[ The 2025 G20 Summit, held from 22 to 23 November 2025 in Johannesburg, marked the first-ever G20 summit hosted on the African continent. Under the theme “Solidarity, Equality, Sustainability,” the nation known for its social prestige and political merit, used this historic presidency to highlight Africa’s development priorities and the broader Global South agenda, stressing climate adaptation, debt relief, inclusive industrialization, and global governance reform. The summit faced the absence of key leaders, including US President Donald Trump, who boycotted the event while criticizing the South African presidency for its perceived divergence from the G20’s consensus principle. Amid chaos and wars, the summit secured a landmark Leaders’ Declaration addressing global inequalities.]
COGGS Content Team
SOUTH AFRICA’s PRESIDENCY of the G20, marking the first African G20 presidency, represented a significant moment for Global South to assert its collective aspirations for systemic reform and economic justice. The summit in the heart of Africa utilized diplomatic stature and coalition-building to illuminate the aspirations, contributions, and critical frustrations of Global South. The core of South Africa’s mandate was the resolute rejection of outdated and non-functional paradigms and a forceful demand for a “global reset”. South Africa recognized that current economic concepts and theories often prove inapplicable to the challenges faced by Global South and appealed for the renegotiation and review of existing global structures.
In its presidency, South Africa highlighted how the status quo is detrimental to low-income global south economies, especially concerning debt management. The focus was on mobilizing finance for essential transitions, such as a just energy transition, and harnessing critical minerals for inclusive growth. This push for new international architecture moves beyond the G20’s original finance-centric origins and it further demands systems that are fundamentally more inclusive as well as equitable.
South Africa championed the need to give WTO (World Trade Organization) more impetus to effectively deal with disputes and unilateral trade decisions. Such act reflects a collective desire among Global South members to defend themselves against larger economies whose actions might harm developing nations.
A major institutional success and reflection of sustained South-South advocacy was the inclusion of the African Union as a permanent G20 member. Bringing African voice within global governance forums is immensely significant.
During the G20, perhaps the most potent and humanely critical issue tables by South Africa was the crisis of debt sustainability for low-income countries. Approximately 74 countries of the Global South are either defaulting or on the verge of defaulting, urgently requiring debt renegotiation. The current debt arrangement is widely considered not favorable to these low-income Global South economies as highly increased interest rates hit and hurt them fiercely.
There’s a serious need to revise and reform Common Framework for Debt Treatment, initiated by G20 and Paris Club. The difficulty of this negotiation lies in bringing together disparate creditors—ranging from large banks to private lenders—who hold varying interests, making the negotiation process “agonizingly complex and slow”. The setting up of the Africa Expert Panel signalled an active attempt to design debt frameworks attuned to the developing countries’ interests and ensure fair as well as transparent practices.
South Africa, as the continent’s sole G20 member, successfully pushed the African agenda to the top of the global stage, demonstrating its role as an important global player and a “moral authority” on certain issues.
To ensure relevance and focus, the presidency commissioned an Africa report specifically related to the finance track stream to analyze continental challenges, alongside a report on inequality. Furthermore, the presidency, alongside Brazil, prioritized the Social Summit. This initiative was vital for ensuring that global economic policies address grassroots concerns and capture the views of ordinary people, specifically addressing endemic issues such as youth unemployment, gender-based violence (GBV), and housing shortages, which were raised by South African citizens.
Despite the advancements made, South Africa’s presidency confronted the realpolitik of global governance. The sources reveal a pronounced global fragmentation and resistance from powerful economies. The challenge of achieving consensus often stalled ambitious reforms; resistance came from the G7 and wealthier western economies, which displayed a limited appetite for the agenda items tabled by South Africa, particularly around debt relief and climate finance. This difficulty was evidenced by the fact that only one out of four finance ministerial summits resulted in an official communiqué.
South Africa’s diplomatic approach, however, was to maintain focus on key issues and avoid a “shouting match,” thereby safeguarding the stature of the first African G20 presidency.
The enduring challenge to realizing the tangible benefits outlined in the declaration remains the lack of a force of law to compel implementation. Systemic reform hinges heavily on sustained “political will,” raising concerns that the momentum built by the developing South might “regress” when the presidency transitions back to the developed North (e.g., the United States), potentially narrowing the focus solely back to the finance track and neglecting the broader social and equity agenda.
Global South spoke her mind at Johannesburg, loud and clear. Ensuring peace and stability were central to the G20 summit declaration, which prioritized a comprehensive and lasting peace in conflict zones including Sudan, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the Palestinian territory, and Ukraine. Guided by the principles of the UN Charter, the G20 leaders committed to renewed diplomatic efforts to achieve sustainable peace and condemned terrorism in all its forms. The declaration also tabled pointed emphasis on the seriousness of climate change, marking a clear rebuke to US President Donald Trump, who boycotted the summit and has expressed skepticism about human-induced global warming. The summit’s enduring legacy rests on its demonstration that determined leadership, coalitional strategy, and an insistence on equity can steer global governance closer to the interests of global south, even while acknowledging that systemic global reform remains incremental, not transformative. In the dawn of multipolarity, South Africa embarked on its 2025 G20 presidency with a resolute vision to realign the global economic architecture toward greater equity, inclusivity, and sustainable development, firmly asserting the interests of the Global South amid rising geopolitical fragmentation.
