USAID Deputy Administrator Isobel Coleman arrives in Varanasi for G20 meet

United States Agency for International Development (USAID) Deputy Administrator Isobel Coleman arrived in Varanasi on Sunday to attend the G20 Development Ministers' Meeting,

USAID is an independent agency of the US government that works towards providing civilian foreign aid and development assistance.

The G20 Development Ministers' Meeting under the G20 Indian Presidency is scheduled to be held between June 11-13 in Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh. External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar will chair the meeting.

The meeting, to be held as part of India's G20 Presidency, will also see a special video address by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the Ministry of External Affairs statement said.

The Varanasi Development Ministers' Meeting takes place in the midst of mounting developmental challenges that have been made worse by the slowdown in the global economy, debt distress, the effects of climate change, pollution, and biodiversity loss, rising poverty and inequality, the cost of living crisis, supply chain disruptions around the world, and geopolitical tensions and conflicts.

The G20 Development Ministerial meeting will be an opportunity to collectively agree on actions for accelerating the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and fostering synergies between the development, environment and climate agendas while avoiding costly trade-offs that hold back progress for the developing countries, the statement added.

The Varanasi gathering follows the Voice of the Global South Summit, which was hosted by India in January 2023.

The decisions made at the Varanasi meeting will also have an impact on the United Nations SDG Summit, which will be held in New York in September.

Further, according to the statement, the meeting will consist of two main sessions -- one on 'Multilateralism: Collective Actions for Accelerating Progress towards SDGs' and another on 'Green Development: A LiFE (Lifestyle for Environment) Approach'.

The Development Ministers' Meeting was preceded by the fourth and final Development Working Group (DWG) Meeting, which was held in Delhi from June 6-9.