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G20 Presidency

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South Africa assumes the G20 Presidency from 1 December 2024 through to November 2025, approximately five years before the deadline of the United Nations (UN) 2030 Agenda.

South Africa assumes the G20 Presidency from 1 December 2024 through to November 2025, approximately five years before the deadline of the United Nations (UN) 2030 Agenda.

South Africa’s Presidency

South Africa assumes the G20 Presidency from 1 December 2024 through to November 2025, approximately five years before the deadline of the United Nations (UN) 2030 Agenda. The UN Secretary-General, Mr Antonio Guterres, succinctly captured the gravity of the crisis when he noted with concern, during the launch the Special Edition of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) Progress Report on 25 April 2023 that just 12% of the SDG targets were on track, progress on 50% was weak and insufficient, and on more than 30% of the SDGs the international community has stalled or gone into reverse. If we are to meet the 2030 SDGs deadline a paradigm shift is necessary and practical solutions are needed. It is also critical that the next five Presidencies of the G20 will have to prioritise accelerating progress on the attainment of SDGs.

There are high-expectations for South Africa to drive a progressive, people-centred, development-orientated, and solution-driven Presidency, in a fractured global geo-political context, until it hands over the Presidency to the United States on 1 December 2025.

South Africa’s participation in the G20 is guided by its four strategic foreign policy pillars (national interests, the African Agenda, South-South Cooperation and Multilateralism).

For the G20 to make a meaningful contribution in addressing the polycrisis confronting the world, South Africa has adopted the theme “Solidarity, Equality, Sustainability”.

Theme: Solidarity, Equality and Sustainability 

This theme reflects South Africa’s intention to build on the efforts and successes of the last three G20 Presidencies of the Global South and to champion the developmental agenda. During our Presidency of the G20, South Africa will place Africa’s development and Agenda 2063: The Africa Want at the top of its priorities

Through solidarity, we seek to achieve a future that is people-centred, development-orientated and inclusive. In an interconnected world, the challenges faced by one nation affect all nations. By advancing equality we seek to ensure fair treatment, opportunities and advancement for all individuals and nations, irrespective of their economic status, gender, race, geographic location or other characteristics.

Sustainability is about meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their needs.

Participation in the G20 is aimed at providing strategic direction towards establishing a more equitable, representative and fit-for-purpose international order.

Participation in the G20

South Africa will continue to use the G20 as a premier forum for economic and financial cooperation, uniting developed and developing countries, and emerging markets to find solutions to global challenges. During the 2024 State of the National Address, President Cyril Ramaphosa stated that “we will place Africa’s development at the top of the agenda when we host the G20 in 2025”.

South Africa will use its G20 Presidency to advocate for and mobilise support for the developing economies of Africa and the Global South, building on the efforts and successes of the Indonesian, Indian and Brazilian G20 Presidencies to champion the developmental agenda.

It will also use its Presidency to develop momentum and resuscitate solidarity to accelerate efforts to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals and to work towards the aspirations and objectives of the AU’s Agenda 2063.

South Africa has played an important role in promoting the interests of the developing world in the G20, including encouraging G20 action on debt-suspension for developing countries and advancing the G20/OECD initiative on Base Erosion and Profit Shifting. Predictable and sustainable financing for development and addressing the critical issue of debt vulnerability of many countries of the global South, will remain a priority.

South Africa will also use its Presidency of the G20 to action the Pact of the Future which was adopted by World Leaders at UNGA79 on 22 September 2024. The Pact of Future covers a broad range of themes including peace and security, sustainable development, climate change, digital cooperation, human rights, gender, youth and future generations, and the transformation of global governance- all of which resonate with the African Continent.

South Africa’s G20 Presidency will drive the following high-level deliverables, and priorities, which will find expression in the work of the Sherpa and Finance Tracks

High-Level deliverables and Priorities

  • Priority 1 – Inclusive Economic Growth, Industrialisation, Employment and Reduce Inequality
  • Priority 2 – Food Security
  • Priority 3 – Artificial Intelligence and Innovation for Sustainable Development

A review of the work of the G20, ‘The G20 after 20 years’: A Reflection on Key Achievements and the Way Forward, will also feature as one of South Africa’s deliverables, through a Sherpa Track Initiative.

Decision making and governance in traditional African societies has in the main operated by way of consensus for what is in the best interest of the common good. Consistent with this wisdom, South Africa views the diversity of the G20 as a strength rather than a source of division and will always preserve the unity of the Group in pursuit of the priorities of its Presidency.

Against the background of the Review of the Work of the G20, one of the deliverables during its G20 Presidency, South Africa will not create any new Working Groups or permanent structures.

Structure

It is critical that the G20 remains focused on its raison d’etre and does not become a substitute for delivering on the 2030 Agenda and other unfulfilled commitments, or to replace existing international institutions and platform. South Africa will build on the legacies of previous presidencies and seek to inject momentum into existing structures.

Accordingly, the Sherpa Track under South Africa’s G20 Presidency will comprise the current 15 active Working Groups. In the Finance Track, the current structure with eight workstreams, including Working Groups, Task forces, and Initiatives, will be retained.

As part of its efforts to bring the Sherpa and the Finance Tracks closer together, and following on the Presidency of Brazil, three temporary Joint Task Forces will be established during South Africa’s G20 Presidency:

  • Priority 1 – Inclusive Economic Growth, Industrialisation, Employment and Reduce Inequality
  • Priority 2 – Food Security
  • Priority 3 – Artificial Intelligence and Innovation for Sustainable Development

Furthermore, a review of the work of the G20, “The G20 after 20 years”: A Reflection on Key Achievements and the Way Forward, will also feature as one of South Africa’s deliverables, through a Sherpa Track Initiative.

The three Task Forces and the Initiative will be established with the objective of delivering tangible results at the South Africa G20 Presidency. Accordingly, the Task Forces are meant to conclude at the November 2025. Continuation of these Task Forces, is that the discretion of the incoming Chai after South Africa

The in-person meetings of these temporary Task Forces will be held back-to-back with pre-existing working groups.

The first technical meetings of all Working Groups will be in a virtual format.

Technical and Ministerial meetings of the Working Groups will be held across all provinces in South Africa, and also on the margins of major international conferences and events.  

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