based on the UNDP Teamworks knowledge sharing platform.