This paper examines the practice, promise and problems of transnational policy networks associated with the G20 (Group of Twenty). While the G20 summits are know mostly for being high level summits of world leaders, there is also a significant level of diplomatic and policy making activity occurring within the planning and operation of these summits. This paper examines these forms of practice as global public policy networks which demonstrate the ways global and national governance intersect and inform each other. Global public policy networks demonstrate the ways policymaking includes experts and agencies beyond government and the ways governments, IGOs and summits like the G20 engage society or where elements of society impose themselves on the policy making process. This paper examines the ways global public policy networks have emerged to support G20 activity, especially in the form of G20 working groups and G20 outreach processes. G20 working groups include groups of experts and regulators within a specific policy area who are charged with preparing material for G20 deliberations, including a group focused on food security, among several groups. The G20 outreach processes are an attempt by G20 leaders to engage various social sectors with the policy making priorities of the G20. Outreach processes were first considered by the G20 membership in 2010 and have first operated in 2013 with Russia chairing the G20. This led to the development of G20 outreach groups – the Think 20 (think tanks), Labour 20, Business 20, Civil 20 and Youth 20 which include representatives from these sectors from each of the member states. Examining these global public policy processes will enable a more accurate picture of the ways the G20 operates as a form of global governance and the challenges of strengthening the G20 process.
