Engagement Groups

The G20 is made up of 13 Engagement Groups

South Africa fully supports the approach of strengthening partnerships and expanding dialogue with a wide range of actors; including States, international organisations and civil society; to collectively shape the G20’s approach to issues requiring international cooperation.

The experience, networks, research capacity and grassroots level knowledge of the G20 engagement groups will continue to greatly enrich the G20’s collective discussions and policy decisions.

The participation of non-governmental stakeholders reflects the overall commitment of South Africa to work towards a broader and more inclusive Presidency, which is also reflected in our overall theme and deliverables during this year. Taking on board different perspectives, including those which may not be ideologically aligned to ours, is especially important for South Africa, as it will confer greater legitimacy to the G20 as an organisation and to the outcomes of the Leaders’ Summit in 2025.

The South African government also recognises the significant strides made by the Brazilian G20 Presidency in enhancing the G20 as a site of democratic global engagement. The South African presidency will continue this trajectory.

Dialogues with civil society and other non-government institutions will be conducted by engagement groups such as the Business20 (B20), Civil20 (C20), Labour20 (L20), Parliament20 (P20), Science20 (S20), Start-up20 (SU20), Supreme Audit Institutions20 (SAI20), Think-tank20 (T20), Urban20 (U20), Women20 (W20) and Youth20 (Y20), the Oceans20 (O20) and the Judiciary20 (J20).

Representatives of G20 Engagement Groups will define joint positions on the group’s agenda topics within their independent dialogue processes, with the responsibility for the opinion-forming processes lying entirely in the hands of these groups.

The work undertaken by Engagement Groups will lead to recommendations, which will reach the mid-year Foreign Ministers, the Finance and Central Bank Ministerial Meetings, as well as the Leaders’ Summit. In South Africa’s G20 Presidency, further modalities will be developed to involve a wide range of stakeholders throughout the year, particularly on priority initiatives.

G20 engagement groups are responsible for defining their positions on the G20’s agenda in independent dialogue processes. Through extensive consultations, the engagement groups are expected to make recommendations which will be presented to the Leaders’ Summit through the Sherpa Track process. South Africa will also facilitate an interaction between the Sherpas and the engagement groups prior to the Leaders’ Summit in November 2025.

Following the approach of the Brazilian Presidency, a G20 Social Forum, which will precede the Leaders’ Summit in November 2025, is expected to bring together representatives of the existing engagement groups and other segments of civil society that may offer meaningful contributions to the G20.